Scheduling Avast Updates

[system]

When updating Avast has the nasty habit of completely hogging my system.

I was wondering if there’s a way to force Avast to wait with it’s updates to a time when the computer is idle. My computer is on all day, but for some reason Avast seems to have a knack for updating at those times when it’s super inconvenient to me. I know I can set it to notify me about updates and let me decide when to do it manually, but that way I tend to forget about updating it.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s my single core Sempron or my girlfriends dual Xeon, Avast bogs down every single core it can detect in windows and it’s really frustrating to have the computer stand idle for a couple of hours and just when you’re busy suddenly Avast decides to go update.

Anyways, is there a way to make Avast check if CPU load is below say 20% before it updates or will they just happen at random and continue to annoy me and cause disconnects from online games?

[Lisandro]

@pepijn post:1

When updating Avast has the nasty habit of completely hogging my system.

Strange… it shouldn’t. Which avast version are you using?

@pepijn post:1

I was wondering if there’s a way to force Avast to wait with it’s updates to a time when the computer is idle.
I know I can set it to notify me about updates and let me decide when to do it manually, but that way I tend to forget about updating it.

You can set automatic, ask or manual. There is no option to ‘idle’ time.

@pepijn post:1

Anyways, is there a way to make Avast check if CPU load is below say 20% before it updates or will they just happen at random and continue to annoy me and cause disconnects from online games?

The update priority is ‘normal’ (not high).

[system]

I’m using Avast Home 4.7-892, which I assume is the latest version availible through the automatic updater.

For example while playing World of Warcraft (who doesn’t these days) my latency will rocket up to 3500ms from the average 40-110ms, the framerate will plummet to 0.3 frames per second. After about 10 to 15 seconds of nearly disconnecting slideshow, the Avast guy tells me it has been updated and things will settle back to normal.

I’ve tried using QoS to throttle the bandwidth availible to Avast, which does help prevent disconnection, but it doesn’t help the slightest bit in preventing Avast from completely taking up the CPU. I take it this has to do with the on-access scanner scanning all active processes with the new database or something (or atleast that seems logical to me).

Well, I suppose I could write something that prevents Avast from talking to it’s servers when the system is ‘in use’ and then allow traffic again once the system is idle. Thanks for answering my question

[Lisandro]

@pepijn post:3

I take it this has to do with the on-access scanner scanning all active processes with the new database or something (or atleast that seems logical to me).

Could be… but I need a confirmation from Alwil team, i.e., when a new database is installed, are all the programs loaded on memory scanned again? :

@pepijn post:3

Well, I suppose I could write something that prevents Avast from talking to it’s servers when the system is ‘in use’ and then allow traffic again once the system is idle. Thanks for answering my question

The better will be using manual update, or making a batch file to stop avast update service when you’re using the computer and another to run the service back…

[system]

Would it be possible to set a rule in regedit or somewhere that sets a maximum ceiling on ashupdate’s CPU usage? I have the same problem, whereby once downloaded, the program update install eats the whole CPU process for a few minutes, basically preventing me from doing anything. If i could auto set its priority to idle or low then my problem should dissapear.
Cheers for any thoguhts
Dez

[Lisandro]

@dez93_2000 post:5

Would it be possible to set a rule in regedit or somewhere that sets a maximum ceiling on ashupdate’s CPU usage?

If you find this tool for XP, let us know… I’m looking for it a long time.
ProcessTamer does something similar, trying to adjust the priority. But, CPU usage, I/O reads and priority are not the same.
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/proctamer/index.html

@dez93_2000 post:5

I have the same problem, whereby once downloaded, the program update install eats the whole CPU process for a few minutes, basically preventing me from doing anything. If i could auto set its priority to idle or low then my problem should dissapear.

The problem will be there… you just don’t see it.
There is a conflict (maybe the firewall).

[system]

Hmmm… I use something similar, Process Explorer.
I’m not sure the problem would remain if i lowered the priority - the updates download in the background ok, and the install works fine, but it uses as much CPU as it can until it’s done. Technically there’s nothing wrong with this, practically it means I have to wait for it to finish. Theoretically putting ashupdsv on low-priority whenever it installs could fix the irritation, but I assumed that ashupdsv / an installer instance would be initiated to run the install, meaning something (maybe a macro program) would have to intercept the opening of the install and give it low priority.
I’ve noticed that ashupdsv is constantly present in the background. If i’m right in thinking that ashupdsv is responsible for the install, then if it was already on low-priority, the install MIGHT also be low priority thus not hog CPU resources. SO: if I set ashupdsv to low-pri after each bootup then I might be rid of this irritation.
BUT i’d be replacing it with the irritation of having to do that every bootup. Maybe ProcessExplorer has the option to ‘auto-prioritise upon open’…? I’ll find out.
Any comments, ideas, input, "you don’t have a clue what you’re typing about"s welcome.
Cheers

Dez

[system]

I don’t know if it’ll work with Process Explorer / similar taskmanager substitutes, but http://www.prnwatch.com/prio.html allows one to save priority on processes.