Performance Comparison
In September 2009, Lavasoft AB performed extensive research to gain understanding of the performance and amount of resources used by popular anti-virus/anti-spyware products on the market today. We know customers are looking for faster and lighter products, while still not compromising the security of their PC’s. By focusing on core consumer needs, Ad-Aware provides advanced threat protection, and is significantly lighter and faster than our previous versions (and than many of our competitors.)
The charts below show the results of these tests. The test configuration and the specific versions of the software are listed after the graphs.
AVG takes more than 15 times longer to perform a scan than Ad-Aware.
Cleanup Comparison
In many cases, even after scanning and removing infections from your computer with anti-malware software, fragments of the infection are still left behind. Ad-Aware goes a step beyond simply detecting and removing malware; Ad-Aware intelligently cleans and rids yours system of harmful traces of the infection in order to restore your computer.
Below is a comparison between popular anti-virus/anti-spyware programs and their clean-up process of common infections. The test configuration and the specific versions of the software are listed after the graphs.
* was not detected by Kaspersky or AVG, thus the infection was not removed by these programs.
This piece of malware was not detected by PC Tools, thus the infection was not removed by this program.
* This Trojan was not detected by AVG, thus the infection was not removed by this program.
Test System Details
- Windows XP SP3
- Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2,41 GHz
- 256MB RAM
- 8GB Hard Drive
Software Configuration
All products were updated with the latest available updates as of the date of test.
- AVG Anti-Virus
- Version 8.5.374
- PC tools Spyware Doctor® with AntiVirus 6
- Version - 6.1.0.447
- Kaspersky Anitvirus
- Version - 9.0.0.463
- Norton Internet Security
- Version: 16.5.0.135
- SpySweeper (Clean-up Comparison test only)
- Version 6.1