Windows Defender is crippling my system!

[six-h]

I have inherited a 6 year old laptop running XP Home and I've installed SP3.
It has only a Celeron 2GHz cpu running 512MB of RAM with 16MB assigned to
graphics, so it's not the fastest bunny in the warren!
Anti virus is AVG 8.0 Free, and I have installed "Spywareblaster".
My problem is that absolutely anything I do invokes what I think is Defender
under the guise of "MsMpENG.exe" which chases round after AVG like a dog on
heat and using 70/80% of the cpu resources.
Despite warnings of "dire consequences" if Defender is stopped, I have
little option but to risk it in order to regain control of my machine.
Some times it takes three or four attempts using Task Manager to achieve
this and of course, it's back again next boot!
Is there some way to switch the blessed software "off"?
I don't really want to have to "uninstall" it as I've heard that too has
it's problems.
I'd dearly love to know why it can't play nicely with AVG 8.0 Free, since I
have had no problems with them working together on my PC running Vista
Ultimate, nor with my previous PC running XP Home SP3 (like this Laptop)
Is there a solution?

 

[six-h]

Thanks Bill, I'll give that a try.
As I said, I inherited the lappy (from a teenager!).
It had not been used since 2007 and immediately I connected it to the net,
it downloaded an update for defender, and after that I disconnected since I
wanted to install SP3 from disk before it began to download it!
having removed a lot of teenage dross, including limewire and other file
sharers, defender immediately demanded to do a scan...something I've never
witnessed before.
On both my own PC's, it is very unobtrusive, and I have never been aware of
it's presence.
Hopefully your instruction will make this installation the same, I'll post
back and let you know.
Thanks for your help.

 

[six-h]

just an update on my trials and tribulations with Defender.
I followed Bill Sanderson's advice, and after Defender had applied the
latest updates, I opened "Word".
Being a "Hunt and Peck" typist, I'm not the fastest, but even so, I managed
to type at least three words before anything appeared on screen.
Turning Defender off, my typing appeared instantly.

What on earth is wrong with this so called security programme??

 

[Bill Sanderson]

At this point, I'd uninstall Windows Defender--via control panel, add or
remove programs.

Check whether the version of AVG that is installed includes antispyware
functionality. If it does, I'd depend on that and not re-install Windows
Defender.

If it doesn't, you might wait a couple of days, to get used to the
performance, and then try reinstalling Windows Defender, getting it updated
to current, and see if the issue recurs.

I think this is an interaction between the anti-malware programs you have
installed, but it isn't something we see reported frequently, so I don't
think it is an automatic result of this combination of products.

just an update on my trials and tribulations with Defender.
I followed Bill Sanderson's advice, and after Defender had applied the
latest updates, I opened "Word".
Being a "Hunt and Peck" typist, I'm not the fastest, but even so, I
managed
to type at least three words before anything appeared on screen.
Turning Defender off, my typing appeared instantly.

What on earth is wrong with this so called security programme??

--

 

[six-h]

Thanks Bill,
I too am bemused by this behaviour, especially since Defender and AVG 8.0
Free get along fine on my Vista PC, and my old XP PC before that!
AVG versions from 8.0 onwards do include antispyware, so I might try living
without Defender on the laptop for a while and see how it goes.
Thank you for helping me.

 

[someone]

I've had the same problem, and I have installed AVG Pro 8.5.285, with the
whole ball of wax: anti-spam, anti-spyware, web shield, resident shield,
etc. I also have Malwarebytes' anti-malware, spyware guard, spyware
blaster, super antispyware, and ad-aware. I just read something while I'm on
the puter and have learned to live with it. However, I may eventual remove
it. I don't think I need it, but you can't be too safe.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

You can't be too safe, but you can definitely put too much effort and run
too many competing applications in attempting to reach safety.

I would strongly recommend that you stick with a single antivirus pack and a
single anti-spyware package (perhaps the same, perhaps different) that does
real-time scanning.

Feel free to try others occasionally for a regular scan, but not to run all
the time and do real-time protection.

I've had the same problem, and I have installed AVG Pro 8.5.285, with the
whole ball of wax: anti-spam, anti-spyware, web shield, resident shield,
etc. I also have Malwarebytes' anti-malware, spyware guard, spyware
blaster, super antispyware, and ad-aware. I just read something while I'm
on the puter and have learned to live with it. However, I may eventual
remove it. I don't think I need it, but you can't be too safe.

Thanks Bill,
I too am bemused by this behaviour, especially since Defender and AVG 8.0
Free get along fine on my Vista PC, and my old XP PC before that!
AVG versions from 8.0 onwards do include antispyware, so I might try
living
without Defender on the laptop for a while and see how it goes.
Thank you for helping me.

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