Hi is there a way to stop Avast from scanning my hard drive on startup it really slows my computer down. I really can’t do anything.
I there is a thread already here please point it out to me thanks
What scanning exactly do you mean?
scanning for viruses
That’s what I somehow expect… but do you mean the boot-time scan or something else? “Scanning on startup” isn’t really clear…
I only have scan for modified and created files and it scans like over 900 files. I don’t have it setup to scan on start or anything else. I just don’t see why xp would create or modify over 900 files on startup.
Some files are just accessed (to load the application icon, for instance), other are loaded (as dll ones), and Standard Shield should be scanning the executables and dlls… You can disable the system libraries scanning on load into the Standard Shield settings as follows:
I have everything on that disabled
What other security software do you have running on boot ?
I have seen something like this before and it was my firewall’s anti-spyware opening all and sundry, adding hundreds of additional files to the scanned total. I promptly disabled my firewalls resident anti-spyware and that reduced the scanned count to 150-175.
This was a long time ago with an earlier version of avast, currently with this version and I don’t have my scanning restricted as you have and my scan count tops out at just under 200 and (still bots in under 1 minute) I have SuperAntiSpyware as a Resident anti-spyware running on boot also.
Personally I wouldn’t be looking at stopping avast scanning (hiding the symptom) on boot but trying to find out what it is that causes avast to scan the files in the first place (find/treat the cause).
Perhaps by logging what is scanned, though I’m not sure how this would be don during boot.
No, you shouldn’t do that… you’re disabling the antivirus (in fact).
Its not disabled I have scan modified and created files on the scanner advanced settings.
DavidR i have just windows firewall and avast for security.
It’s not the same. Let the Scanner (Basic) tab of setting all checked (or except the last one only).
I have a slow hard drive and computer so scanning files on open etc. i don’t need.
It’s not scanning file on opening… it’s about scanning executables on run. If you uncheck it, the resident protection will be SEVERELY disabled… :
What exactly do you have set on the second page? All created/modified files, or just selected?
Well, the question is - which setting gives you less scanning in reality.
Are you sure it is scanning? How do you know? If the only clue is that avast is executing while the system is booting, then perhaps it is downloading virus updates. I don’t know if avast does that but when I was using Panda, it would download virus updates while booting and that made startup take more than a half an hour. If avast is downloading virus updates during startup, then just disable automatic updates. If you do that, you must ensure that virus updates get done often; usually at least once a day. If you use “Ask when updates are available” then avast will tell you when updates are available and allow you to do the updates then. The relevant advantage for here is that the updates are not done during boot.
Probably files and executables are the same thing except different terminology. An executable is stored on disk as a file.
No, this is not advisable. You can delay the updating after boot/login easily… avast is very configurable…
Yet the option is there. I tried to emphasize that if automatic updates are not done, that the updates must be done somehow. Obviously performance is not a problem for your system, but the person asking for help is not as fortunate as you. Those of us that have more limited resources would be very happy to have better computers and to use automatic updates and let our AV program take care of things.
Actually, I don’t like software such as Windows to do things without my knowledge. For some software, the only way to know what is happening is to select options that disable automated updates and such. For security reasons, it is best if people have an explanation of all activity in their system. It is not possible to know everything, but the more we know about what is happening, the better prepared we are to recognize something (malware) that is not supposed to be happening.
I’m not saying to change the update behavior, I’m saying that you can configure it and make your boot easier/faster.
To delay the update of avast into a permanent internet connection (DSL) you can change the value AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds into avast4.ini file into the [InetWD].
You could set the number of seconds to wait before attempting to update. The default is 30 but it may not be enough in some DSL systems. In this case, you can try increasing this e.g. to 60 (1 minute). That should be enough.
More details here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=1647
On contrary, my computer is not as good as you’re thinking…
I want to know what is happening, but I also want protection and the computer running with the latest updates of some softwares, so I let some updates on automatic (like Windows and antivirus).