Hmm - didn't have Avast scans turned on. Didn't know

I am not too computer savy. I just realized - that the avast scans were not even running.

I just thought once installed - the system was set to scan.

I recently noticed that no scans had been run. Been “using” Avast for 2 mos.

I checked the scan logs and nothing was noted in there

I kept getting the announcement everday that virus definitions had been updated so I thought the anti-virus was working

Now I realize - you have to go into SETTINGS and turn the scans on. wtheck???

I don’t know why it’s not set up to run when you download it.

I guesss the good news is - I ran the scans and there were no viruses

In top right corner ? there is a userguide…you can find lots of info there… :wink:

avast is a resident (on-access) anti-virus, so it is running, you should see the avast icon in the tray rotate when file that you access are scanned.

The task manager should show avastSvc.exe (the main avast scanning service) and avastUI.exe (the user interface) are running ?

Left click the avast icon, select Real-Time shields and you will see a list of all the Shields, Select the File System Shield and you will see this is the one that scans files before they are allowed to run on your system. The other shields are for different functions, e.g. web protection email protection, etc. etc.

The scans you are talking of are on-demand, that are over and above the resident on-access scans.

So I suggest that you spend a little time browsing the Help Center mentioned by Pondus and have a rummage around the avast User Interface to get to know the program, don’t go changing any default settings.

thanks for the answers

I have the avast icon in the tray and I seem to have noticed it rotate at various times.

I have both avastsvc.exe and avastui.exe running

Since I posted - I went into settings and scheduled the “over and above” scans to run weekly.

So I guess you are saying some scans were already running and the over and above the resident scans only run when I schedule them to run via the settings.

So then it’s nothing to be worried about that the over and above the resident scans were not set to run?

So then it's nothing to be worried about that the over and above the resident scans were not set to run?
correct

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=61757.0

You’re welcome.

  1. There really is not so much need to run on-demand scans with a resident on-access scanner as to all intents an purposes there are lots of files on your system that lay dormant (are never run) and even if infected they are inert. The real protection is scanning files a) before they get on your system (web shield, mail shield, p2p shield, etc.) or b) before they are run (file system shield).

So you don’t have to run ‘all’ of the over and above scans every week. I do however schedule the Quick scan every week and that is enough for me, what you decide has to be up to you, but you need to know how avast works to make an informed decision on what else to run.

  1. No, some scans aren’t running over and over; the resident shields only scan activity, so if you want to run a file avast would first scan it and if clean allows it to run. The same with the other shields as mentioned above. So there isn’t a direct comparison between on-access and on-demand scans.

  2. Yes, there is nothing to worry about, on-demand scans are a user preference…