Avast claimed Dell SupportAssist was the top program slowing down my computer (78%), and Microsoft OneDrive was the second top program slowing down my computer (56%), yet Task Manager>Startup, showed OneDrive was disabled, and indicated startup impact is ‘none.’ Of course I don’t know if that is because it was disabled (?) or if impact was negligible whether running or not. SupportAssist was not listed in Startup, and neither program was in Task Manager>Processes>Background processes.
SupportAssistAgent is listed in Task Manager>Services, but the status is ‘stopped.’ OneDrive was not listed. Neither were listed in Task Manager>Details.
Dell SupportAssist is stopped and set to manual startup in Services.msc, but the “slowdown severity” of that program still tops the list at 78% - why?
I could not find MS OneDrive in Services.msc, but uninstalled it in “Apps & Features,” yet even after uninstalling (and re-booting), Avast advises that “slowdown severity” of OneDrive is now 22%. How can this be?
Since Processes and Startup seem to indicate these two programs are not enabled, not running, or not even listed (and of course one of which has since been uninstalled), and if that means in fact that they are disabled and not starting up when the computer is started, and not tagged for delayed startup, and assumedly not running unless I intentionally access the program, why is Avast claiming that SupportAssist is the major program slowing my computer, and OneDrive still doing so despite having been uninstalled?
What Avast Program (Free/Pro/AIS?premier) and version number were you using ?
I take it that this was after a Smart Scan ?
EDIT another thought, percentages can be very misleading, if the system at the time of the scan was only say 10% cpu activity, then 75% of that isn’t very much. If a program were running at 75% of CPU you are very likely to notice it, so percentages can be very misleading if taken out of context.
OP didn’t say, but these results are likely due to running a Smart Scan.
For advertising purposes, a general one-fits-all approach works best, as the scanner really doesn’t discern the difference between whether a process is running or not, only that the vast majority of users have it enabled and running; hence the 78% figure. It just notes that you have the process installed and bingo! (You, of course, want to have your system in good shape, so you’ll buy that paid for feature, right?)
If you are running paid version of Avast, simply go back and deselect whatever features you don’t need/require (Custom Install) and reboot.
My apologies for not getting back to this thread sooner.
Yes, this was after a Smart Scan.
It is an older version (not ancient, just not quite the very latest) of Avast, and a free version. However, both of your explanations make sense.
“.…the scanner really doesn’t discern the difference between whether a process is running or not… It just notes that you have the process installed and bingo!”
I was beginning to suspect this in regard to the Dell SupportAssist. I was, however, completely gobsmacked that there was any report at all on a program that had been uninstalled. Of course, we are talking about a MS program…so who know if it really was uninstalled…lol
Thanks to ya’s both for your replies. 