Avast free on Win8.1, numbers of files and folders searched

nigelroot · 2015-11-14T09:17:48.000Z

I posted about this about a year ago but it didn’t take off. But two recent boot scans have results in aswboot.txt and illustrate the problem:-

11/02/2015 22:17
Scan of all local drives

Number of searched folders: 54571
Number of tested files: 4415695
Number of infected files: 0

11/13/2015 22:19
Scan of all local drives

Number of searched folders: 57220
Number of tested files: 5209216
Number of infected files: 0

Have I really created almost 3,000 folders and 800,000 files in the last 11 days? I doubt it, I haven’t installed new software or anything that could produce this change. I suspect instead that sometimes avast is searching some or all of my backup drives attached by USBs, and sometimes it isn’t. This is a worry because it means that sometimes avast isn’t checking all the files.

Any ideas gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

Nigel

Pondus · 2015-11-14T09:30:52.000Z

This is a worry because it means that sometimes avast isn't checking all the files.

There is no need to check all files. Avast team have worked with this for over 20years so you should trust tht they know what they are doing. If you want to know how AV work there is plenty info online to studie

here is some info
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=70896.0
https://blog.avast.com/2010/04/25/how-to-make-the-full-system-scan-6x-faster-in-10-days/

Eddy · 2015-11-14T10:30:57.000Z

illustrate the problem

The only "problem" is that you don't know how things are working. ;) It is perfectly normal that the amount of folders/files change, nothing to worry about.

Start worrying if the number of infected files isn’t 0 anymore.

nigelroot · 2015-11-14T12:02:22.000Z

Thank you for your prompt replies. I’d like to ask more please:-

If the problem “is that you don’t know how things are working”, which I accept. Can you suggest how or why the number of files on my PC has increased by almost 800,000 in 11 days? I’ve upgraded existing software, but neither installed anything new nor imported masses of files? (This PC is over a year old, so should be relatively stable). If we can’t explain it, we’re left with the most plausible theses, either that avast’s reporting is wrong, or that avast checks a varying number of files, and, perhaps, when it checks the smaller number, the check is incomplete. There is a last possibility, that in the second scan, avast checks 800,000 files twice, so that would not be a problem beyond a waste of time.

I’d like to ask about the second contributor to the topic, who asked me to trust avast: Don’t we have anti-virus precisely because we don’t trust suppliers completely? I’d suggest that skepticism is a healthy attitude to the world in general and to computing in particular.

Thanks and regards, Nigel

Eddy · 2015-11-14T12:24:59.000Z

I've upgraded existing software

That is already one reason why the amount of files can have increased. Other things can be e.g. - Windows updates - Temp files - Created documents etc

You can get a clue if you search for files that have recently been modified/created.

nigelroot · 2015-11-14T13:49:08.000Z

Thanks for your work. To get an idea I’ve examined C: drive (D: is data) using a Dos box and the command:-

C:>dir /S /OGD>tmp.txt

and opened tmp.txt in a spreadsheet, then sorted it by date. Only 34,185 files have even changed between the third and 15th November, nowhere near the 800,000 that avast says are the increased number of files.

I have though had an idea: on 2nd Nov I reformatted I:\ drive (one of the external USB drives) as it was giving errors and set it up again for ‘File History’. So I’ve performed a similar command: dir /S>tmp.txt on I: drive, but in a word processor that only contains 195,000 words (Writer does a word count, not, unfortunately, a line count). But it’s about 50,000 lines (600 pages of A4, c. 80 lines/page), a line being, generally, one file, but again, it’s nowhere near 800,000. So, although this may account for 50,000 new files, it’s not the answer.

I think I’ll give it a rest now, hope it’s innocuous and hope avast is working well.

Thanks and regards,

Nigel

Eddy · 2015-11-14T14:43:31.000Z

That command didn’t list the hidden folders/files…

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