Hi, I know this isn’t really the point of having a good virus program but here’s my deal. I have a brand new (3+ months) dell laptop, I only have 2GB of ram, Avast is the only program I will use for my anti virus but it use’s a lot of CPU and RAM. So I would like to know how to turn off everything avast has, and then just do a virus scan once a week. Is that possible?
Hi, avast is one of the better antivirus in the performance of the system because don’t use a lot of CPU and RAM, so you don’t need turn off avast because your computer will be always fast with avast running and having the antivirus deactivated is a high risk for the security of your system. You should be unninstall the programs that you don’t use and do an deffragment of you system for increase the speed of your computer, may be do it with deffragler. True in avast, and don’t expose you to viruses.
Welcome to forum 8)
Yea I know it doesn’t use a lot, but when my Firefox is taken 500MB of ram, then I have Live, and PhotoShop CS4 running, it helps getting rid of those extra programs. I know it could lead me to a virus but, I usually never do I virus scan maybe once a month, but if I had those programs disabled I would do a scan once a week which I think is still significant enough virus protection.
Hi oneillkid!!
First,I know I am a lot behind the times,but 2 gb of RAM is really
not “RAM challenged”.
You should be able to run AVAST! with ALL shields with no problem whatsoever.
For years I was a slave to process manager,and my own arbitrary
sense of “too much RAM use.”
Since then,I have learned to look more at system performance,and less at process manager.
I thank if you do that,you will see that AVAST! leaves your system fast and responsive.
Yes,you can stop all shields if you want to.
I stop those I do not need,that means I run standard,Network,Web,and Internet mail.
I really encourage you to try AVAST! with the shields you need,to cover the applications you use,for a week or so,and I doubt that you will see ANY drag,given the system specs you listed.
If you really thank that running real time anti-virus is that much of a “style cramper”,something like DrWeb Cureit might be in order.
But really,just try the default settings,or disable the shields you do not need.
I do not wish to offend but … perhaps you would be better suited to a product that is designed to be run as an on-demand scanner for your weekly scan rather than going to the trouble of installing a program (like avast) designed for real time protection and then undertaking the task of gutting it.
Let me suggest … it takes but a few moments for malware to invade your system and wreak havoc on both your system and your personal information. avast is designed to help you prevent that. Preventing the problem in the first place is likely to save you untold hours of effort in cleaning up after a weekly scan finds you have been infected days ago.
Respecting that it is your system and your choice.
Maybe you should ditch Firefox! I switched to Opera and I’ve never looked back. 8)
“Firefox is taken 500MB of ram” is too much. Firefox is your problem, not avast.
Welcome to the forums, oneillkid. 
In your first post, you mentioned it is a new Dell laptop. Most likely, it came with an antivirus program pre-installed. Please tell us what that pre-installed antivirus program is, have you completely removed it or not, and if you did remove it, how did you remove it?
Two antivirus programs on your computer is not better but worse. They will conflict with each other and that may be why you are having a problem with avast.
Normal for me though, Lots of addons and custom theme. I need FireFox though, couldn’t live without it.
Okay well that sounds more like what I need to do disable certain shields that I don’t use such as the Internet mail shield etc. But how do I do that?
Just checked when I got my computer and it was 6 months ago, but when I first get a computer I do a complete gut literally, I reformat and get rid of all crapware etc.
left click AVAST! spinning ball icon.
The providers dialog box will come up.
Disable those shields you want too,click “persist after reboot”
and you are good to go.
Thanks though, problem though aha. I regedit(ed) my computer so it completely disables the icon tray on the right, beside the cloak. So is there another way to get to it? If not I can just undo the edit and do it that way I guess.
btw thanks for all the help everybody.
You just went a light year or so over my head.
Maybe someone else can pitch in?
aha sorry, its okay I figured it out (just undid my regedit, changed the shield settings and redid the regedit)
Thanks for all the help everybody, I pretty much kept all the shield settings on execpt for like email but just lowered the settings for the rest of them.
Sounds good.
Come back anytime.