I’ve just moved to Avast Home from AVG (after having upgraded to Ver 8.5 it was like struggling through treacle half the time!) so I’m still on the learning curve.
One question concerns the memory and startup test. As far as I can see, if you have the Testing memory and startup items option selected then when you start Avast in order to run a scan you have to wait for this test to complete (1 minute in my case) before you can start the scan. Why not simply run this test, if it has been selected in Settings, automatically at the start of the scan, which would avoid this two part process. Adding an extra box labelled Memory and startup items to the Area to scan section would cater for anyone who simply wished to do a separate memory scan.
I realise that you can cut the test short, but this rather defeats the object of selecting it in the first place.
Finally, have I missed something obvious and is it actually possible to set up the system to run as I would like?
If there happened to be something resident in memory it could be hiding other malware from scans, that is I believe why it is done.
However, with resident protection avast should in theory scan anything that would be loaded into memory, so that may negate the need to do it before the scan. So it is up to you if you elect not to have this done by clicking the Stop Memory Test button, see image. Personally I don’t find the need to do this as the delay on my system is minimal.
Can you tell us something about your system, OS, RAM and CPU ?
Set what up as you like (avast is very configurable) ?
Thanks for the reply. My PC is a 7 year old Dell (I’m waiting for Windows 7 + a further 6 months for someone else to sort out all the bugs before I buy a new one).
OS: Win XP/HE/SP3
CPU: 1.7GHz Pentium IV
RAM: 512MB
112GB Internal HD
80GB Internal Slave HD
256GB External HD
40GB External HD
Sunbelt Personal Firewall
Spybot, Malwarebytes & SuperAntispyware all run every week or so. (Nothing like belt and braces!)
By set up as I like, I meant being able to have the memory test start running when the scan starts rather than when the Avast application starts. I’m afraid that my memory of the way AVG operates is showing here. I agree with you that it’s not a major hassle, about 1 minute on my PC, simply that the AVG way (sorry about that!) seems more efficient.
Whilst not a powerful system it should be up to the task, so I would have to wonder what you actually have loaded into memory as that would be directly related to how long the scan would take. Remember you can click the Stop Memory Scan, another option is to start it directly from Explorer, C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashSimpl.exe You could create a desktop shortcut for this, that doesn’t do a memory scan, just opens the Simple User Interface.
Even with your limited system power I’m surprised it would take a full minute to do a memory scan, so my first thoughts would be ensuring that non-essential applications only run when required and closed when not in use, especially before running a scan.
Second thoughts are ensuring that all remnants of AVG are gone.
AVG8.x Remover, download tool from here, http://www.avg.com/download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one.
I would say that the most important time for a memory test to be don is when avast starts rather than the other way around and again this gets down to only essential applications starting on boot. Many application when installed insist that they run on boot when they really aren’t required, typical of this are media players, you only need them when you double click a media file. So for me I limit my applications to those windows ones required and security applications.
I will purchase Windows 7 Home Premium as soon as it comes available October 22nd at my local PC store.
I wish I could sell my 7 year old 2.4GHZ P4 512MB RAM XP Home system but nobody wants XP anymore.
I think I’ll ask my local PC shop where I purchased the Vista system if they will take it in trade but I’ll probably lucky if they offer me $50.00 for it.
Thanks for the reply, DavidR. I shall give the AVG remover a go.
I suppose I have a large amount of stuff on my PC, much of it the result of being unable to resist downloading free software recommendations! However, I have tried hard to keep Startup items under control; why, for example, my scanner feels that my life would not be complete without its icon in the SysTray is beyond me. I check the Startup tab in MSCONFIG from time to time to see if there is anything that could be got rid of - at the moment there are 15 items active.