Anti-virus programs slow your computer down: true or false?
This has been the source of arguments online for a long time now, but the answer is: yes, some anti-virus programs definitely do. They have to screen every bit of data that enters your computer for potentially harmful trojans, malware, and viruses. Thus they take up CPU resources, memory, and disk activity.
According to this study, the top offender is Norton Internet Security 2006. It delays your boot up time by almost 50%! At second place is McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8, followed at third place by Norton Internet Security 2007.
So does this mean you shouldn’t install anti-virus software? Of course not. Just don’t use those specific products if you want a PC that boots up and runs quickly.