New to Avast. Cancelled AVG when they stopped updating 7.5. Avast is great.
How do I know it did a scan when I turn the computer on. No log or record of scan.
The scan done manually takes well over an hour. almost 2 hours. Is that OK?
I have XP Home edition.
I could not find the above questions in the forum, or do not know how to search.
Thanks much.
Other than that when you run a scan you get a list of files that were unable to be scanned, but that is only available during that seccion once you close the simple user interface it isn’t retained. This is one of the restrictions in the free version.
Archive (zip, rar, etc.) files are by their nature are inert, you need to extract the files and then you have to run them to be a threat. Long before that happens avast’s Standard Shield should have scanned them and before an executable is run that is scanned. Thorough is also by its design very thorough and perhaps a little overkill for routine use, were a Standard scan without archives should be adequate.
I have only ever done a through scan with archives once shortly after installation just to ensure a clean start state, but with XP for example avast will do a boot-time scan after installation if you select it, this I believe will be quicker and reasonably effective. Like everything in life things are a compromise.
Thank you for the information.
if i understand it correctly, when the computer is turned on, Avast scans the files that are loaded at that time. And the real time scanning is continuous so anything new gets scans in email and on line surfing. So all the bases are covered.
But to run a scan of all files I should run a manually started scan. And choose Standard or Thorough. I have run Thorough and Standard manually. The Thorough take almost two hours. I will watch the time on the Standard the next time I run it manually. So far I have not run a Quick scan. I have no zip or other archive files. I have an external hard drive but that is copied from the computer My Documents that were already scanned.
i thought at boot up Avast ran a full scan of the entire computer.
This is a terrific forum. Easy to use and nice commentators. Thanks.
You may not think there are any zip or archive files but there are a lot in windows, .cab files, etc.
A Standard scan without archive is generally a good balance, personally I think thorough is overkill on a regular basis, as I said I have only run one in four years. If however, I ever got an infection after the clean-up it is something to consider.
If avast were to run a full scan on boot there would be many disgruntled users as it would take a long time. The boot-time scan is there as a selectable option (for a one off scan before the next boot).
You’re welcome. Feel free to come back any time you need help or just to change experiences 8)
Hello again. Since my last posting I have manually run Avast 6 times over the last six days.
Most done Thorough scan, with archives, and all the files checked. And two were done Quick scan.
The time it took started at 2 hours and then went to 3 hours and the last one was just short of 4 hours.
I must be doing something wrong. maybe a setting error? I ran the scans when I was going out so I did not operate the computer while the scans were going on. I do not plan on running thorough scans weekly but wanted to see how long they take. Or with archive. And I updated before each scan, although the auto update takes care of that.
Is there a reason my compute takes sooooo long to scan? it is XP Home.
Also Avast scans the computer when turned On. Do i need to select that somewhere or is that done without anything from me?
Thanks for your input.
Depends on how deep you scan, how many archive files do you have, how many files, etc.
4 hours does not seem to be that much for a thorough scanning.
Scheduling the Boot Time Scan
Click on the Menu button.
Choose Schedule Boot Time Scan.
Doing so displays a dialog allowing you to schedule virus scanning.
Check Archives, if you want scan all the archives.
Specify whether all the disks or just a specific folder should be scanned.
Select Advanced options for scheduling details.
Select how to automatically process infected files (suggestion: send to Chest)
Choose how to automatically process infected system files (suggestion: ignore/do nothing)
Click the Schedule button to confirm the settings.