The AVG 7 free version works OK on my Windows XP Home (SP2), IE/OE, dialup
modem. It uses a proxy server for pop3/smtp, which worked OK for me. However
that might be a problem if you have multiple ISP accounts, because it only
works with one dialup account at a time. You'd have to change the settings
to use a different ISP.
I also recently tried the latest free Avast version, but reverted to AVG
mainly because I believe it slows down multitasking less when I'm online. I
experienced a 10%-25% slowdown of my other applications when I was online
with Avast. With AVG the slowdown when online is only about 5%. Also AVG is
somewhat simpler in design and easier to understand. I wish AVG had
exclusions like Avast, but that's not too important. Avast also has a much
more seamless pop3/smtp operation which works transparently with any ISP
account or email client. Occasionally the AVG update server won't connect to
provide automatic updates, which has been a longtime problem with AVG, but I
don't consider that as serious.
Before trying Avast, I uninstalled AVG 7, which wasn't 100% clean. There was
a message that some things couldn't be removed. But I had no problems
afterwards, insofar as I'm aware, and didn't have to do a system restore. I
used some registry cleaners later that probably cleaned out the remnants.
Then after trying Avast, I uninstalled it too, and it gave a clean
uninstall. So you shouldn't have a big problem trying either of these, but
I'd recommend making a system restore point first, just in case.
