Hi!
I have been monitoring the affects of avast! on boot times for many months now.
For some reason, I have found that it slows boot times on Vista 64 computers by at least a couple of minutes.
I haven’t been able to check XP 64 boot times. I also haven’t noticed any big changes in boot times on Vista 32 computers.
I have been patient, and waited for a fix, but I thought that it was time to post about this problem.
If I uninstall avast!, and use another free AV, boot times are decreased by at least the above mentioned times.
i did and do not see any noticeable slow-downs neither on my vista x64 nor on seven x64 so this seems to be a problem with your specific configuration…
is your computer up to date? all service packs?
did you remove the other antiviruses correctly? (also with removal tools?)
so probably theres an other application conflicting with avast! which could cause this…
which other software is installed on these pcs?
does it help to deactivate the rootkitscan at startup or to start the avast! service after other system services…?
(via rightclicking avast-symbol in the taskbar → settings → troubleshooting-page)
what computers are they? my vista 64 boots in half of a minute and is ready to work…
how long does it take without avast! ?
I just wanted to add to this that I’ve also had this problem on XP x64 and had assumed it was a problem for everyone, but apparently it’s machine specific.
In my case, I have one XP x64 machine where it has always been a problem. Usually when I do a reinstall of Windows I give Avast another try, but it’s always caused significant slowdown. I have a friend who also uses XP x64 and he complained of the same issue.
Last night I did a fresh install of XP x64 on a third PC and tried Avast once again only to see the same problem.
For me, it’s not just the boot times that are slower, but everything. Anytime I see the Avast logo spinning everything runs really slow. If I disable Avast, speed goes back to normal.
I suppose it’s possible it’s something I’m installing on all the PCs, but I can’t imagine what. I just loaded the basics: Messenger, Office 2003, Flash Player, Acrobat Reader. I don’t think any of that should cause a problem as it is commonly used by most people.
The only common non-standard thing I can think of for all these machines is they’re all Intel-based and all have a RAID configuration. Any ideas?
The above happens to both my newly re-formatted Windows XP SP3 (32-bit) PC and laptop too, all with the latest drivers installed.
With avast! Antivirus installed, there is a significant slowdown and it’ll normally take about 1 - 2 minutes after logging into Windows before speed goes back to normal despite this being a relatively clean system with only MS Office 2003, Flash Player, Acrobat Reader and Google Earth installed.
I’ve uninstalled avast! Antivirus, restart system and things sped up instantly.
Installed the beta release Panda Cloud Antivirus and no slowdown.
Avast will always slow things down to some measurable degree. But if I have to measure it to realize it’s happening, I don’t mind. Most of the time, Avast has no significant effect on performance that a user could see. I’d like to see the same thing at start up time. Realistically, most of the slow down at start up time under XP is not Avast’s fault, even if installing their product seems to “cause” it; If Windows doesn’t do an intelligent job of avoiding resource contention when starting concurrent tasks, then Avast is exacerbating an inherent Windows flaw, not causing it.
I’ve seen issues with XP and Win 7 x64 on a number of machines. There have been times when I wondered what broke that was keeping my computer from starting up, and eventually saw performance return to normal almost immediately after seeing a message that a new version or update of something from Avast had been installed.
It’s not clear to me when Avast looks for updates. If I boot my computer and leave it on for a week, Avast must have some way of deciding when in that week it will look for updates. I don’t know how often. I do know that if I turn my machine off, there’s zero chance that anything got on it between then and when I start it back up. Since Avast is running with a database that was deemed current enough at the time I shut my machine down, I don’t feel that there’s a tremendous risk if the latest update doesn’t get applied until after everything else starts up. Anything new that it could find would be something that it had already missed. But if Windows is trying to start 100+ different processes, that’s not a good time for Avast to hold things up.
It occurred to me that it might want to do this at start up so it can keep things from loading before a current database can be available. Then it occurred to me that if my machine is on for three days and Avast finds an update, it would be just as risky, if not more risky, not to rescan memory and so forth.
I personally don’t see enough of an advantage to warrant Avast using any more overhead than is necessary at start up time. Other people might, but they can always check or uncheck a box somewhere as they desire. Currently, I can avoid the issue by telling Avast never to install automatically, and optionally inform me. But I can’t set it to update automatically at more convenient times.
I am also facing this problem with one of my two machines.
I have a XP Prof machine, that doesn’t show this “freezing of the system” effect but my XP Home machine (a netbook with nearly identical software installed) and the same avast! settings also shows the effect discussed in this thread :-
Both machines are up-to-date, no other security software is installed or was installed before.
This effect on the second machine only occurs when a new signature update is detected and the update process of avast! “processes” this update. If an input is done during this time (1-2 minutes), the machine “freezes” and does not respond to any other inputs (mouse etc.). After the update notification is displayed, the machine runs and responds again as usual. If now update is available, the “freezing effect” doesn’t occur.
I will try the delayed loading of the services, but have to wait for the next signature update to see, if it has an effect.
avast checks if there is an available connection each 40 seconds.
If there isn’t, wait more 40 seconds to check. Checking does not take more than one second and, of course, does not use the Internet band.
If there is a connection, check for an update. If there is not any new file to download, wait 4 hours to start checking again. If there is an available update, start it and install it. Again, wait 4 hours to check the next time.
The program updates are released but to avoid excessive load on the servers the auto update check happens randomically every 7 days and it’s not checking every time you connect to the Internet as with the iAVS checks.
You can change the seconds after booting avast try its first attempt to update.
You can change how often avast checks for an update.
I think users let the update to be automatically performed (at least, the virus definitions update).
As promised, i report:
On my affected machine the settings of the “delayed loading of the avast! services” did not solve the problem.
After booting the machine (some minutes ago) the VPS update ‘090905-0’ has been performed … and again “freezing effect” upon update process occurs :-\
Again, on my other machine (was running the whole time) … no freezing upon update … strange effect ???
Now in the (detailed) update settings i unchecked the option “show symbol in tray” (i hope it is correctly translated) on the affected machine and during the last VPS update (090906-1) the “freezing” did not occur!
I will keep an eye on it during the next updates …
@Other users having the same problem: is this option checked on your machines?
