Key Takeaways
- Antivirus programs can slow down your computer due to high memory usage, especially during full scans.
- Check if the antivirus is the cause of slowness by temporarily disabling it and monitoring computer performance.
- Explore settings to reschedule scans during downtime or adjust features to reduce memory usage; consider uninstalling if necessary.
Antivirus programs are a vital component of your online safety strategy, and everybody should have one. That said, antiviruses aren’t without their drawbacks, and one of the most common problems people experience is their computer slowing down after installation.
Why Antivirus Programs Slow Down Your Computer
In short, every program on your computer eats up resources, and antivirus programs are no exception.
A lot of the time, the specific resource that antiviruses eat up is your RAM (Random Access Memory), the “quick access” portion of your computer’s memory. Once your computer uses all of its memory, it slows down because it has to “wait” for portions of that memory to free up other tasks to start or complete. An antivirus scan also consumes the CPU, causing even more intense slowdowns when a full scan runs.
In either case, the antivirus is eating up all your resources and leaving less for the other programs you’re running.
How to Stop Your Antivirus From Slowing Down Your PC
There are a few easy fixes you can try out to resolve the problem.
Perform a Full Antivirus Scan and Repair
I know this is counterintuitive, but this should be your first step.
Consider that you may have had an undetected malware infection before you installed the antivirus. Your newly installed antivirus is going haywire and consuming so many resources because it’s actually resolving an issue. It’s not guaranteed, but scanning and repairing your system will help you figure out if this is causing your antivirus to make your computer run slow.
Check if It’s Actually the Antivirus
There are many things that can cause your computer to slow down considerably. For example, you might just naturally be using more memory than you have available and need to buy more RAM; this is most common with heavy-load activities like gaming or having 87 Chrome tabs open.
Temporarily disable your antivirus program and then use your computer to check what resources are being used. If the slowness persists, the antivirus wasn’t the culprit. If that’s the case, you should check the other issues that can slow down your PC.
Reduce Memory Usage
Close all other programs and background processes, then start your antivirus. Next, find the memory tab of your Task Manager:
- Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE, then select Task Manager.
- Select the Performance tab on the leftmost bar, then Memory.
This will show you your computer’s overall memory usage. You can also check the specific memory usage of your antivirus by returning to the first screen of your Task Manager (the Processes tab in the left bar) and finding the program in the list, as shown below.
As you can see, just running in the background Malwarebytes is consuming 7.4% of my computer’s memory, which is a pretty hefty draw for a program that isn’t actively doing anything right now. You can also see that it is taking up almost three times as much CPU capacity as my web browser, though is still taking a negligible amount.
If you’re reaching high levels of memory usage from just the antivirus, then you may need more memory (as mentioned above). If the other programs are causing the performance problems, try to limit the number of programs you have open simultaneously.
Reschedule Scans for Downtime
An antivirus often causes slowness not just from its background level functions but also because it picks an inconvenient time to start a full scan. Full scans allocate a lot of resources because they scan every file on your PC; the more files you have, the more resources and time it takes. So, schedule them when your computer is asleep or you won’t be using it.
Windows Defender users should also turn off the “real-time scanning” feature, which has a similar performance impact.
Explore Launcher Settings
Most antivirus programs will give you a number of options that might let you narrow down the issue, either by turning off extraneous features (like any graphical flourishes) or helping narrow down memory issues by turning off auto-startup, real-time protection (as mentioned above), or the usage of additional utilities like proxy servers and real-time usage tracking.
Change Your Antivirus Program
If all else fails, it might be time to uninstall your antivirus program. Some antivirus are real resource hogs, and it’s arguable how much value you’re getting from commercial antivirus programs.
When it comes to head-to-head tests with other antiviruses, Windows Defender is very competent, is free, comes pre-installed with Windows computers, and usually has a minimal performance impact even when running in real time. So there’s not really any point in having another antivirus at all, and certainly not one you have to pay for.
If you’re on another operating system, you should probably make it a priority to install a new one, but on Windows you’re likely to want better performance as opposed to redundant malware protection.
