file io - Slowdown of Microsoft Visual Studio due to different Virus scanner

Question

What is the least slow Virus scanner to use with Microsoft Visual Studio

I have just had Microsoft Visual Studio “go slow” on me again due to my Virus Checker… (100s of Projects, some with over 100 C# files in them, so any thing that slows down builds is bad.)

We all know that development tools do a lot of file access so are badly effect by Virus Scanner. Most of us have to run a Virus scanner due to do many reasons.

So has anyone measured the effect of different virus scanners (and settings) on the speed of Microsoft Visual Studio?

Has anyone tied Microsoft Security Essentials with Visual Studio?

See also (if you have the rep, please extend the list)

• What Really Slows Windows Down (This has some real data)
• Visual Studio and Virus Scan of Temp folder
• Visual Studio Optimizations
• Development machines and anti-virus policy (Sophos Anti-Virus)
• Antivirus (Symantec Endpoint) configuration for developer machine
• Least intrusive antivirus software for development PC?
• Suggestions for a productive hardware setup with excellent virus protection.
• Choosing Anti-Anti-Virus Software (Coding Horror)

What are peoples experiences with Visual Studio 2010 and virus checkers?

---

I got this as part of a helpful email from someone (that will rename nameless) at Microsoft speaking on his own behalf.

It’s not clear that we (Microsoft) would be able to endorse 3rd party products. With that in mind, I did notice that in the posting Ian linked to (this question) that Computer Associates was listed by someone as one of the best performing virus checkers for development environments, which interestingly enough is a product that I believe many Microsoft developers use on their desktops.

---

Since asking this question, I have had the least problems with Microsoft Security Essentials, however I have no facts or measurments to back this up.

Answer 1

I haven't really done any measurements, but what I usually do is to exclude the real time scanning of my development folder (usually my :Projects folder). That way, the compiler can work as fast as possible during my everyday repetitive tasks. I do have a daily scan that have the folder in question in its path, in order to fetch any possible threat. On a subjective note, I prefer to use NOD32.