Security vs Peformance

Jeff Atwood just wrote a long post on the effect Anti Virus Software has on system performance.

	Percent slower
	Boot Time	CPU Bench	Disk Bench
Norton Internet Security 2006	46%	20%	2369%
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8	7%	20%	2246%
Norton Internet Security 2007	45%	8%	1515%
Trend Micro PC-cillin AV 2006	2%	0%	1288%
ZoneAlarm ISS	16%	0%	992%
Norton Antivirus 2002	11%	8%	658%
Windows Live OneCare	11%	8%	512%
Webroot Spy Sweeper	6%	8%	369%
Nod32 v2.5	7%	8%	177%
avast! 4.7 Home	4%	8%	115%
Windows Defender	5%	8%	54%
Panda Antivirus 2007	20%	4%	15%
AVG 7.1 Free	15%	0%	19%

The worst offenders are the anti-virus suites with real-time protection. According to these results, the latest Norton Internet Security makes your computer boot nearly 50 percent slower. And no, that isn’t a typo in the disk column. It also makes all disk access sixteen times slower! Even the better performers in this table would have a profoundly negative impact on your PC’s performance. Windows Defender, for example, “only” makes hard drive access 54 percent slower.

True, but the trade-off is worth it, in my view. In fact. I’ve experianced an increase in boot time with Nortons 2007 over Nortons 2006. I’ve never had any serious performance issues with Nortons.

If you want a snappy system for a short while, do a clean boot. Turn off all uneesential services and your computer will feel like an F1 car on steroids. But do disconnect from the Internet first.