Hi, i’ve using avast for some years now. But “lately” it scans alot, all of the time. I’m still using a old computer (650mhz 320ram) so to speed things up, i’ve dissabled p2p,instant messaging, internet post, network and outlook shields. So that keeps standard shield and web shield running.
After reading the topic about the 100% cup, i turned down my status from high to normal.
But avast still scans alot, e.g. opening a .doc file, a windows map (program files or any other map), opening internet explorer…
I don’t need it to be scanning .doc files of maps al the time. (it doesn’t take long, but it slows it down before it actually opens)
Also i was wondering how many .exe files remain in the memory. I mean, when i do the ctrl+alt+del i see
ashdisp.exe (my account in windows)
ashdisp.exe (different account though)
ashserv.exe (system)
ashwebsv.exe (system)
aswupdsv.exe (system)
svchost.exe (system)
svchost.exe (system)
svchost.exe (system)
svchost.exe (network)
svchost.exe (network)
svchost.exe (lokale service)
Now that’s looks like alot (especially on my old pc), now don’t get me wrong. They don’t use alot of cpu%, but the sum of it all in the memory is quite alot.
(The heaviest is still iexplore.exe with about 10.000kb - 80.000kb)
What i would like is that avast don’t scan the stupid files like .doc file (made them myself, so they’re safe) or maps.
Well, if you have more than one account active that’s going to slow you down.
And those svchost.exe’s are not related to avast!. They are Windows services and the number of them depends on how many startup applications you have, how many programs are running, etc.
Adding them to the on-access exclusions should help.
Well, scanning .doc files on opening is necessary to may sure they are not infected by macroviruses.
On the first page of Standard Shield configuration, you may uncheck the options “Scan OLE documents on open” to disable it; that affects all OLE documents, however.
You’ve got 2 ashDisp.exe instances running? It means 2 users are logged on to the computer simultaneously, I guess? What’s the different account - something you know?
I wouldn’t worry about the memory usage too much - that’s up to the operating system to swap the unused parts out if needed.
If you have a specific folder of files you consider safe and don’t want them to be scanned, you can put the mask into the list of avast! exclusions (4th page of Standard Shield configuration) - e.g. something like C:\MyDocs*.doc
Normal is the better balance between performance and protection.
For correct memory usage you have to enable VM Size column in Processes list (Task Manager).
Open Task manager,select Processes tab,click View and select Select Columns… in dropdown menu.
New column will appear next to the Memory usage one. Now check the VM Size column and tell us again how much is it using.
svchost.exe provides a lot of essential Microsoft services. Many of the “Services” (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services) are provided by different functions of svchost.exe.
Disabling such services just for the sake of removing startup services and without understanding the full impact can severely disable your system. The fact that you thought them avast functions indicates you are not exactly expert so I hope you have a good backup strategy before you start changing them.