I want to be able to “turn off” Avast, i.e. configure it so that it and all its services don’t start automatically each time I reboot. I want to be able start it manually but don’t see any option/preference.
I know I can exit avast after startup and can use msconfig to manually stop each service from starting, but Ideally this would be controlled by avast.
No. You should disable the avast! startup entries and disable all avast services (if you’re running XP).
To manual start them you should start the services. You can wirte a bat or script to do so.
But avast does not have an internal option to start disabled.
I could not find an entry in the GUI to not load anything at startup.
All I want is to be able to manually scan things when I want it, nothing loaded automatically ever…
Also: what are the things to disable?
I disabled:
“avast! Antivirus”
and
“aswUpdSv”
Services but still have composnents loading atleast the following:
“Avast! on acess scanner”
“Avast! Virsus recovery database generator”
“Avast! service GUI component”
Apart from the fact avast is designed as an on-access, resident AV, even disabling the services isn’t enough as resident anti-viruses also load low level drivers.
avast also has a self-defence module which will try to protect from disabling its services, msconfig entries, etc. so you would have to first disable that.
Really what you want is an on-demand only anti-virus and there are a few, bitdefender free being one, though I really can’t understand why you wouldn’t wan resident AV protection.
Hmm… Bitdefender does not say anything about Vista.
As to why:
Basically I have not had any virus or other type of malware for close to 4 years now. I used a resident antivirus for about one and half of those years until I got enough of the problems they caused(about 6-7 incidents of problems caused by them), so Now I have been without such for about 2.5 years with 0 bad things. I am still a bit paranoid so I do want to check every now and then that the lack of viruses and other malware continues, but no not want to go back to that resident antivirus hell.
No it doesn’t have anyting to do with avast/Alwil software, but it is an on-demand scanner, which seems to be what you want and bitdefender free is just one that I know is, there I’m sure others.
avast isn’t an on-demand scanner so would require severe hacking to get it to be one. I’m only an avast user so I’m not speaking for Alwil software, but I have been on the forums for several years now and I see their response to this and similar questions. Alwil are concerned with the average user that might click an option which could leave them unprotected even beyond the next reboot.
As I said give avast a try as a resident on-access scanner, it really doesn’t get in the way so much that you would want to cripple it to try and turn it into an on-demand scanner.