Slowdown of Microsoft Visual Studio due to different Virus scanner

Question

What is the least slow Virus scanner to use with Microsoft Visual Studio

I have just had Microsoft Visual Studio “go slow” on me again due to my Virus Checker… (100

Answer 1

You really need to weigh the capabilities and support of the antivirus program against the slowness. In my case, I've used several different ones, and the best choice was Avast. The Home edition is free, and they are one of the best about updating their virus definitions as new threats appear.

Answer 2

Exclude your project folders and the visual studio app folder for realtime scan, and schedule a scan as often as you can feel safe.

Answer 3

Would comment on answers from @MagnusJohannsson or @Rodrigo but don't have enough reputation. Just to agree really, and +1 for both.

I have NOD32 4.x on two very similar machines, 2nd Gen intel SSD's plenty of RAM, Duo / Quad Core's overclocked, clean installs of win 7, VS2010.

Have used NOD32 for years on many different boxes and many different builds without any problems, but had a horrible issue on one of the machines after a hardware upgrade and reinstall of OS where ekrn.exe (NOD's service) would go nuts and just eat up all the CPU leaving me having to physically shutdown the box.

After lots of to and fro with ESET support it was decided it was due to Visual Studio file access looking suspicious / being to quick, and in the end I excluded my project folders, and since then has been fine. Interestingly was project folder for a solution I was not using at the time, so maybe a TFS thing?

Anyhow this link is a simple guide for anyone having same problem with NOD32's ekrn.exe eating CPU

Excluding files or folders from real time scans

Answer 4

I also dont have maesurements, but some experiences:

• Dont use McAfee: We had serious performance problems (and other more serious ones) on a number of installations with that.

• Use Avira AntiVir: Reportedly the highest success rates, and no noticeable delay. I use it since years.

Answer 5

Based on previous installations at various jobs, empirically rated from slowest (very annoying) to quickest (almost no impact):

• Symantec (awful)
• McAfee
• AVG
• ESET
• Computer Associates (excellent)

I wouldn't bother with the speed tests, etc. shown at the AV review sites since most of these are in controlled environments, often with review-mode enabled. The impact will also vary depending on your network environment (workgroup or domain) and administrator-enforced policies.

Disclosure: I used to work on another now-obsolete anti-virus package back in the 90's.