I use the 2014 paid version of avast AV on my desktop and laptop. I have scheduled scans set to run once a week. The desktop is on always but my laptop is not. When I use my laptop I expect to see a popup that states a scheduled scan was missed and if I want to run that scan now. This does not happen. I have to remember to run the scan myself.
Should avast know a scan was missed and offer the option to run the next time I boot my laptop?
For me scheduled scans seems to occur based on the following precedence:
Current system status (on/off)
System load at the time the scheduled scan meant to occur.
Time of scheduled scan.
Therefore, if system load is above a certain system load limit, the scan is postponed (perhaps for a fixed time duration and also the system load at that next timing).
Note:If a scan fails to occur within a particular day, the scan is skipped altogether till the next scheduled scan (this at least is the way it happens for me consistently).
I think that a good feature to add would be an optional popup which is unchecked by default, to notify more advanced users who want to know that Avast! missed the previous scheduled scan.
P.S. I am not too sure what happens if the system is off when a scheduled scan is meant to occur.
The problem of missed scans has been addressed years ago by many av and anti-spyware vendors. For this reason I can not believe that avast has not addressed this issue yet.
I hope someone from avast reads this post and fixes the over sight.