disabling on-access scanning on boot

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I have Avast 4.5.523 installed on XP SP2. I can disable on-access scan once booted, but if I reboot, it is enabled again. Is there a way to disable on-access scan permanently until I re-enable it? This was an option when I disabled it in the previous version of Avast, but I no longer see this option. :frowning:

2

Disabling the on-access scanning would make your system vulnerable. Why you want to do that for?

You can change the settings for the on-access scanning through the on-access control panel > standard shield > customize

3

Harry, how exactly are you shutting down the provider?

Thanks
Vlk

4

I thought I went into “On-access protection control” and clicked “Terminate”, however when I did that just now it gave me the dialog it used to about persisting the change across reboots. It works now, I’m not sure what I was doing wrong this morning. Sorry for the confusion.

And to answer your question, performance is the reason. If I download something I am suspicious of, I scan it manually by right-clicking the folder it is in. If I access a 200 MB ZIP file over the network, I don’t want any AV program to try to scan it for viruses before it opens. It takes too long. I am aware of the risks I run by making this choice.

5

harry349

I don't want any AV program to try to scan it for viruses before it opens. It takes too long. I am aware of the risks I run by making this choice.
Maybe I'm confused but, why have any AV program at all? Once your system has been compromised it's a little late for a scanner to tell you that you shouldn't have opened a file. ??? ???
6
Maybe I'm confused but, why have any AV program at all?

There is value in having an AV program installed without it scanning in the background. I very much like the convenience of being able to do a full system scan or manually scan a folder by simply right-clicking.

I am very aware of the kinds of files that typically transmit viruses, and am more careful with these kinds of files. I am not claiming to be invulnerable either - just a couple of months ago I got a really nasty virus. I was dually suspicious of the file, being an executable downloaded from the internet, so I manually scanned it. Ironically, it was fairly new and I was running McAfee with all the latest updates at the time, and it didn’t have definitions for it yet. Hence my switch to Avast. This was the first virus I had become infected with in the past ten years.

I am not suggesting that disabling on-access scanning is a good idea for most people. In fact, I think it’s a bad idea for most people. It may even be a bad idea for me. However, the performance hit I take day-in and day-out due to on-access scanning is more trouble to me than the much less frequent potential virus infection.

7

In that case harry349, let’s hope you have a good backup procedure.
And I don’t mean System Restore. ;D