Anti Virus Test Results

Where we have run tests on specific AV products we'll show the results here.

We've noticed that excluding the Sage data files from scanning on some AV products doesn't necessarily improve performance. This may be due to the AV driver still intercepting access to the excluded files even if they are not scanned. In some cases this also appears to invalidate the file system cache thus having a very detrimental affect on performance.

The figures represent the Transfix results (seconds per 1000 sage records). Any increase is significant. For example if the rate goes from 1 to 2 seconds some Sage operations may take at lest twice as long to complete.

Data No AV AV Default Installation Data Excluded Disabled Type
Local .9 Nod32 V4 1.468 1.321 .925 Legacy
Local .9 AVG Free 1.364 (see notes) 1.280 .818 Filter
Local .9 AVAST Home 4.8 2.058 1.880 1.931 Filter
Local .9 Norton AV 2010 1.196 1.070 1.007 Filter
Local .9 Kaspersky 2010 1.342 n/a 1.300 Filter
Local .9 PC Tools AV 2.058 2.058 1.972 Filter

Notes

AVG does not scan .dta files by default so we added the file type for the default installation test. If the dta files were not included the test gave the same result as being disabled. Interestingly excluding the sage data folder but having .dta files in the scanned list gave a result of 1.280.

Despite being the fastest, Norton crashed our test machine on attempting to uninstall it (Blue Screen). We were also unable to use System Restore to remove it (Blue Screen). We would strongly advise against installing this product. [The Norton Product Removal Tool also blue screened the machine. We had to boot into Safe Mode, then uninstall using the Norton Menu option]

Kaspersky didn't appear to have an obvious way of excluding files although the Help system suggests it may be possible. Sage files (*.dta) are not scanned by default. Excluding the whole local drive made no difference to performance.

The F Secure 2010 download wouldn't install and there was no relevant help available on the web site.

Mcafee free trial required the user to sign up to receive offers from their partners before a Trial copy could be downloaded, an offer we felt able to refuse.

On the results above AVG seemed to have the least impact on Sage (discounting Norton because of removal issues)

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2005 - 2009 Steve Blencowe Systems Limited

Last Updated 14/06/2010