Lightweight free working antivirus for Windows XP

[tarmiricmi]

Hello,
I have an old PC with Windows XP SP3 which I intend to keep because of some software that runs only on XP (I could use virtual machine but it would still need this).

Now what is the lightweightest and fastest antivirus which still supports Win XP?

I've tried a few, Bitdefender and Kaspersky, and they were really slowing down the PC (which is actually not bad regarding to components, core2duo e4600 2.4 ghz with 4 gb ram), and tried Baidu which worked fine but they stop updating it.

Now, according to this site, there exist at least 10 major AV providers that keep their suites updated to Win XP. Note: I only need basic AV protection (and free).

Does anyone have hands-on experience with an AV that is fast on Win XP here?

 

[mdd1963]

it might be very difficult to find any that still support XP, frankly...

I noticed ClamAV's page says it does, but, you can test it for yourself...

http://www.clamwin.com/

 

[bilalmk95]

Hello,
according to this site, there exist at least 10 major AV providers that keep their suites updated to Win XP.

Where are ten? I can only see three

Webroot
Qihoo 360
Kaspersky Lab

I would suggest you to download and install IPS/IDS detection software like snort which can be download and installed it is open source but you need to read the rules first.

IPS/IDS will detect the threat before it enters your system. Read more about IPS/IDS on this resource

 

[Math Geek]

a couple years ago i set out to answer this question myself. after trying dozens of free options the best i came up with was avast. decent protection and light on resources.

don;t know if they still are that way but was the answer a couple years ago. was running on xp machines with 1 gb ram and mainly athlon or pentium 4's in them

 

[Barty1884]

I believe Avast is still the lightest, and supports XP - they have a page/download specifically for XP
https://www.avast.com/windows-xp-antivirus

I believe Panda is pretty lightweight too, but not sure if there's a 'free' option.

 

[Math Geek]

yah panda has a free option as well. i have that on a laptop but never really looked at resource usage as it is on a rather strong laptop

edit: fired up that laptop and it looks like panda is using about 50 mb ram on win 7. not bad really

 

[JoshRoss]

I'll second peoples opinions on Panda. Not too complicated, not too resource hoggy, and gives basic protection. You could also try Comodo or Bit Defender, but probably less luck with these two.

 

[Avast-Team]

Avast Free supports Windows XP SP3, and we're consistently highly rated for performance (see AV-comparatives and other independent testers)

Happy to answer any questions if you wanted to try it out.

Another tip for AV on older or lower spec machines -- do an advanced install, which will allow you to manually select which shields and features you want, and may speed things up. You can also tweak scans, exclusions, etc. to maximize performance of both real-time monitoring and scans.

 

[Math Geek]

hey cool did not know we had an avast rep here 😀

was a great solution for the old pc's i put it on.

 

[JoshRoss]

Can second Avast as well. Not a bad antivirus, back in the actual Windows XP days, it was a strong solution against issues. It is now, with some quirks here and there. But a lot of antivirus solutions still support Windows XP as it is being used by people (For some reason).

 

[tarmiricmi]

Thanks to all. I have actually choosen http://www.immunet.com
It supports all OSes from Win XP SP3 onwards, it has cloud engine (offline repositories can be included as well) and it is blazing fast.
I've tried Avast (manual install), but it slows down boot time even with only the basic protection.

 

[Alabalcho]

If this PC is to be used for single app only, does it need antivirus at the first place?

 

[tarmiricmi]

If this PC is to be used for single app only, does it need antivirus at the first place?

It is hooked up on the Internet (mostly email, almost no browsing).

 

[JoshRoss]

If this PC is to be used for single app only, does it need antivirus at the first place?

Good question, totally slipped my mind to ask that.

I guess if you are just looking for emails, regular scans with Malwarebytes should suffice. Obviously, you have to be aware of the contents of emails, what you are clicking and avoid spam, but other than that, I don't think anti-virus will be needed.