Hello!
I have a problem that started small a while ago, but has continued to grow exponentially since June. I have been with AVAST for years, and trust the protection this software provides, but it is becoming “too big” now for many of my machines to run. The issue really presents itself when the software updates at startup. At first, it was only a problem on my father’s ancient XP Desktop (Intel Pentium 4 HT). He’d start it up and then leave- he said it takes about 10 minutes for AVAST to finish updating, and in that time he can’t click anything or the system will crash. I chalked it up to the machine being ancient, and set plans to get a new computer for him from this decade. However, the issue began presenting itself on everything else. Slowly at first, where things would “freeze” for a few seconds before the annoying “AVAST virus database has bee updated” thing would pop up, and let us go about our business. Then it started stalling out, and even crashing them. The other machines are a Dell Inspiron (Windows XP, Intel Core 2 Duo), HP Mini 210 (Windows 7, Intel Atom), and my machine, Dell Inspiron (Windows 7, Intel i5). Presently, I have to wait 3 minutes for AVAST to finish updating before I can use the system, or it will freeze indefinitely.
Now, at first I thought maybe it’s malware. So after using everything from Malwarebytes to SuperAntiSpyware professional, I cannot find anything remotely wrong. Finally, I asked a friend who works IT, and he explained that AVAST has just become so bloated with extraneous features and 3rd party add-ons that it slowed down everything. He said he had switched to paid ESET, but recommended I try AVG’s free package, as it was smaller and would speed things up in my case. I tried it as an experiment on my father’s computer, and switched his antivirus to AVG. It solved the problem- his computer is still painfully slow, but it does NOT require any downtime for updates. Finally I broke down and installed AVG on the other 2 computers, and the results were the same- they didn’t have to “wait” for updates anymore. I’m the only one left with an AVAST secured machine in my family.
I really like AVAST. It’s saved my bacon several times in the past, and I guess you could say I’m loyal to it. However, as the waiting and freezing becomes more and more of a nuisance, I keep looking at other programs. I don’t want to drop AVAST like I dropped “SpyBot” long ago, but I need a solution. I really hope I’m not the only one seeing this, and that there’s an easy fix. I’d much rather have everyone secured with software I really trust, but I need it to work without slowing everyone down.
Any and all advice or thoughts on this matter are appreciated! Thanks everyone!