File System Shield delays launching programmes

For several days now (might be since the last update to Avast to 1367) anything launched from the Quick Launch bar has been delayed by about 2s. Apps. launched from the Desktop or other means are OK.
Stopping the File System Shield removes the delay. It does seem strange that the same programme launched in different ways would be affected so.

I’ve about a dozen shortcuts that are affected and it would be nice to find a solution to this.

I just tested, no delay here.

No problem here with XP Pro Quick launch.

When are you launching these ?
Obviously if you are doing this close to boot, that is a busy time with lots of stuff loading and being scanned by avast.

I’m no longer familiar with AMD processor speeds, but this is and old processor now and you only have 1GB of RAM depending on what else is running in the background is likely to be swapping RAM data out to the swap file/pagefile.sys.

I feel you would benefit overall with an increase of RAM. Or over clocking the CPU if you feel up to it and accept the risk of overclocking.

It happens at any time after boot.
Before starting the first things (usually Opera, Dialog, RSSOwl in that order) I’ve ~560MB of RAM.

If the age/RAM/system are factors, why isn’t there a delay without File System Shield running and why do the same apps. not suffer the delay with File System Shield if launched from the desktop?

There was no delay with the previous versions of Avast, including the Betas leading up to this release. It might be due to the settings in Avast, either in that particular Shield or elsewhere.

I also recieve a delay on opening some apps from the taskbar, such as CCleaner, total media theater 5, 64bit ie, DVDFab8 - adding CCleaner and TMT5 to the exclusions in file system shield returned them to there usual speed.

That’s interesting Craig. Did you add the apps. or the short cuts?

I added the program file to the exclusion list for those two programs i mentioned.

Do keep in mind that it is not wise to exclude programs from avast’s protection which is why iv only excluded those two and not others.

Yes, I’m reluctant to add anything to the exclusions as any app. can be compromised. I’ll try Dialog as that’s fairly simple and doesn’t open HTML.

Oh well, that hasn’t worked.
If I knew where the shortcuts on the Launch Bare were I’d try excluding those.

You can open the real Quick Launch folder by right clicking on it, but adding them to the exclusion / exception list shouldn’t make any difference. They are simple shortcuts, so I don’t think avast is actually scanning them (there is nothing there but a pointer / launcher of the real program).

It did seem peculiar if Avast was scanning shortcuts - perhaps it’s scanning the interaction between the shortcut and the programme(?).

After rebooting, you see this happening when you go to the Quick Launch so to run some program. If you then close that program, wait a couple of minutes, and launch the same program again, also using the same Quick Launch shortcut, is the delay happening the second time too?

no problem here with Win7…

Sometimes yes, but most of the time no.

It “sounds” like some cache issue, in avast settings (and/or in Windows). I mean, it seems it is not really the location of the shortcut that runs the final program, but more that the first time avast needs to scan it, and then some cache influence in the speed.

I’m not sure there is much to do (other than, maybe, review your avast cache settings), specially if not everyone is having the same reaction in their systems as you have.

You would probably need some Avast Team member to narrow down the issue.

Thank you for this.
Most of the settings in File System Shield are default IIRC. Both options for caching are On. I would have thought that Transient Caching would prevent the delay on a second start of the same app. - but then, the apps. delayed via QL Bar aren’t delayed from shortcuts on the desktop.

Update: v7 is running well and these delays have stopped since installing it. Happy now!
Also the daily updates are quick and don’t hog resources as much as earlier version did.