I installed avast! yesterday on Vista. It has been scanning for 24 hours and has only processed 4000 files. Is that normal?
ah… no
Please provide a bit more information.
What Vista do you have? (32-bit or 64 -bit, home basic, home premium etc.)
What are some of your computer specs? (Processor type or speed, hard drive etc.)
Do you have other security software on that computer? (McAfee, Norton, AVG etc.)
Do you use the Windows Firewall or have a Third party Firewall? (Online Armour, Zone Alarm, etc.)
Any bit of info you provide will allow forum members to help.
No, it’s not normal… do you mean the boot time scanning?
Even so the boot time scan can’t take a whole day can it? On my laptop with a fair number of programs and media files about 93 GB of actual info (System and All) it takes 3 to 4 hours unless I got it wrong.
Are you doing a Thorough Scan?
Also, answer CCU’s questions please:
Please provide a bit more information.
What Vista do you have? (32-bit or 64 -bit, home basic, home premium etc.)
What are some of your computer specs? (Processor type or speed, hard drive etc.)
Do you have other security software on that computer? (McAfee, Norton, AVG etc.)
Do you use the Windows Firewall or have a Third party Firewall? (Online Armour, Zone Alarm, etc.)Any bit of info you provide will allow forum members to help.
It is an Inspiron 1525 laptop, Vista Home Premium SP1,
Intel Core2 Duo CPU T5550@1.83GHZ, 3GB memory, 32-bit
Windows Firewall is on. Windows Defender is on.
So I did the install of avast! 4.8. It started a scan by itself. I figure that is a full scan.
Scanned count: 8709
Infected Count: 0
Task name: Resident protection
Run time: 1:23:10:20 (and counting)
So no other security software (Norton, Macafee, etc).
285 GH HD, 63GB used.
Yeah…something is off.
OK now just one thing.
You are running the computer and using it as we speak. If that is the case then to see this scan you mention you double clicked the little a spinning icon in the bottom right corner. See attached picture bellow.
There is nothing to worry. That is not a scan per say. You wi’ll see a series a other scanners on the left side of the window. Well these scanners serve as an active part of your anti-virus.
The standard shield is there to scan files you open so as to prevent a virus from starting and preventing the infection rather than letting it infect you and then trying to remove it. It is one of the best features of Avast.
The web shield protects you when browsing the web. It scan the web pages you load and if it sees something suspicious it gives you a warning and stops you from downloading the virus onto your computer.
The other Shields are self explanatory.
You will see a cursor with the option of sensitivity. Mine is set to high but most avast users set it Normal considering that this is the best combination between performance and security. That’s up to you.
Just reply to make sure that we are thinking of the same thing.
I understand what you are saying, and it makes sense. But when I’m not browsing the web and have no programs running the scan continues. It is currently going through my pictures folder. Is it the case that during idle time it is doing a continous scan of the hard drive?
Well, there is no such thing as idle time on a computer if you think about it. Even if you are not moving the mouse or using the keyboard as long as your computer is running there will be some file some where being modified or opened by something.
This occurs regardless of how many programs you have opened in the foreground. In the backgroung there are programs running that you are not aware of and avast monitors those as well.
Also can you confirm that the picture i added in my previous post is what you are referring to when you say scan?
Yes. that is the screen I see. So I guess everything is running normal, just my lack of understanding.
thanks for helping.
It would appear so. And no worries, we can’t be expected to know everything?
Glad to be of service,
Cheers
Since you just installed avast and this scan started by itself, this is the initial scan by avast to insure your computer is clean when it was installed. This scan might take several hours as I believe it is a thorough scan.
But, it should not take 24 hours.
Hi CharleyO.
I think I clarified what bkaylor was talking about.
If you look the post in which I attached an image, you will see that bkaylor is referring to the standard shield.
I added bold to the reply of bkaylor that my post above was in reference to.
ah … right …but below that you see the following
Scanned count: 8709 Infected Count: 0 Task name: Resident protection Run time: 1:23:10:20 (and counting)
This does not look like something you would see during the boot time scan or the standard scan in Avast. Am I making a mistake? It does state “Task name: Resident protection”
The thing I was pointing to and bkaylor confirmed is attached at the bottom of this post.
I’m getting lost. If the computer runs non-stop for 2 days, won’t the Resident protection run for that long?
???
Yes, you are correct in that resident protection will run for as long as the computer is running.
Maybe I mis-understood what bkaylor was talking about.
So sorry I forgot to add the photo in my previous post…
I believed the same thing initially but after several questions and the fact that a thorough scan should not take this long as well as what bkaylor said before I was certain he was referring to the standard shield. I believe that you have more experience than me so when you started asking questions I thought I made a mistake so I wanted to make sure … :-\
I appreciate the feedback. I’m unsure now if I have a problem. The computer is running fine; it isn’t running slow.
thanks