Hi. I’m new to Avast!, like so many a refugee from AVG after many years. So far, I’m doing fine with Avast and am happy to have made the change, but I do have one question. I’m using Avast! Home edition on Win XP sp2, and wonder if it’s possible to have an automatic disk scan scheduled so that I don’t have to manually start it. Ideally, I’d love automatic boot scans too, since the computer is unusable during those, so if I’m missing something, could you please tell me how to achieve one or both of these? Thank you!
Hi Jill…
Unfortunately, running scheduled scans is only available in the professional version. I assume (but am not sure) boot scans are the same way.
Please see the version comparison page here…
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-compare-home-professional.html
Best Regards… 
That’s right. The only way to schedule a scan is via the Enhanced User Interface which is enabled when you purchase a license key and follow their instructions to enter it in your Home edition (automagically converting it to Pro). I bought a key a couple of weeks ago and, so far, it’s worth it.
I have been running scheduled scans in the Home edition for years.
Start with this post and follow the link from DavidR:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=23965.msg197088#msg197088
David’s warning needs paying attention to - but I have set up my exclusion list so that my scheduled scan covers my system every week in about 33 minutes and in my 4 years of use avast has yet to find a real virus on my system.
Hi Alan…
Ok…officially speaking, no, unofficially speaking, yes. Gotcha.
Thank you, all of you, for your answers. Now I just have to decide which solution to adopt!
Hi Jill
You’re welcome, glad we could help!