One of the things I hate about Microsoft Windows is how the various required security applications (anti-spyware, anti-virus, etc.) slows my system (no matter how fast or how much RAM I have) to a crawl when they are running.
I’ve been running ESET’s NOD32 Antivirus System
After installing it, I decided to run a full system scan to confirm that the PC is clean. I popped up Windows’ Task Manager expecting to see the usual near 100% CPU usage bringing my system to a crawl. Imagine, my surprise when I saw how little impact NOD32 had on system performance while running a full scan. In fact, I took the screen snapshot (performance graph on the right), cropped and resized the screencap, and created this blog entry while NOD32 was running a full system scan in the background.
PC World has it listed as the #4 anti-virus performer (out of 
with OneCare nowhere in the list. So, I feel pretty good about the switch from OneCare to NOD32 so far.
is there an enterprise-level antivirus that you are partial to?
Aaron: Unfortunately, I haven’t been in control of enterprise level anti-virus in my various day jobs over the years. I will say that the Symantec Anti-Virus (SAV) Enterprise Edition seems “lighter” than the “take all my RAM and CPU processing and run” consumer version (though not by much). I tend to add a non-resident AV scanner like ClamWin (Open Source) to try to get a few more percentage points of AV coverage on both my work and home systems though.
ah, i see… i’m charged with the task of finding a replacement or our current AV solution (a quite-dated version of symantec). i’m trying a trial install of webroot’s corporate solution, and while the administration console works very well, as does the remote installation of clients (both of which are very important to me), the virus scan process itself seems to bring the PC that it is scanning to it’s knees. I gave AVG’s corporate version a whirl a few months back, and while the AV scanner wasn’t as resource-hungry as webroot seems, the administration console left a lot to be desired so it was a no-go for AVG.
Aaron: I haven’t tried this one myself. But, I heard it discussed on the Security Now podcast: eEye Digital Security.
http://www.eeye.com/
Their website lists a reasonably impressive list of big-name clients. Of course, I have no idea how extensively these big names actually use this product (lab trail vs. whole enterprise, for instance).
thanks for the tip. i’m gonna check that out.