Too much ram used by antivirus

[Christopher]

Hi all.
After starting my computer, without any application launched (except avast), Windows XP uses 370 Mb of ram. Is this normal? My computer is a toshiba A60-151 laptop with 512MB of ram that I can boost to 1GB as programs are too slow in launching several applications. thank you for your answers

[ApPy10]

Do a screenshot of taskmanager: processes and performance. While you're at it, scan for spyware with adaware and spybot. I've had nasty spyware crap that keeps me from opening my computer, control panel, task manager, device manager, msconfig, etc.

[T.J.]

Start , run , msconfig , startup

uncheck all boxes but virus scan and firewall.

once you learn what all of the startup items are, you can tailor make your startup to your liking, example being, you like Windowblinds, but don't need Realplayer update serivce, etc. After I did this, I went from almost 400mb used to under 200mb. shaved off about 12 processes.

[Hockson]

I suggest swithcing over to norton, mcafee or similar for some time. After switching back you will be happy how light this anti-virus runs on your system. If you use Paint Shop Pro, please install more RAM to your machine. You need it anyway, even if you give up any antivirus protection.