A few general questions about avast!

Hey all.

Just recently downloaded and installed avast! and it seems to be running well. However, there are a few things that I’m not sure about:

-When the mouse cursor is hovering over the avast! icon in the system tray, the message reads “On-Access Scanner: 7 provider(s) total, 6 running”. All the provider modules are currently running except “Outlook/Exchange” which is “waiting for a subsystem to start”. Is this because Outlook is inactive?

-Can the avast! On-Access Scanner be configured to disable individual provider modules? And how?

Any info/advice is appreciated.

Is this because Outlook is inactive?

Exactly. The outlook plugin only runs when outlook is running. If you don’t have outlook running, why waste processor and RAM usage if it’s not runnning?

Yes, you can disable individual provider modules (not recommended though, I mean, why?) by right-clicking the avast icon, mousing over “pause provider” and clicking whatever provider you want to disable.

Hi jdavast,
I’ve actually terminated two of mine; Outlook/exchange, and Instant Messaging. I don’t use either of those applications. Pausing them would probably be adequate.

Tarq57 is correct. If you never use them, then it would be pointless to have them running.

However, if I knew that I would never need them, I would have done a custom installation of Avast, and not install those providers if I never planned on using them.

Thanks for the replies scythe944 and Tarq57.

Yea, I wasn’t sure that pausing the tasks would also disable them. A few of the providers (Outlook/Exchange, Instant Messaging) will more than likely be inactive. I’m not sure about the “Internet Mail” Scanner yet since I have a yahoo account. However, the option to configure each individual module/scanner is a good setup.

Does Yahoo use SSL connections? If so, avast can’t scan them without 3rd party software.
If you’re not using email programs (pop3), but you’re only using webmail, then you could not run the Internet Mail.
But, if you let it running and configure it well, you can detect if your computer is sending spam.

Sure, one of the great advantages of avast.


Welcome to the forums, jdavast. :slight_smile:

As Tech suggested above, you should leave the email scanner active just in case a spambot happens to find it’s way onto your computer. It uses very little resources even when active.


Thanks for the replies Tech and CharleyO.

I don’t know for certain if Yahoo uses SSL connections, however the avast! “Internet Mail” Scanner will be running in the background just to be sure.

You’re welcome. Feel free to come back any time you need help or just to change experiences 8)