I am running Avast 17.0.1474 under Windows 7 home premium, service pack 1. I have a 288 GB hard drive.
I have Avast scheduled to scan the complete drive at least once a week. The past few times, Avast hangs up in the area of the disk where my files for mirc are stored. That means it gets to that part of the disk, then seems to just sit and spin.
For example, right now it’s been running for 16 hours, and only 13% of the disk has been checked. . It’s stuck in c:/Program Files (x86\mIRC\backups\uninstall.exe The run time and speed changes, but that’s it.
I can come back today or tomorrow, and it’ll be in pretty much the same place. No infection, and the amount of data is 32.5 GB.
Free Avast will check more than 32.5 GB, won’t it?
Last time I tried mIRC, it worked well, so I think this is more a “sticking on the disk” problem than a mIRC problem, because I don’t have mIRC on. I’m about ready to pay for my mIRC program, but with Avast sticking like this, should I just uninstall MIRC and install a newer version, hoping it will install somewhere else on the disk?
I’m not replying solely to bump; I am concerned.
The scan ran for over 24 hours this weekend, and only 13% of the disk was scanned. Avast did not stick in the mirc section of the drive, but somewhere in the programs (I’ve forgotten where.)
Am I just being paranoid and should let the scan continue? I usually only have 24-36 hours, a Friday night-Sunday morning, window in which to run the full disk scan. Much of it should be empty space. Avast never finds anything, except a low PUP notification on mirc a few months ago. I understand this is a false positive.
Avast never finds anything, except a low PUP notification on mirc a few months ago. I understand this is a false positive.
no, not FP
PUP = not a virus but Possible Unwanted Program
avast is just telling you that you have a program that can be used for good or bad if abused
An issue often run across here is changing scan settings from the default ones to a modified setting, supposedly to increase the level of malware detection abilities over standard settings. The problem is, that unless a user knows what they are doing and what they wish to achieve with the modified settings, issues such as PUP results will appear, or worse.
IMO, a standard scan will only detect malware not active, or (not) actively running, as a file on your disk, but it is the real-time detection agents such as File System Shield, Network Shield, Script Shield, Web Shield, and to a lesser degree, Behavior Shield, that actually protect your system from malicious files ever getting installed on your system by preventing such an action.
So, unless one of the above fails to prevent installation of a malicious file or program, a weekly system scan is not really necessary. Pro-active prevention is usually enough to keep your system clean.
Still, I suggest resetting your standard scan back to the default settings only, and see if things improve when you scan using this setting. If, for example, during a standard default scan, avast! detects a malicious file, it will sometimes tell you to initiate a boot-time scan, and this will cover the areas such as PUP and other settings that you may have modified with your current scan. BUT, only run avast! boot-time only when it tells you to, as further problems for you, the user, may arise, especially if you do not know how to properly interpret the resulting findings of that deep-level scan.
