Avast Slows Chrome Searches - Any Fixes?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi guys–

Just reaching out to see if I can find an answer before I give up on Avast. I wanted something light but comprehensive in terms of AV, so that’s what led me to Avast. I have some friends who like it, and I’ve seen it run on their PCs without any apparent slowdown. I tried a trial of the Premier, and also the Internet version of Avast.

I built a new compter (i4790K, Win 7 pro, 32GB Ram, GTX 980) and it’s a beast so the system hasn’t slowed down, but Avast seems to slow browsing a bit–particularly when typing searches in the omnibox in Google Chrome.

It’s not a huge delay, maybe a second or so, but it still seems like it shouldn’t be happening. I compared it to a 2008 gaming desktop running Vista and Norton 360 and there’s no slowdown there. That older computer is about a second faster in Chrome searches–just more snappy all around. I would’ve thought that an older computer running Norton of all things would be a little slower, but it’s not.

I tried turning off all different parts of the web file shield and other various things. I even turned off all shields, and that didn’t help. The only thing that seems to fix it is completely uninstalling Avast. If you look at the specs on my machine, you’ll see it’s not a matter of computer resources, etc. It must be something that Avast is scanning or doing before it allows something to load.

Is there something I’m missing? I’d really like to buy Avast, but when it’s doing this I might have to look elsewhere. Any help would be awesome!

PS–this machine is a new build, so no previous AV software has been installed and I have no plugins or addons in Chrome.

Also, this does not happen in Firefox when searching in the address bar. I’ve noticed that the little Avast icon does not rotate when searching in Firefox, but it does in Chrome. This may be part of the problem, or at least an indication of the difference.

System Info:
Avast Internet Security 2015.10.2.2218
OS- Win 7 Pro 64 bit
Chrome version 42.0.2311.135 m
No addons or other security programs

2

It sounds to me the it could be the AOS that is causing the problem.
Disable/remove it and see if there is a difference.

3

By “new build” do you mean you just built it and only installed the OS or,
It’s a new computer you just received from a manufacturer which comes with lot’s of trial versions including
an AV.

4

By AOS–you mean Avast Online Shield, the Chrome browser extension? It’s not installed–I have no extensions installed in Chrome. I tried installing it just to see if it would make a difference but it didn’t matter, so I removed it.

5

Yep–a new PC built from scratch. Only OS installed, and some of the motherboard (ASUS) control software. No AV, no bloatware, no previous AV–a completely clean system.

Again–this doesn’t appear to happen (at least not where it’s noticeable) with Firefox or IE–only Chrome. :-\

When typing a search in the address bar/omnibox in Chrome, I can see the little Avast icon spinning for a second or two while the page loads. This does not happen with Firefox or IE–the icon doesn’t spin, so there’s something that’s happening (I believe) that is slowing down the process. I just can’t figure out what it is or how to disable it. Even turning off all shields doesn’t help–only uninstalling Avast helps–then Chrome returns to it’s snappy way of loading.

This also happens when an internal page is visited in Chrome–settings, extensions, etc. Literally everything in Chrome is about a second or so slower than it should be. Not 5 seconds like other threads have mentioned–just a little bit, but it’s enough to be annoying and you can see that it’s slower than other browsers and Chrome on other computers.

6

Strange, On my system avast scans in Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Opera when I do a search.
What you’re searching for could also make a difference.

7

Yeah it doesn’t matter. I’ve tried searching simple things like “news” and “weather” and no matter what’s typed into Chrome it still does it.

I noticed that by default, “\firefox\profiles*sessionstore.js” is excluded from the file shield in Firefox, so I don’t know if that makes a difference–but when I turn the file shield off it’s still the same. As I mentioned, nothing matters except completely uninstalling Avast. It’s just a bummer that my 2008 PC with Norton installed has faster Chrome searches than my 2015 PC with Avast.

I’ve also figured out that it doesn’t slow down if you’re searching or loading sites in a tab that is already in use. For example, if you have a tab open on a web page and you use that tab to perform a search or visit a different site then it doesn’t slow down. However, if you open a new tab and then perform a search or visit a website it’s consistently a full second slower–and then you can see Avast doing the scanning. However, this doesn’t happen on FF, IE, etc.

Would be nice to hear from one of the devs/engineers on this because I’d really like to buy Avast–especially for the hardened mode, but I need to have this fixed for Chrome first.

Thanks to everyone who already replied too!

8

Hi,

that’s really weird. Try please one more thing:
Settings->Active protection-> Turn off SecureDNS.

I am curious if it makes any difference in your case.

9

Nope, no difference. Same thing. Turning off all of the shields doesn’t make a difference either–only uninstalling Avast, unfortunately.

10

Thanks, then the last chance would be to make uninstall via the uninstall tool https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility and make a new installation again. You might also try to install Free AV first and if it works then insert your IS license and program will upgrade to IS.