Avast free version 6.0.1289 running on Windows XP home SP3.
I have Avast set to notify me when an update is available. I shutdown and re-boot the PC several times a day. Avast does a good job of notifying me of an available update right after Windows has loaded.
My question is; Does Avast check for updates at any other time after Windows start up? Is there a set time schedule for these checks, like once per hour or whatever?
Is there a search feature that will allow me to search this forum for questions I have?
I really like this software so far, but I am a new Avast user and wanting to understand more about how Avast works.
Thank you for any information you may offer. Gordon
With the free version avast will check for updates every 4 hours by default, this update checking can be set to 2 hours minimum for the free version via avast settings-updates-details.
Thank you for the replies
I have auto updates turned off. I use the option ‘ask me when an update is available’.
The help text is not clear in that area. Technically, I am not using auto update, so is that same time interval used to check for an update and notify me even though I have auto update off?
Well if you have it set to notify then you will be notified when an update is available at the times you have it set too, if you have just checked for an update it will not check again for that set time interval even if an update is released 5 mins after you originally checked, personally i would leave the definition updates on auto.
Hope that makes sense as i nearly confused myself there ;D
The setting for the update frequency (“automatic” or “ask”) is in Avast main GUI → settings → update. The definitions default update is 240 minutes.
The default for Program updates is not “automatic”, but “ask”.
For more help, you could use Avast main GUI → “help center”.
In addition to this forum, you also have the knowledgebase http://support.avast.com/. In that page (make a quick read until the end of it) you have some FAQs and you can search by many different criteria too.
May I ask, is there any particular reason not to update the definitions automatically? Just for curiosity.
“May I ask, is there any particular reason not to update the definitions automatically? Just for curiosity.”
I have 3 days total experience with Avast. Not knowing what to expect or how long an update may take, I don’t want to be interrupted with an update while I am in the middle of something else. I would rather be notified that an update is available, finish what I am doing, then do the update. That also applies to my wife.
As I become more familiar with Avast, how it works, how long a major update may take, then I may change my mind and switch to auto updates. Auto updates to the definitions files sure looks like it would be the simplest way to go.
So far this looks like a great anti virus product and a very helpful forum. Thanks to all you people that post answers to us newbies. Even us old and half blind newbies.
A typical defs update is on the order of a few dozen K, so is quite quick even on dialup. Very likely avast takes longer to find an available server than to actually download and update. So there should be no reason not to leave def updates set on auto.
Besides the amount of KB to download an update, there might be other reasons not to automatically download definitions updates.
A very expensive and slow connection, or being in a middle of a presentation, or wanting all and every system resources to be available for a certain task are all possible valid reasons (and there are more). Granted, those situations are rather infrequent, but they indeed exist.
