Is antivirus software really slowing down your computer?

To protect computers and limit viruses, many users often install antivirus software to their computers. But many people wonder if downloading antivirus software slows down the computer? For a better understanding of this issue, please refer to the article below.

Windows is the most popular operating system, so computer viruses penetrate mainly to the Windows operating system. Antivirus checking and evaluation is performed on Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.

Test the speed of 23 different antivirus software

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The tested antivirus software are Ahnlab, Avast, AVG (both free software and purchased software), Avira, Bitdefender, BullGuard, Comodo, ESET, F-Secure, G Data, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microworld, Norman , Norton, Panda, Qihoo 360, Quick Heal, Tencent, Threat Track and Trend Micro.

There is also a system with free software Microsoft Security Essentials and Defender Windows (for Windows 8 or Windows 8.1) that has been tested.

The criteria for checking and evaluating all these antivirus software:

- Speed ​​of downloading files on the Internet.

- Website opening speed

- Application installation speed

- Speed ​​of opening applications and files

- Speed ​​of copying (copying) files

For all secondary antivirus software, the score from 1- 5 will be counted after each test, in which the score of 1 is good, and the score of 5 is poor.

If an antivirus application slows the system from 0 - 20%, it will get 1 point for recording. From 21 - 40% get 2 points, from 41- 60% of efficiency is reduced by 3 points, and so on up to 5 points.

Therefore, for all 5 tests, if the software gets 5 points, it is good antivirus software, if the antivirus software is poor, it has a score of 25. All results are summarized later. parts and divided by 7.

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Results of test evaluation

Anti-virus software affects the system at least and evaluates the best performance speed is Kaspersky software with 5.1 points. Then came the security packages of Bitdefender and Qihoo 360 with scores of 5.3 and 5.7 respectively.

6 McAfee antivirus software , Bullguard, Trend Micro, Norton, Avira and F-Secure also achieved good rankings from 6.1 to 7.9 points. All 14 other antivirus software have a higher score.

If the system is protected by Windows built-in Security Essentials or Microsoft Defender , the score is 8.7 points.

Norman antivirus software , Quick Heal and Threat Track slowed down the computer significantly, so the score was 12, 12.4 and 13.9 points, respectively. And no antivirus software has the worst score of 25.

For a better understanding, learn the example below:

Users will quickly become impatient, especially when they want to copy files in Windows. In the test, if the system did not have any antivirus software protected, it took just over 141 seconds to copy the AV-TEST test containing 3.3 GB. If the system   Kaspersky 's Windows installation application then   Will proceed to check the file and take about 165 seconds to copy. If you install Threat Track antivirus software, it will take an average of 300 seconds to copy.

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Check and evaluate each one criterion

AV-TEST refers to 5 test sections such as "Real-World Test" , all testing activities are performed by users many times daily.

1. Download files from the Internet

To ensure that all software downloads the same file, a server (server) is used as the download server in a separate test network. All programs provided on the server are not changed on the same version during the test.

Most antivirus software scans data or data streams during a download process, which can slow down the download process. Nearly all antivirus applications handle this very well, however, the scale is reduced below the 20% mark, so 21 out of 23 antivirus software get only 1 point average. Only Avira and G Data antivirus software are slightly above the average threshold.

2. Open the website

For this test will proceed on a few famous websites, such as Amazon, Yahoo, Apple or Google. Use Internet Explorer of the operating system to test Windows XP, Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Only 3 software achieved load speed below 20% that scored 1 point is Bitdefender, Kaspersky and McAfee. In addition, 20 other anti-virus software surpassed the threshold of 20% even up to 40%. So these software were scored 2 points.

Only Threat Track software slows down the opening of the website, so the average score is 4.6 points.

3. Install the application

In testing, applications are installed on each command line (without clicking). In this test are popular applications like Flash Player or Adobe Reader . The applications and versions are identical throughout the entire test of durability.

The results show that many antivirus programs are slow to install the application to a certain extent.Bitdefender, Bullguard, G Data and Trend Micro software are still within the normal limit, thus gaining 1 point of recording.

In addition, 9 other antivirus software are in the range of 1-2 points, 9 software ranges between 2-3 points, Microsoft Security Essentials or Microsoft Defender are above the 3-point threshold.

4. Open the application, including a file

In this test, a DOC file, a pdf file and a presentation file - all in large sizes - are opened continuously and directly in LibreOffice . The antivirus software monitors access and open files.

Some antivirus software slows down this process. In the durability test, Bitdefender, Kaspersky ESET anti-virus software and almost negligible influence should receive 1 recording point. 16 other antivirus software averaged 1 point and 4 software were scored 2 points and 2 points higher.

5. Copy the file

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Especially when copying data on Windows, most antivirus software is frustrating for users. Tests show that Qihoo 360 and Kaspersky slow down the copying process. 8 other antivirus software range from 1 to 2 points. 5 software achieved an average score in the range of 2-3 points, 3 antivirus software achieved the score in the range of 3 - 4 points, and 5 software reached the threshold of over 4 points.

Anti- virus software like Ahnlab, ESET, Norman, Quickheal and Threat Track slows down the copying process more than other software.

Check the configuration

In tests, some computers with hardware used were: Intel Xeon X3360 @ 2.83GHz, 4 GB RAM and 500 GB hard drive .

All computers have been tested on Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 systems without security software. The access speed of the computers is the same and then confirmed on the test system.

Each antivirus software must undergo a different cycle of checks. Then the test is done again, the system will be restarted, and the test will be repeated again. The computer is rebooted and re-checked a few times, then the system is restored.

Is anti-virus software really slowing down the computer?

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The results show that good security software doesn't slow down Windows- based computers . Kaspersky, Bitdefender and Qihoo 360 antivirus software have the lowest download capacity, although these software protect computers well.

Sometimes  The evaluation and testing of anti-virus software has many opinions, the evaluation results vary from many users. This may be due to special configuration and hardware and software. If you are unsure whether your software runs fast or not, do the following test: First, create a backup of the system, then download the test software and try all the software. If it appears that the message fails, you only need to go back to the backups.

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Having fun!