Avast Free appears to be hung

system · 2017-05-14T10:53:38.000Z

I’ve just resurrected an old laptop running Windows XP and updated the Avast software.
I then ran Smart Scan and it raced to 14% in a minute or two then for the next hour it didn’t move although the circle was spinning the whole time. After about an hour it moved to 15% and another half hour saw it go to 16%.
When I checked just now, its back to 14%. The version number is 17.4.2294.

Eddy · 2017-05-14T11:04:13.000Z

As has been explained in many other threads, there is a bug in showing the percentage scanned.

system · 2017-05-14T11:39:48.000Z

“As has been explained in many other threads, there is a bug in showing the percentage scanned.”
Sorry - I hadn’t seen that, but apart from the percentage, the progress ring hasn’t moved, and also I did notice when it started that down at the bottom of the circle it showed what it was doing. That is now blank, so is it actually doing anything at all?

DavidR · 2017-05-14T14:40:07.000Z

From past experience, when the percentage figure goes back it could be an indication that malware has been found. If any malware is found, avast goes into paranoid mode (for want of a better word), this requires a recalculation

Of course it could be something else.
The first few scans may take longer as it builds up the persistent cache of known good files (typically those with digital signatures). That said you need to have the scans options set to gather that data.

The smart scan runs several different scans (depending on installed components), so for the easier scans it could generate higher percentage figures.

Although what Eddy said about the known bug, a fix was meant to have been issued. Whilst it is extremely possible you haven’t received that micro update yet, try rebooting and keep the system up for at least 15 minutes and repeat the process again. That would hopefully pull the micro update in.

mchain · 2017-05-14T15:59:05.000Z

What DavidR said.

Don’t know if this applies to you or not, but the attached below is seen in the lower right hand corner of the desktop when avast is scanning and then minimized.

In this particular case, scan ran up to 99% and then reported ‘Scan cancelled’. Picture is from ‘Show last popup message’.

Only reason I mention it is because I’ve never seen the scan cancelled message Eddy is referring to and is only reproducible if avast is minimized during a scan.

What version number are you running?

[EDIT:] Oops! Picture attached below

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