Hello!Did you know that if you are using Notron Antivirus or Macafee Viruscan that they are continously running in the background even if you have disabled them?As long as they are installed, they can still impact the performance of MSFS.Even after disabling NAV2003, I was still getting the dreaded "short-pause" every 5 seconds or so when flying both FS2002 and FS9.So I un-installed ALL my antivirus software (including NAV auto-update and registration which are installed seperately by NAV2003).After doing this, NO MORE PAUSES in FS9 or FS2002.Of course using no antivirus protection is very risky, so after doing some research, I found a solution...There is a FREE antivirus product that works very well called AVG antivirus from GRI-SOFT. (You can do a google search under the name "AVG Free antivirus" if you want more information).Now I can leave the AVG antivirus running and it has NO impact on the performance of MSFS. The sim is running very smooth with NO pausing at all now. MY FPS were always pretty good, but that darn "5 second pause" was driving me nuts.The other good thing is AVG anti-virus has the same features as NAV2003, but without the overhead, and it's free! It was also highly rated by TechTv as a free alternative for virus protrection over products like NAV or Viruscan.So, if you are still having issues with the "pauses" that can occur while flying MSFS, you might want to give your anti-virus program the boot, and go with something less resource intensive.Hope this helps any of you still having some slight pauses occuring in MSFS.Happy Simming!Scott :-)ATP/CFII - KCOS

Ah, another convert to AVG :-)I have been using it for about 5 years Scott, you won't be disappointed.

I have Norton Internet Security which includes NAV and Norton Firewall. If I was to ditch this (which I might well have done in any case once the free subscription time is up)is there a good free firewall program that would work as well as the Norton one I now run, and without affecting FS9 in the manner described above? Thanks in advance for any comments etc.

You could use my FSAutoStart program to terminate the Antivirus programs/services, then run Flight Sim, and then when you finish FSAutoStart will restart the virus software. This is what I do...

I use Zone alarm FREE edition and have been very happy with it. It also uses pretty low overhead and I have been using it with MSFS with no problems.It is very easy to use and is very effective blocking unwanted inbound and outbound internet/intranet/ and network traffic.Zone alarm is also very easy to configure for home networks. I have 4 computers hooked via a wired eithernet with DSL and two other devices set up wireless on the same network, and configuring "trusted zones" for the network using zone alarm is as easy as knowing the IP address range for the network.You can find more information about zone alarm and get the free version (or pay version) at: http://www.zonelabs.comThere may be other firewalls available for little or no cost, but these are the anti-virus and firewall solutions that are working on my system.Hope this helps!Scott :-)ATP/CFII - KCOS

Hey Ken, I was doing the same thing using the program that you have listed here, and I still had problems with the "pauses" on my system.Of course, not everyone may be having this issue, but for me, going to AVG as my antivirus solution has cleared up this small, but annoying, performance issue with MSFS 9 & 2002.FSAutostart however is an EXCELLENT program! I am using to free up as many system resources as possible on my computer.But for some reason, NAV 2003 was still causing some performance issue on my system.Glad to hear that the procedure you are using is working on your system!Have a great day and Happy Simming!Scott :-)ATP/CFII - KCOS

That's great to hear!I've been using AVG for around a month now and so far so good!Scott :-)ATP/CFII-KCOS

Thanks Scott!

I use McAfee VirusScan and McAfee Firewall and I don't have any micropauses...although I am tempted to look into the free solutions mentioned above. Anything that makes my beast run faster is a good thing!

Of course, nothing ever goes like you want it to. I am getting the AVG installer crashing with an Application Error, Illegal Instruction Fault 0x00000030. Google doesn't help either.Sigh.

I've not run McAffe, but I used NAV for a couple of years. It was a very good AV, but as Scott mentioned it still uses resources even after you turn it off.The bugger about Norton is removing it. What a pain! I did the standard Add/Remove routine, rebooted and then went into RegEdit. Did searches for things like Norton, CleanSweep, WinDoctor, Liveupdate, etc. Found a few things and deleted them by hand. Then a couple days later I stumbled upon RegSeeker. This finally killed everything associated with Norton on my system.http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htmNorton is an OK software, but it wants to completely take over a system. In the future I'll not use it... just don't want any single software having that much control (and resource usage) over my system.I've been using AVG for several months and am quite happy with it.Greg

My antivirus plug is for Avast! (www.avast.com) - works great - comes with Outlook/Instant Messenger plug ins and can be easily shutdown/restarted via FSAutoStart. Home edition is free and they update virus defs almost daily.

"and they update virus defs almost daily"....as does NAV. I haven't experienced any performance problems here AND I'm still using your excellent FSAutoStart, Ken. Looks like yet another issue that's system specific :( Maybe I've just been lucky, who knows!Mike

Ken,What services do you have FSAS shutdown to kill Avast? I assume any service with 'ash' in the name but I am not sure.

"My antivirus plug is for Avast!"Well, my plug is for... Avsim http://www.avsim.com/ :-) Sorry for the OT post... oh, and Happy Birthday Avsim. :-beerchug Greg