Home 4.8 and 5.0 work fine - AIS 5.0 painfully slow?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi folks,

I’ve read the forum extensively, used the search function, but didn’t find a clue - maybe someone can help?

Recognizing the polite reminder many of my predecessors got, I wanted to write the following into my sig line, but there was no ‘Forum Profile Information’ link available at my profile page:

Netbox Intel Atom 330 / 1,60GHz, Dual-Core, 2 GB RAM, 500GB SATA HDD, XP Prof SP3, Brains 0.99 Beta, Acronis True Image 2010 (in addition to a Lenovo X61 notebook and an Asus EeePC 1000H-Go)

After some reasonably successful trial of Home 4.8 on the Eee and on the netbook edit: netBOX, I decided to buy AIS 5.0 (3 PCs license).

On the X61 notebook, AIS works without problems.

On the Eee, I thought I’d better keep 4.8 for the time being, as on the new netbox I noted the following effects:

This was a fresh XP install, with avast! 4.8 home initially as the only and exclusive antivirus app installed. Upgrade to AIS 5 was done as per the instructions received by mail after having bought the license (no de-install, no aswclear). Upgrade was a breeze, BUT…

whenever I open a WIN Explorer window that contains more than just a handfull of files, the opening lags s_i_g_n_i_f_i_c_a_n_t_l_y. To be specific:

As an example, there is one folder that contains some 140 MB in 123 files:
2 flv files, 112 and 20 MB
64 pdf files, totalling 8 MB
and 57 links to some other pdfs sitting in different folders on the same HDD

Opening that 140 MB folder takes 28 (!) seconds with AIS 5 installed (with 4.8, it took just an instant)!

No reasonable difference was noted when I tried the following:

  • disabling the modules, one by one, until ALL of them were off
  • de-install AIS via control panel > software, reboot into safe mode, run aswclear5.exe, reboot, custom install AIS only file system and web modules

I then once more de-installed AIS via control panel > software, rebooted into safe mode, run aswclear5.exe, upon which the system again was fast and snappy as would be expected.

Next was to install setup_av_free545_ger.exe, with custom installation of only the file system and web modules - still, there was no lag when opening that 140 MB test folder.

ok, so the next ‘logical’ step - to me - was to go and activate the free thing, using my License.avastlic file… it then asked me whether I really want my AIS license to be used - sure, I confirmed - upon which, no matter if I had only 2 modules installed, I was upgraded to the full stuff that I originally decided not to want, giving me the added benefit of again having to wait 28 seconds for the 140 MB folder to open. Thank you VERY much, avast (arrrghh…!)

ok, here we go, another de-install of AIS via control panel > software, reboot into safe mode, run aswclear5.exe, reboot, custom install AIS only file system and web modules.

That’s where I am right now. Tried to enter the LicenseID included in my License.avastlic file, got a “this is not a valid license key” error msg.

Any clue, anyone, how to get my paid license for 3 PCs to work on that netbox?

Thanks, and sorry for the long rant (but be assured that this is the short version only. The real-time one would take you couple of days)

Kind regards: Walter

2

Welcome to the forum, Walter…!
Follow this link and see if this solves your problem:
http://support.avast.com/index.php?languageid=1&group=eng&_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=476
Btw, you can edit your signature if you have 20+ posts. :wink:
asyn

3

Thanks, asyn, for the welcome and thanks for that link. I guess I’ve done a pretty poor job in describing what I did vs what I want, because following the link explains how to integrate the license file into an existing trial installation of AIS 5. That’s what I’ve done before, and it does not help a great deal because of the slowness of my system under AIS 5.

To recap - AIS 5 turns out to make my system unacceptably slow. Unless there is a way (suggestions are welcome!) to make AIS as fast as home 4.8 or home 5.0, AIS 5 is not a workable solution on my system for the time being.

What does not slow down my system, is Avast! Free Antivirus. I am aware that compared to AIS which I did pay for, it lacks a number of features, but that does not bother me too much.

Again, my question is: Is there a way to use my paid AIS 5 license for activating Avast! Free Antivirus - without upgrading to AIS?

Thanks and kind regards: Walter

4

If you just want to remove some components then:
Go to control panel
Add/remove program
Change/Remove avast
Click on change and to continue click on next
Choose the components that you want and those which you don’t want…
Follow the steps after a reboot the changes will take effect

Otherwise if still find it bulky you may use the free version and use a free license key instead of putting your AIS license^^

5
Again, my question is: Is there a way to use my paid AIS 5 license for activating Avast! Free Antivirus - without upgrading to AIS?
and why would you do that.......why not activate avast free the normal free way...... ???

http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=459

6

good question.

Does “because their website says >for non-commercial use only<” qualify as an answer?

(The netbox is the machine I use for business.)

7

you obviously cannot use an AIS key in Avast free without upgrading. But what you can do, obviously too, is either do a custom AIS install and dismiss all “paid” extra components, or if it’s too late remove these components through the “change” option in the un-installer.

8

for some reason which I do not understand, that did not work. That’s what I wanted to explain by noting:

No matter what I got rid of, as long as its base was AIS, it was slow :frowning:

9

Yes he is right it was same on my system and it took more space on my hard disk too…if you want to gain performance then use the free version

10

actually, I don’t even want to gain performance - I just want to avoid the existing performance to be crippled.

Basically, the more I think about it, the less I feel guilty - I paid for the more complex version. Common sense - AIS doesn’t work satisfactorily, so why shouldn’t I use the free version on the commercial PC, as long as I do not exceed the 3 PCs maximum allowed for the license?

Anyone “official” eventually want to comment on that?

In any case, “thank you” to all of you who wanted to help!

Kind regards: Walter

11

Shiw Liang, in order to give you that feedback - I do now have 3 machines with all of those versions, and re disk space I am a bit confused. My program files - avast folder sizes are:

  1. netbox with 5.0 Free: 226 MB
  2. Lenovo X61, AIS 5.0: 128 > 178 MB *)
  3. EeePC with 4.8 Home: 122 MB

*) fired up the X61, waited until I got the confirmation “virus DB updated” - AFTER that, my XP’s tool tips gave me the initial 128 MB reading, which, a minute or so later, was changed to 178 MB.

So, according to that,and as long as avast does not sit elsewhere and allocate HDD space, AIS here & today would have some 50 MB less HDD space demand, compared to Free 5 - does this make sense to you in any way? Keep in mind, I did not make any longer term evaluation, this is just a snapshop of my observations of 5 minutes ago.

Best regards: Walter

12

Well the size on the disk isn’t a big problem and don’t affect the actual performance unless the disk is fulled…

13

Please tell us which other security related software is/was installed on the machine…!?
asyn

14

I also think this shouldn’t be a problem, but if you want to make sure…
http://www.avast.com/contacts
asyn

15

What more can I tell, other than:

nothing else, pure and simple.

It was a newly bought system, which came with no pre-installed stuff at all. Original XP Prof - taken out of the original sealed Microsoft pack. Monthly Windows updates (via WSUS Offline update), and only avast! as antivirus app installed - initially 4.8, then AIS 5.

As I am a frequent user of Acronis True Image, I am not too much paranoid about ‘other security related software’… should I ever get infected, I will simply restore one of my system’s earlier images, and things will be back to normal. And, btw, ATI is not actually installed on that PC - I am using its bootable emergency CD/USB stick for backing up / restoring.

16

So you only have a slowdown opening this one test-folder…?
Which shields are installed right now…?
Did you try to uninstall the virtualization feature…?
There’s a bug, so you would have to uninstall → reboot → uninstall again.
asyn

17

No. All folders are affected. It is noteably slower even if there are only 10 files in a folder, of course it will not take 28 seconds but just a few.

slowness unaffected, regardless of shields installed.

No, that I did not do. What I did, was A) stopped, among others, virtualization and B) made new install without installing it at all, which I guess results in a pretty much equal effect.

See my initial posting:

(emphasis added)

18

You can try to lower the shield settings for ‘Wirkungsgrad’ (as you use the german version) or even eventually uncheck ‘Code-Emulation verwenden’ to test if this is the problem.
Also uncheck ‘Gesammte Dateien prüfen’ and ‘Virus-Adressierung ignorieren’ if checked.
Reboot after that.
asyn

19

although I had already gone back to simply installing & activating Free 5.0 and was reasonably happy, after having received all your suggestions I felt I owe it to you to at least give AIS one more try, and report the outcome back to you all.

So, as it meanwhile has become routine, I de-installed Free 5.0, used aswclear5.exe in safe mode, re-booted and installed AIS 545, un-checked all functions except file system, web modules and german language.

Unlike before, this time NO LAGGING was experienced, don’t ask me why.

I then added via control panel > add/delete the behaviour module. Reboot. Still, no lagging.
Added the script module. Reboot. No lagging.
Added the network module. Reboot. No lagging.
Added virtualization. Reboot. No lagging.

Added avast! firewall. Reboot. Bingo! Lagging half a minute.
Deleted avast! firewall. Reboot. STILL LAGGING. Strange.
Deleted virtualization. Reboot. Now, no lagging any more.

Conclusion: The combination firewall / virtualization causes the lagging.

Being behind a router, I feel sufficiently safe to live without avast’s firewall function.

For me, the problem is solved.

Thank you all for your suggestions and help.

Kind regards: Walter

20

You’re very welcome…!! :slight_smile:
asyn