Antivirus Programs for your Netbook
Netboo
ks aren’t exactly the sprightliest computers around. That’s why normal antivirus programs that suck up a whole lot of processing power can tend to interfere with the smooth running of your machine. Netbookreview has searched far and wide to come up with three antivirus programs that don’t drain your CPU and RAM; but are still great at protecting your netbook.
- Panda Cloud Antivirus
Once a week, a window pops up on your antivirus program telling you that your database is obsolete and you need to update. This is because most generic antiviruses assign signatures to the different strains of malware out there. With the rate that malevolent code is being created, the size of these signature databases is upwardly mobile. This means longer scan times, longer update times and more usage. Panda’s Cloud aims to be the first antivirus program without an update button. The guys at Panda have pushed their malware detection capabilities into a more generic space, eliminating the need for signatures.
That doesn’t mean it slacks off at its job though. The Panda Cloud is a good choice to protect your netbook. It’s incredibly effective at keeping malware out of your computer, and only a little less efficient at cleaning up an infested system. Most importantly, it has a very low processor and memory utilization.
- Microsoft Security Essentials
This one is part of Microsoft’s cleaning up act. It’s a great little antivirus program, with a 4MB installation file but is only useable by systems running a verified version of Windows. And the best part is – it’s free for Windows users! This doesn’t impact its productivity, and we found it to be very effective and extremely responsive in dealing with threats. The program has a simple and easily maneuverable interface. It runs efficiently in the background, without interfering with system performance.
Security Essentials used up about 4% more system resources on an HP Pavilion Desktop test, so it may use up a bit more on your netbook. It’s easy on the memory though, with only 4MB being used. A full system scan of about 120GB took an hour and twenty minutes. This is a very good antivirus program and one we recommend for your netbook.
- Immunet Protect
This is another cloud-based antivirus program that taps into a community of users, and instantly provides protection to all for the infections of one. It is a light-weight antivirus program with a 5MB installer file and no update file. Immunet Protect is also incredibly light on system resources, utilizing less than 5MB of memory.
The interface is a bit minimalistic, but this program is still in development mode. The number of users within its network is also growing steadily. We think it’s more than effective at blocking your netbook from threats.
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