I opened a folder on my computer today and when I was finished I closed it but the standard shield is checking every file within the main folder why is this (the globe is also continously spinning), another file that intermittently gets scanned is mss.chk (seraching data) why is this happening?
You don’t mention the folder ?
Nor do you mention what sensitivity you have the stsndard shield set to ?
I suspect High as a file mss.chk I wouldn’t have thought would be scanned if it were on Normal sensitivity.
no its on normal sensitivity and its just a document folder not a system one or anything
ps even when I pause standard shield and resume it later it was still scanning
I thought maybe it was indexing as I have vista but its never tried to index the entire folder before
Well avast doesn’t just scan of its own accord, something has to initiate the activity that would cause avast to scan.
This could be a indexing and or windows defender issue, where they open files, etc causing avast to scan.
http://www.google.com/search?q=“mss.chk”
When this is going on you should open the task manager and see what processes are using CPU%, obvioulsy ashServ.exe would be one but whatever is causing avast to scan would also have activity.
just checked task manager and yet nothing is using CPU apparently, yet avast is scanning all my files within my folder but every now and again that mss.chk file, any suggestions
A full breakdown of what other security application you have ?
There really has to be some CPU activity other than avast scanning
Indexing isn’t selective, it will index everything and then maintain the index. I don’t use Vista so in that regard I can’t help, but I have ‘always’ disabled both the XP version of the indexer and also the MS Office which has something called fastfind I believe. I could never see the value in these.
I have to admit to being totally at a loss as to why something like mss.chk is scanned indexing or otherwise when you say the scandard shield is on normal sensitivity. A google search also indicateds the file type .chk is also associated with chkdsk and repaired/recovered parts of files from a chkdsk scan. So I don’t know if there is some HDD monitoring function that you have running, I simply don’t know. More so when related to Vista, which I have avoided like the plague.
You could try enabling the ‘Show detailed info on performed actions’ this option is off by default, in
- Standard Shield > Customize > Advanced - This should give you an idea of exactly what is being scanned (its very fast so it may just give an idea of the folders being scanned) from that it may be possible to identify what program/function is responsible for the activity.
Other than that I don’t know what else to suggest, short of obviously this hasn’t been the case all the time, so what has changed on your system.
I set it to show scanning option like you said and its just showing all the files within one large folder i have and every so often mss.chk but its only happened recently after the last Avast update, however it didnt happen straight after installing it so I cant see it being related. It is the first time I have opened my folder on this new computer but it was only brief and i would have expected any indexing or whatever it is to stop when my system is not idle yet this is happening all the time. A restart didnt stop it because after 5 minutes or powering up it started the process again
I’m at my wits end
Well there is nothing in the last update that essentially changes what avast scans under the Normal sensitivity of the standard shield.
just checked a little deeper and found these 3 processes using between 1-3% of processor
searchfilterhost.exe
searchindexer.exe
searchprotocolhost.exe
what are these please DavidR
I don’t know, but I bet my friend google does 
But the all by their name only look like they would have some likelihood they would access the HDD.
http://www.google.com/search?q=searchfilterhost.exe
http://www.google.com/search?q=searchindexer.exe
http://www.google.com/search?q=searchprotocolhost.exe
Some of these indicate there can be issues with High CPU use this could be through accessing the HDD, etc. so you will have to dig into these hits and see if there is more information and if you don’t need them how to disable/remove, etc.