A Scheduled Smart Scan and a Scheduled Full Virus Scan are scheduled for the overnight period on the 1st of each month.
On Tues Jan 28/25 @ 12:45pm Pacific, a pop-up was displayed, in the bottom right corner, stating that a Smart Scan was running. After it concluded, it showed the non-eventful results.
*Why did the SS run ‘automatically?’
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*How do I disable this feature ‘or’ is this a ‘deliberate’ feature ‘or’ is it a known/unknown 'glitch?
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When working online, It is irritating to have an ‘unauthorized’ scan take place.
*Unrelated, how can marketing pop-ups, which occur daily, be disabled?
What I Want To Do: Run SS and a FVS automatically in the wee hours on the 1st of each month (Yes, I realize that ‘On-Demand Scanning’ is overkill but, for ‘peace of mind,’ I do it anyway and scheduling one after the other allows me to ‘forget’ about it’).
However, if I take ‘your’ advice to run SS manually, I would have to ‘remember’ to run SS before going to bed on the 31st of each month (which defeats the ‘convenience’ of scheduling SS, along with FVS).
To be clear, it is only SS that seems to run automatically ‘outside of the scheduled date and time’ on the 28th of each month.
*Even though the peace of mind in running a FVS is invaluable, Is it really unnecessary to run either of them?
If so, I will just ‘delete’ both scheduled monthly scans (as long as the ‘On-Access Scan’ is extremely reliable).
As for the marketing pop-ups, ‘Limited Mode’ is selected but a few (less than before this option was selected) continue to appear at ‘random times.’
For me the Smart Scan has only ever pointed areas that I could be better protected, e.g. other Avast Paid products.
Well the wording ‘Limited’ is the key it basically keeps them down to a dull roar, I don’t think this will ever get down to ‘Disable’ - that said With avast Free and the settings I mention it is an infrequent notification, certainly on my system.
In summary then, should I delete the scheduled monthly FVS and the scheduled monthly SS and, instead, ‘trust’ that Avast’s On-Demand Scanning (coupled with ensuring that definition updates and program updates are up-to-date) is reliable?.
Also, I noticed that you have ‘Share Suspicious File Samples’ enabled-Does that have anything to do with ‘my’ issues (or is it merely a wise option to enable?).
Suspicious files can be found in regular active scans also (or on-demand scans), so sending them for further analysis is advantageous to all users. I have never found this to be an issue and I don’t believe it relates to your issues. Primarily as it doesn’t appear that you had it enabled before.
I checked the Smart Scan setting and for ‘some bizarre reason,’ it was set to run Automatically Monthly at 12:45pm (I did not schedule it).
As a result, I changed it to ‘Run Manually,’ which will mean that this SS will not run again,
However, under Custom Scans, the ‘Full Virus Scan’ and the ‘Quick Scan,’ which I ‘did’ set, are ‘scheduled’ for the 1st of each month during the overnight period.
Q: Moving forward (and for ‘my’ peace of mind), should I leave the FVS/QS/both of them scheduled?
‘OR’
Should I delete ‘both’ scheduled scans (because it is ‘overkill’) and ‘trust’ that Avast’s On-Demand Scanning is reliable (coupled with ensuring that definition updates and program updates are always up-to-date).
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Q: Also (and to be clear): Under the Personal Privacy’ tab, ‘Share Suspicious File Samples,’ ‘Help Improve,’ and ‘Share App Usage Data’ were all enabled but I disabled the latter 2 options-Was they the correct steps to take?
While I realize that the choice to utilize On-Demand Scanning is, ultimately, ‘mine,’ I am asking for ‘your’ opinion:
Q: Is Avast’s On-Demand Scanning (along with manually checking for Definition Updates and Program Updates daily) reliable enough that ‘no’ scheduled scans, of any type, are necessary?
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Q: Under the Personal Privacy’ tab, ‘Share Suspicious File Samples’ and ‘Help Improve’ are 'unchecked 'and ‘Share App Usage Data’ is ‘checked’-Are these the correct settings?
Effectively my opinions are in my settings in the images I wouldn’t select them or deselect settings if I didn’t think the action was in my best interest.
If you haven’t got auto update of VPS set and a manual check/update before the on demand scan. It may not have the latest definitions, potentially making the scan less useful.
Generally I have only run an on-demand scan as a result a question in the forums (very infrequent). Yet here I am after over 20 years of using avast and no infections - lucky I guess
EDIT: From memory I set the first, but I think those two settings aren’t of much direct use to me, why they probably aren’t enabled on my settings.
I honestly don’t believe that on-demand scans bring much to the party:
I have said this many times in the forums- so much so that I have a notepad file with quotes that I use regularly in the forums.
ON-DEMAND SCANS - With a resident (on-access) scanner the need for on-demand scans is much depreciated. For the most part dormant/inert files are being scanned, the other active files are going to be scanned by the resident shields when they are activated.
Is the answer ‘yes,’ On-Demand Scanning is overkill, yes, the software’s On-Access Scanning is reliable, three, yes, Virus Definition Updates and Program Updates should be automatically set and, yes, both updates should be checked manually each morning?
Generally I won’t give a direct answer to something like this as what I feel is irrelevant to what the user feels is best for them. I just lay out the information and let them choose what is best for them.
I have Program Updates set to Manual. Virus definitions set to Auto and also Enable Streaming Updates.
ESU must be enabled by default then because, one, it is ‘checked’ and, two, I did not ‘manually’ do it.
Q: To be clear about ‘one more point,’ since ESU is enabled, does clicking ‘Check For Updates,’ under ‘Virus Definitions’ check for VD updates ‘and’ ESU updates?
I honestly have no idea, but logically I would have though so if you have enabled the ESU updates.
That said Emergency Streaming Updates checks very frequently - just check here C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\defs\ here you should see the latest one, 25013010_stream, my last one was 3 minutes ago.