a-squared uses 620kB memory for realtime protection !

[hackerman1]

hi !

which Antivirus & Antimalware uses the smallest amount of memory for the realtime protection ?

running taskmanager as admin i looked at a-squared (a2), it uses 620kB....
i only find 2 processes, that seems to belong to a-squared: a2guard.exe & a2service.exe.

am i missing something or doesn´t a-squared use more memory ?
that must be the lowest usage, or does anyone know another A/V & A/M that uses less ?

 

[7mm]

How's the load felt on the system?

 

[jav]

I am sure you are missing something.
Can't remember how much was memory usage but I have used it for several days and I am sure it was heavier then 620kB... :sarc:

 

[Dinesh]

Avast 5 is using around 8 MB RAM.


I know A Squared uses between 3-8 MB RAM, but not 620kb. There's something wrong. I guess its not working ATM. open a2 and then check the mem usage again.

 

[hackerman1]

How's the load felt on the system?

load ?

Dinesh: "I know A Squared uses between 3-8 MB RAM, but not 620kb. There's something wrong. I guess its not working ATM. open a2 and then check the mem usage again."

it IS working....

i installed Avast5-beta earlier today, it used almost 12MB.

 

[madtownidiot]

If you don't spend your time on the internet trying to get something for free, generally you don't have to worry about viruses. I've been running win 7 without an AV for a couple months and it hasn't slowed down at all.. and it still has the same memory usage and number of running processes it did when I finished setting up this laptop.

 

[hackerman1]

madtownidiot: what has this to do with the subject ???

"a-squared uses 620kB memory for realtime protection !"

 

[jav]

ok, fresh install of Windows 7.

Just Windows update and A-squared Anti Malware.


And when Security Centre is opened:

 

[hackerman1]

hi !

interesting, i´m looking at taskmanager right now:
a2guard=184 kB
a2service=608 kB

 

[Airbot]

Are you looking at it after clicking on Show processes from all users?

 

[hackerman1]

hi !

jav: what other programs was running when you took the screenshot ?
if there is any kind of activity that needs to be monitored then a2 "wakes up" and uses more memory.

Airbot: yes, running taskmanager as admin & Show processes from all users.

i posted a question on Emsisoft´s forum:
"hi !
if i´m not doing anything on my computer (that requires files to be scanned),
how much memory uses a2 ?
i´m asking because in W7-32 when running taskmanager as admin & showing all processes,
i only see a2guard & a2service and they use 640kB together.
are there any more a2-processes running ?
are those numbers really correct, or is taskmanager "lying" ? "

i got this reply:
"No, there are no other processes running. That really is the memory footprint when being idle in the background with just the on-execution scan and Malware-IDS running. It gets a lot higher when you actually do use the GUI and the on-demand scan though (100+ MB) since it is necessary to keep all signature data in memory at that time. But on normal day to day work it rarely raises above 10 MB after we introduced the memory usage improvements a few months ago.

Best regards,

Fabian Wosar [Administration/Technical Support]
Emsi Software Team - www.emsisoft.com
"

since then i have had my eyes on taskmanager, and i´ve seen some variations,
but it stays below 1MB when idle in the background.
when i do something that needs monitoring, it jumps up a few MB´s, then it drops back down again.

 

[jav]

hi !

jav: what other programs was running when you took the screenshot ?
if there is any kind of activity that needs to be monitored then a2 "wakes up" and uses more memory.

As far as I know there was no other process.
Because it was really fresh install.
I installed Windows 7 to my another laptop, did Windows upgrade and installed A-squared.

Let me check how it is now.

 

[jav]

ok, I checked it.
Now it's after installing drivers and some programs:




As you can see, not really much running at the moment.
But, yes, all A2 modules are activated:

 

[hackerman1]

hi !

i also has everything in a2 activated, but much lower memory usage.
a2guard=1.488kB
a2service=608kB

right now when writing this, a2guard dropped down to 156kB.

 

[jav]

hi !

i also has everything in a2 activated, but much lower memory usage.
a2guard=1.488kB
a2service=608kB

right now when writing this, a2guard dropped down to 156kB.

ok, I believe that means again that every case is unique.

It's probably because we have different version of Windows 7 (you Enterprise, me Ultimate) and different PC's.

But anyway I like it so far.

So I probably keep it on my second laptop.
Problem is can't decide Firewall to it.
Probably will go with Pc-Tools or Online Armor Free

 

[hackerman1]

hi !

jav: i don´t know why there should be any difference between W7-versions.
what happens with your memory usage, if you leave your computer on, and don´t do anything ?
because i´ve noticed that after i have done something that "wakes" a2, it sometimes takes several minutes until it drops down again.
fx. yesterday a2guard stayed around 14MB for maybe 5 min. after i had finished checking my email.

i also like a2, it´s very good at detecting & has got a lot of rewards.
with this memory usage it must be a good choice if you don´t have plenty of memory.
for me it´s no big deal if it uses 110MB or perhaps even a little bit more when scanning, if it uses almost nothing when idle, that in my opinion must be better then a program that constantly uses a lot of MB´s.

btw, just noticed a new record:
a2guard=184kB
a2service=96K

WOW !

 

[jav]

hmm.. yeah.
I didn't tried leaving it.

Each time it was several minutes after Pc was turned on.
I will try to leave it doing nothing for some time.

 

[Richter]

Crazy a2 usage.....I believe that is......at least 150 times more memory used than 620 kb...

 

[hackerman1]

hi !

Richter: the requested screenshot...

 

[Richter]

Strange...The service names don't match up. You have a2guard and I have a2free.exe. In addition, (im probably being nit-picky...) some processes don't seem....too right...Perhaps, it is because of the memory optimizer?
Ive noticed that the senda smile .exe for office 2010 is using less than one meg. It is suppose to use around 4 megs. Also, how come your taskmgr process is using 22 cpu? It is only suppose to use less than 10 megs at most.

Is this perhaps, that the memory optimizer is doing too good a job? Perhaps it is sacrificing the extra cpu usage for less memory usage.

Can you post a picture of a squared catching the eicar test file? I just want to confirm that it is running. Just post a screenshot with eicar test file being caught by a squared along with the task manager right next to it.

Thanks!
eicar | THE ANTI-VIRUS OR ANTI-MALWARE TEST FILE