I am running avast free 12.3.2280, virus definitions 170117-2 on winxp pro sp3 and for the past few day the scheduled scan has not run as set - set to run 12pm every day. The last program update was noted on 2016-8-19 and virus update was on 2017-1-18.
Can anyone explain what happened?
It is not possible to explain anything.
Without knowing/having more details we can only guess.
My guess it was the black with white Gremlin ;D
Is there anything about it in one of the avast log files ?
Are you using sleep/suspend mode or something ?
Was the system in use when the scan was supposed to run ?
etc.
Presumably this has worked in the past ?
If so was there anything memorable that changed, e.g. an avast program update or other security related program update ?
I often wonder about using 12pm as a start time for the scheduled scan, I know of an instance when clocks got reset messed with scheduled scans. You could set it to another time, when you know for sure that the system will be up and running and not in sleep mode, etc.
Whilst it would be nice to fix this, running a daily scheduled scan would seem over the top.
To the moderators - sarcasm and snide comments should not be permitted and anyone making such a response should be permanently banned from the Avast forums. This should be a place where people help each other not a place where someone uses it as ego building at the expense of another!
DavidR - Maybe I’m being overly cautious but I prefer to be safe rather than sorry and have to rebuild the system.
For what ever reason, the problem has disappeared. Made no changes to system except new virus signature files downloaded automatically.
If you are concerned about having to rebuild your system, I can think of a much more efficient method.
A robust backup and recovery strategy.
I use hard disk imaging software to make an exact copy of the hard disk, partition, etc. etc.
I have a robust back-up and recovery strategy (hard disk imaging software), should I ever experience a system problem, no matter what the reason. So I feel relatively secure without introducing sandboxing.
I run a hard drive drive image weekly and keep copies of the last 6 drive images. The worst case scenario being I lose the last 6 days of changes. But some of the software allows for incremental updates so only new entries or modified elements which could be run daily. In this case you could be down to only losing changes within the last day.
If you ever suffer a catastrophe you can restore the last hard disk image (plus any incremental updates).
Although having a recent image is always a good thing, most important is a regular backup of data.
Software can always be reinstalled as long as the hardware is working as it should.
Real time synchronization where backups are place somewhere online is what I prefer.
Which is why I mentioned incremental updating also. Personally I hate the idea of cloud backups, not just because of the data upload overhead eating into any data allowance your ISP terms have in place. Not to mention I’m a trusting sole (NOT) and don’t trust them to protect my data. I also have concerns as to just who owns ‘your’ data.
I run a simple little program called mirror (running a batch file) to backup my more volatile data files, I may run that several times a day.