Little help, please for ex-AVG-ers

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
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Hi folks,
I’ve just made the change from AVG 8 to Avast (both free editions). I’m impressed with Avast so far…it seems to be fairly “lean and mean” and effective. But I could do with a little help regarding scanning.

In AVG, I used to set the scanner up to run overnight (everynight). I can’t seem to do this in Avast — at least in the free version…is it a feature of the Pro version, only?

If so, how do I set it up to scan during screen-saver times? Or other “down” times?

Thanks for any help…and I’d also like to know how you experts use Avast…do most people run a manual scan while they work? Or what?

Cheers
Edward

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Manual scan is a pain in the arse with avast! free; no scheduling, no automatic actions, and I don’t like the way the logs are stored. Personally I don’t do it, not unless I suspect something is wrong.

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One of the very cool things about Avast is that the detection and cleaning capabilities are the same in the home and the pro versions. Which means both are very good. In most other Av’s that have a free version, the detection and/or cleaning is crippled in some area. (Which also means, of course, that the protection offered by Avast is quite likely to be a bit better than that of some of the other free Av’s.)

So with Avast home, scheduling, automatic malware handling and the script blocker (present in the pro) are crippled. What this means is that you have to carry out manual scans. When the first (if any) malware warning message pops up, an action can be selected, and a box in the warning window checked to say “do not show this next time”. (I suggest the action chosen should be “no action”; the scan report can be viewed at the end of the scan and further research/actions be selected then.

A tip is to place a copy of the Eicar test virus (harmless but will trigger the virus alert) near the beginning of the C drive, in Windows. That way the first (and maybe only) detection will occur in the first minute or three of scanning, and once responded to, the user can wander away, mow the lawn, go to bed, have dinner, whatever, and deal with it later.

Another workaround-y type of thing is to use the task scheduler to run ashquick.exe, the shell extension scanner, and have it point to the drive/s to be scanned.

I use the former tip, and used to scan weekly. As a result of those scans, I decided there was no need to use the second tip; the scans very seldom find anything of consequence. The occasional FP, the occasional “dormant” malware file. The resident protection, plus a few safe surfing habits, a few extra applications(see sig), a bit of immunity courtesy of a hosts file and FF with noscript, and last but by no means least, keeping all software very up-to-date, means that I see no need for scheduled scans, as a home user.

But, in all seriousness, if I needed the features that are missing in Avast, I’d probably purchase the pro, and consider it money well spent, even though there are cheaper.
My experience with it is as stated in the first paragraph: the protection is good enough that scanning isn’t so important. I probably only scan once a month, now, if that.

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I take the other route with avast Home.

I have a scheduled weekly ashquick.exe scan of the five physical drives on my system. By judicious use of the exclusion options in avast that weekly scan takes 30 minutes. Since, given the effectiveness of avast in preventing viruses getting into the system in the first place, I have never had in the 4+ years of avast use the detection of a real virus (yes there have been a few false positives) I rarely have to worry about the way the weekly scan handles viruses.

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Of the “big” three free AVs, avast! ranks worst when it comes to detection in my experience. AVG now offers spy/adware detection in its free version as well, and Avira free still trumps the other two EVEN without spyware detection.

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On occasions I’ve custom-installed Avira Free without the ‘Guard’, alongside avast!, to use on-demand only. See this thread for details and other suggestions.

AVG’s prolonged support for 7.5 will cease on 28th Feb. (I think they really mean it this time!)
If I get time tomorrow I’ll list a few more links to existing relevant threads/posts.

We know you’re just saying that because you’re sick of being labeled an avast! fanboy! ;D

Seriously though, AV Comparatives 2008 Summary is worth reading.

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Not quite sure what’s the point you were trying to make.

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In regard to Av-comparatives testing site, it is considered by many one of the most authoritative testing sites.
Their testing is made using the professional (paid for) versions of the applications. They don’t test the free version.Avast always scores quite well, typically “advanced” or “advanced+”. Avira often rates slightly above this, and AVG often about the same.

But it’s not a level playing field if you are using it to compare the performance of the free versions. Were such a test done, I believe Avast would be well ahead of the others most of the time.

My own experience is that the free version of Avast offers very good protection. About as good as the paid-for AV’s.

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Thanks guys…particularly Tarq57…just the help I needed!
Cheers
Edward

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Hi solcroft

I’m not quite sure of your question. I meant that AV Comparatives Summary was serious in comparison to my previous sentence which was not.

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Keep in mind that AV-C conducts true on-demand scanning tests only once every six months using samples up to a year old. Is it really that admirable for an antivirus program to achieve detection rates of >95% for samples of that age? I think a product that can’t manage even that is in a very embarrassing position indeed. Ergo, AV-C’s Advanced/Advanced+ means nothing to me.

I prefer to look at my own tests using samples collected by myself and others that I know and trust, and this is where avast! puts up only an average performance. The Network/Web Shield helps, but not the average update frequency of 1 per day and avast!'s relatively slow rate of processing new samples. It can take days for avast! to recognize new samples, whereas many variants/URLs have an update frequency of 1-2 per day.

Highly doubtful. In my experience it’s typically a feat for an up-to-date avast! to detect as much as a two-month-old Avira free set to high heuristics. Happens every now and then, but not often.

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I prefer to look at my own tests using samples collected by myself and others that I know and trust, and this is where avast! puts up only an average performance. The Network/Web Shield helps, but not the average update frequency of 1 per day and avast!'s relatively slow rate of processing new samples. It can take days for avast! to recognize new samples, whereas many variants/URLs have an update frequency of 1-2 per day.
Are your tests posted/published anywhere?
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I’m not doing this all by myself. I’ll see if anyone’s willing to compile the finished statistics for February at the end of this month…