For testing purposes it seems both AVG and AVAST take up more or less the same amount of RAM and it seems lesser than the one taken up by MSE. The new AVAST seems packed with nice options as of late too (sandbox, common software updater, browsers toolbars cleaner). One thing I really dislike about AVAST is the need for registration (it's more a nuisance than anything to me) and too much "get the commercial version" ads everyone (even within the installation process). AVG seems to perform well too but I think it lacks some of the latest AVAST features.
As far as interfaces are concerned, I still prefer MSE. Some would say its inteface to be very "spartan" but very tidy and uncluttered.
For me I like MSE on Vista/7/8 but for WinXP I prefer AVAST or AVG. I don't know why but Microsoft hasn't been able to deliver a satisfying experience for MSE running under XP.
Good to know that MSE is working fine for you under XP. I think MSE is being bad-mouthed all the way just because it's Microsoft. I quite like it as I already said.
you'd think if anything was a prime candidate for tiles it would be MSE.
just think, some distant time down the track, when we start moving away from tiles, how the software houses will market it as simple, fresh and intuitive.
I never trust anything advertising says. Especially when early-adoption is involved. Truth is stretched too far, or downright abandoned. All in the name of profit.
Good to know that MSE is working fine for you under XP. I think MSE is being bad-mouthed all the way just because it's Microsoft
MSE on XP has two things against it which are common complaints and often have me trying out other AV's:
* Scan times are very slow. The Full Scan speed is just ridiculous!
* File access times are very slow, sometimes opening the smallest of files takes way too long such as several seconds whereas most other AV's would allow the same file to launch in milliseconds, and launching some programs takes a very long time such as SpywareBlaster, etc.
Bad mouthing an AV for being slow is nothing new at all, sure they'll all slow down a system to some extent and make a performance impact, however MSE's impact on XP systems I've seen it on including mine are very noticeable regardless of the processor, RAM, etc, performance-wise it reminds me of the old Win98 days running a late 90s version of the performance sloth McAfee VirusScan.
With that stated I do however recommend MSE before any other AV, reasons being it's beyond super simple to use with its very straight forward design so anyone can comfortably use it without confusion. Although it causes performance issues that's about the only negative impact it has whereas some other AV's (Avast, etc.,) can make a system unbootable after install.