Hi guys,
I’ve just switched from AVG and really liked how you could start a scan then set AVG to turn the PC off after it was finished. I’ve had a look at Avast and can’t find any similar options. Please tell me I’m just missing some obvious button.
Thanks,
Nick
I think avast 5 have that option. Not sure about avast 4. May be somewhere there in the enhanced user interface if you are using the pro version.
Check this work around out - HOWTO: Scheduled Automatic Scans avast! Home Version!
The major disadvantage with the task scheduler trick of using ashquick.exe is, it will scan every file of the hdd, partition, folder or file that you set it to scan; even those files not considered a potential threat, this can take a long time.
It is possible to add certain folders to the exclusions list for say your media files, etc. Care should be taken with the paths you want to exclude as this could leave you vulnerable if that folder got infected as it wouldn’t be scanned by the on-demand scanner as you have excluded it. However, should you access any infected file in a Folder in the Program Settings, Exclusions, the on-access scanner (Standard Shield) should detect it provided you haven’t put the exclusions in there.
The Pro version gives a lot more flexibility and the scan would follow the settings and exclusions, etc. of the regular scan.
With the different levels of protection (Web Shield, Internet Mail, P2P and Instant Messaging) and the fall back of the Standard Shield, I find the need for daily scheduled scans lessened. I prefer to do a manual scan with my regular weekly maintenance tasks.
As has been mentioned this will be available in version 5.0 when released.
Thank guys, but unless I’m mistaken even with the scheduler, I can’t get the PC to automatically shut down after the scan is completed. I don’t want to have to leave my PC running all night. (I’m happy for my power bill to be as small as possible!)
When I’m finished working on my PC I want to be able to start a scan, knowing it will shut down when it finishes. I don’t want to have to come back in a hour to turn it off. When I would start an AVG scan it had some scan options and one of them was to shut down the PC when the scan was completed. I was hoping Avast had similar features?
With Scheduled Tasks it has to run at a specific time, which could interfere if I want to use the PC during that time. And Scheduled Tasks still can’t shut down the PC when it’s done.
Unless you have a way to have the windows scheduler run a shutdown after the scan no you can’t do that.
Personally I find little use in scheduled scans, I do an on-demand scan as a part of my regular weekly system maintenance. I just start my Standard Scan without archives and go do something else.
So the schedule option within avast 5.0 is what you would have to wait for and I know it has been spoken of but I don’t know if it will also have a shutdown option on completion of the scan.
@nick.mckinnon
I agree with DavidR in that scheduled scans be part of a regular weekly system maintenance.
There is an option to Shutdown after a Quick scan that is available in avast! V5.
Note: This is the current beta3
Thanks Kenny.