I really like the way Avast (Home) works in the background, updating itself, and providing good protection without slowing down my system.
Dell, 512 RAM, XP Home, SP3.
But darn!, the thorough scan progress bar took about 1 1/2 hours to go from 0 to 1%.
It’s been on 1% for 2 hours and the number of scanned files keeps on rising.
This can’t be normal. Is there a way to speed this up?
Eliminating certain folders, etc.?
Thanks, Bob
Well…an thorough scan can take some time, yes! 
Are you scanning archived files also?
I bet you selected archives as well ;D
Thorough is also by its design very thorough and perhaps a little overkill for routine use, were a Standard scan without archives should be adequate.
Archive (zip, rar, etc.) files are by their nature are inert, you need to extract the files and then you have to run them to be a threat. Long before that happens avast’s Standard Shield should have scanned them and before an executable is run that is scanned.
I have only ever done a Through Scan with Archives once shortly after installation just to ensure a clean start state, but with XP for example avast will do a boot-time scan after installation if you select it, this I believe will be quicker and reasonably effective. Like everything in life things are a compromise.
On-demand scanning, specially for archive files, is not the best point of avast.
But, indeed, don’t you think the resident is enough and the scanning should be run only from time to time, once a month… overnight possibly?