avast! slowing down application metapad since 5.1.889

HeyHo avast! Forum,
Anyone else out there using metapad? It’s a free, lightweight Notepad replacement which I’ve been using for years. Always liked it, never any problems.
Also I’ve been using avast for quite some time now.
For some weeks now I noticed that metapad takes about 5 seconds to load. (The usual would be about 0 seconds).
Coincidentally I found that avast! is causing the slow startup. Once I put metapad into the exclusion list of avast! it runs fine again.
This started with the update to avast version 5.1.889.
I wonder why that is ??

My Specs
Win7 Ultimate 32Bit
avast! Free Antivirus 5.1.889
metapad 3.5.1 (http://liquidninja.com/metapad/)
Comodo Firewall 5.3
Mamutu 3.0

The new version, 6.0.1125, that was installed this week, caused many extreme slowdowns on my system until I stopped the File System Shield. These may be related to using metapad.exe instead of notepad.exe and renaming it to notepad.exe. Even when I put notepad.exe, metapad.exe, and *.txt into my exclusion list the slowdown still existed. So now I run without the File System Shield, and without the AutoSandbox (which first indicated the dislike of notepad.exe).

Hey sbruce45,

thanks for your reply.
:wink:
I don’t think turning off file system shield is a good idea. With file system shield turned off, no background scanning will be done, which will render an antivirus software practically useless.

As for metapad.exe: If you want avast! not to scan it, you not only have to add an exclusion in File System Shield, but also in the general settings. That solved the problem for me.

Anyone from Avast! reading this ???
What’s so fishy about metapad. Why does Avast! since v5.1.889 and ever after make such a fuss about it?

Thanks e23,

I know it’s not a good idea, but since my system has been safe, and avast never caught any file, I thought I’d take a chance until a solution turned up. I had read about also including it in a general settings list, but find no such list. The general settings list is only for paths. I did include it now in the behavior shield list also. Plus I made the filename more general than just in windows. I tried again and at this time my tests are working well: creating a new txt file and opening a txt file. Hopefully this means that the other slowdown conditions also won’t occur.

My thought about metapad, at least on my system, is that I renamed metapad as notepad and it is in the windows directory. Thus maybe Avast sees it as a program that has taken over the identity of a windows executable.

e23
I used to use Metapad & never had issues so I tried it again, downloaded V3.6
Avast AV Pro 6.0.1125 does not like it, I added to ‘safe use’ as well, but still took ages to load :frowning:

EditPad is fine tho’ & there is a lite version

Metapad has been listed before
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=65446.msg615777#msg615777

And elsewhere?
I wonder if it the packing?

sbruce45:
You can add specific files manually in the general exclusion list. See screenshot. Just add the file to the path manually.

DavidCo
Thanks for nfo on EditPad and the other thread. I’ve been using metapad for years now and gotten used to it. I think it’s definitely one of the most unsuspicious programs on my machine. And as so often antivirus programs are working in mysterious ways. We’ll never know :wink:

Just tested with metapad, and opening it…as I thought, code emulation could be the reason that it is slow to open.
On - Takes a couple of seconds
Off - Pretty much instant

If the box "use code emulation" is checked and avast! detects some suspicious code in a file, it will attempt to run the code in a virtual environment to determine how it behaves. If potential malicious behavior is detected, it will be reported as a virus. Running the code in this virtual environment means that if the code is malicious it will not be able to cause damage to your computer.

File System Shield - Expert Settings - Sensitivity.

I wouldn’t recommend turning it off though, maybe add an exclusion?

Another thread on the subject of code emulation, with some comments from avast: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=76399