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1

Re the Avast! anti-virus program .

I downloaded the Home edition and ran it (or thought I did) on my IBM desktop (450MHz, W98, 13 GB, 96 MB Ram, cable connection to internet). After 7+ hours (!!!), I completed the scan (of several hundred thousand files!) but I saw no “results.” I wonder if I have installed the program correctly.

  1. Is there a simple test I can run to see that the program is working?

  2. Are these numbers — 7+ hours and hundreds of thousands of files — reasonable?

Thanks. … wdc

2

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

3

7+ hours is not a reasonable speed. even for your P II chip. On My HDD I have 7.13 Gb of files and on through scanit takes roughly 1hour and 22 minutes at thats on a P III 700mhz

4

That’s something that might be useful to post here somewhere, if it hasn’t been done already – a table showing typical scan times for various processors, amount of files, and scanning mode. There’s been “is this normal time?” questions like this one posted all over.

My own contribution to that table: with my Celeron 2.2 ghz, a scan of 2.3 gb (according to the report) currently runs about 11 minutes for thorough-including-archives, and about 7-1/2 minutes for standard-including-archives.

5

The #1 factor here is archive scanning, AND whether you have lots of archives (especially BIG archives) on your disks. Archives can ruin your day, really. Their scanning can be as much as 100x slower than scanning of uncompressed contents…

6

NTFS filesystem compression rox hehe :slight_smile: And you need lots of free space to perform archive scan on huge archives. I scan only normal files,all archives are scanned when they get to my machine (explorer extension or specific provider like P2P or IM) :slight_smile:

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wdc, when was the last time you defragmentated your hard disk? I find making sure I defragment mine at least every week helps.

From Richard

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i had this problem scan disk, defragment, and if you have spybot s&d run that, turn off archive scanning and try that site it scans pc for viruses free http://www.housecall.antivirus.com i used it it will take about an hour, hope that helps. :smiley:

limited_edition

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Thanks to all for responding. I appreciate all the suggestions and I will followup. But several of the terms you introduced are new (and Greek) to me:

 What is an “archived file?” How would I know if I have any?
 I saw in one posting (maybe not in this thread) a copy of an IE Error message. I think it may have been called a ScreenShot. Can someone point me to a spot where I can learn more about ScreenShots? … wdc

10

“Archive” means compressed files - such as ZIP, RAR, ARJ, etc.
If “Scan archive files” is set, avast! scans even the content of these files - but that means that it has to “unpack” these file (temporarily, of course). This unpacking process may take quite a lot of time.

ScreenShots… well, I’m sure there exist special tools to create them, but in general, you can use the simple Windows shortcut Alt+PrintScreen to copy the content of the top window - as image - to clipboard. (Or, you can use just PrintScreen to copy the content of the whole screen). Then, you can open e.g. MS Paint and paste the imag from the clipboard to the program - and save it as a real image (e.g. jpeg).

11

Desktop Capture & Print
Grabzilla Screen Capture
ScreenPrint32

I suggest the second one… :wink:

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Re archived files and ScreenShot: Wow, if only all my questions could be answered thtat fast Thank you both so much. …wdc

13

Have you discovered that you are at avast! forum? ;D
That’s why this is the best forum for help… 8)

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Avast! Evangelist: I it is. I just stumbled on it; does it cover just AV issues, or is it open to all sorts of issues?

For example: someone suggested I try a HouseCall check. I downloaded it and found (after 7 hours!) that my 163,000 files had 8 corrupted files. All “nonclearable” and all in C:\windows\temperary internet, and all with same name – HTML IFRMEXP.GEN.

Is this the place to ask what I should be doing about these corrupted files? I see that “Delete them” is one option; but can i do that safely?

Again, thanks for your help. … wdc

15

If these files are in TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES folder, it is safe to delete them.
Even though I don’t think that being “corrupted” is a reason for deleting the files, their name is somehow suspicious.