I have an older laptop that just about maxes out the CPU usage when I fire it up, but its primarily caused by all the Windows Updates being installed that were downloaded the last time I logged on with it. I use it very infrequently so it usually has a good number of updates in the queue. It's one of those walk away for 10 minutes and come back to it sort of things. It's running MSE too, but I'm fairly certain in my case that MSE doesn't have anything to do with the bogging down on start up.
What CPU are you using? I'm sure I wouldn't notice it on my PC but single core processors that people are unwilling to upgrade form because they can't afford to do seem to have issues. I'm tempted to let them use my old Norton 2003 licence as back in the day it had no interference at all.
Avast has made a significant improvement on a Semperon x64 @1600, now to try the Duron. Thanks people!
I've grown to abhor antivirus applications simply because of the hit they produce and I found it hampering my day to day activities. I edit hundreds of files a day as part of my job and each second kind-of counts. I've taken to doing regular scans with Trendmicro House-Call, and using online AV scanners for EXE's I can't verify the sources of, or if I'm about to do a bit of online banking. I've only been hit ONCE in four years doing this - and that was through an infected USB drive a coworker raped my PC with. Had a nice strain of Virut.b The best protection is as stated early on in the thread - common sense. The Register produced a rather interesting article about security, and ultra-paranoid-computing, in that they state it's best to proceed as if your security has been compromised.
I think MSE is the best antivirus for low usage of CPU and Memory, However in my opinion I think Avast has a better security system than MSE with more detailed features. Avast is considered as the 2nd low usage of CPU and Memory antivirus out there. It also depends on your your processor and RAM, for example if your pc has (intel i5 or above, and Memory 4GB or more);I think Avast would be the best choice. However in my case, i am using MSE in addition to Malwarebyte, which they are doing great for me. So that's a second option.
