Avast Free

[douglas9401]

This morning I downloaded Avast free to my old Dell PC running Windows XP.
It's currently running what it terms a 'quick scan' but it seems more like there's a wee man reading every line of code in the machine.
I had and have deleted Microsoft's own AV which worked away fine in the background but this Avast reminds me of how slow scans were when using something like AVG free on Internet Explorer before I switched to Firefox.
Might it just be slow as it's the first scan or does anyone have other suggestions?
Off to work now so won't see replies if any till tonight.
Many thanks

[treetops68]

"Might it just be slow........."

There's your answer,doug, initial scans with any AV are always notoriously slow, even the "quick" ones.

[HansUrbancka]

You could have stayed with Microsoft Security Essentials for at least another 12 months because it has now extended its support for XP until July 2015.:-

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/microsoft-backtrack-on-windows-xp-security-offer-malware-support-1215734

Hans.

[Wak]

I understand that Avast Free are updating their system to cover XP for the next three years.

[HansUrbancka]

In addition to Avast, there are a number of free AV programmes that will be avilable to XP users for at least another two yrs and include AVG, Bitdefender, Comodo and Emsisoft; along with lots of purchasable AV software :-

http://www.av-test.org/en/news/news-single-view/artikel/the-end-is-nigh-for-windows-xp-these-anti-virus-software-products-will-continue-to-protect-xp-after/

Hans.

[douglas9401]

Many thanks to you all for taking the time to reply.
I'm running it again and it's a lot quicker now.