Ok, this post is typed with all due respect for Avast AV, and its creators! My wife and I recently both un-installed Norton AV from our PC’s. The reason was, because of recent Symantec issues, and our subscriptions were up soon. She installed AVG free on her system, and I installed Avast home edition on mine. We have both been using these AV’s for about two weeks now. AVG seems to work well on her system, and does what she wants. I however find that Avast is far more configurable, both in its look, and in its scanning process. I like the fact that it has verbal announcements, different skins, scans fairly fast, and just looks good on my system! ;D However, there are two things that I dislike about Avast. One thing I already mentioned here in another thread on the forum. My shutdown time has increased after installing Avast. And of course my re-boot time also suffers. Not that big of a deal, but AVG does not produce this issue. Maybe Avasts resident scanner is more complex than AVG’s, and more time is required to shut it down, I really don’t know. I even terminated the resident scanner before shutting down, and it still took awhile. The second thing that I have noticed with Avast installed, is that my hard drive occasionally chugs away during the time I am using my PC. This will happen while I am sitting idle reading a web page, and not even navagating with my system. I use imaging software, so to test this issue, I imaged back to before I installed Avast. The hard drive churning vanaished. Again, this issue is not present with AVG.
Anyway, those are my two beefs with Avast, but other than that, I would go so far as to say that Avast blows AVG out of the water on all other aspects of the software. I even like it alot better than Norton AV. I would consider buying the pay version of Avast, if only to get the script blocker. My only concerns, are the two items I mentioned above.
I don’t know enough about Avast to explain the shutdown speed compared to AVG, but the hard drive activity you mention might be Avast creating the VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) which is used to restore your files to their original state if they are damaged, you can set the VRDB to run while your comp. is idle (like when you were reading a webpage) or when the screen saver kicks in. When it’s running you’ll see the “i” icon in your task bar will animate, it’s updated every 3 weeks by default. I’m sure this is why but if the guys from Alwil could confirm.
The hard drive activety occurs at every computer session. It is just an occasional hard drive churning that happens off and on, the entire time I am using my PC. And like I mentioned, it will happen when my system is just idle as well. I realize that hard drive activety occurs when you are actually clicking on items, and navagating around, but this happens during idle time as well.
Well how often does the VRDB run? Is it every three weeks like mentioned by notdarkyet ? I would really like to figure it out. I can live with the slower shut down, but the hard drive churning is a bit annoying.
Yes, Douglas, 21 days is the default (you can change the [VRDB] section of avast4.ini file. More information about the avast4.ini file you can see here).
How do you connect to the Internet? Maybe avast! settings for update have to be configurated too… (just a shot in the dark because or the ‘churning’).
So, the only thing we have is the VRDB? Are you sure that the providers aren’t scanning anything because, in background, some file is accessed by other program, you are making a silent backup, … you know, are you sure the computer is idle? :-\
Don’t forget to configure your VRDB concerning to your needs.
Maybe worth using a prog such as taskinfo ? http://www.iarsn.com/taskinfo_screenshot.html
that will shows cpu usage /mem etc read writes to disk , for each application opened,to pinpoint the culprit.There is a 30 day trial.
me
Is there any other comments as far as the slow shut down and re-boot that Avast creates when it is installed? It adds at least 20 extra seconds to the shut down. If I remove Avast, shut down is normal again. I have tried alot of the other AV’s, and only one other one did the same thing as Avast. Thanks!
“does it help if you stop the ‘avast antivirus’ service right before shutting down the puter?”
I will have to give this a try when I get back to my PC. Problem is, it will take more time to shut down the service each time, than it will to just shut down and let it take awhile.
Douglas
Ok I am back home, and had some time to test some things for you guys. First let me say that I am in no way trying to put Avast AV down. I am just making some observations, and trying to help with the solution.
Ok I went into services and saw two items listed for Avast.
Avast Antivirus
Avast! iAVS4 Control Service
Ok, if I stop just the “Avast Antivirus” service, the slow shutdown continues. However, if I stop the “Avast! iAVS4 Control Service”, I have a very speedy shutdown (under 5 seconds after the “windows is shutting down” text appears.
