Suggestion for the DOS based reboot pre-Windows total scan

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Today I suspected a virus, so I initiated the Reboot pre-windows scan. It runs in DOS, so any control is minimal.

Today it ran for well over 3 hours before I hit ESC. It was eating through my Recycle bin that had not been cleaned in a long while, 14,000 files long.

I have 2 suggestions to improve the scan.

1: Before executing the scan, chose to either exclude, empty or include the Recycle Bin. The files in it were “erased” so they presumably are no longer a virus threat.

2: Before executing the scan, choose a default action when an infected file is found, rather than pausing and asking what to do with it. Or default to place the file in the chest, and NOT pause.

I sat by for about 30 minutes watching the count go to 2%, and went for lunch. When I came back after an hour, it was at 2% and waiting for my disposal instruction. I hit #5 instead of #4 and it proceeded. Then I noticed it was scanning my recycle bin. At 4% I went off to watch some more paint dry, and it stopped again at 7% and waited for me. This time I hit #4 and walked away. An hour later it was still in the recycle bin at 20% so I killed it. There were a LOT of files deleted. I let it start Windows, and when it came up I emptied the recycle bin of 14,000 files, mainly from a purge done on a crash recovered HD that was transferred to my new SSD.

Implementing both suggestions would save the user a lot of time.

2 
  1. You mean like the one you see at the bottom of screenshot 2 here  http://www.schmahl.net/avastbootscan.php

Or picture #4 here
http://www.davescomputertips.com/perform-a-boot-time-scan-with-avast-free-2014/

3
  1. scan recycle bin is necessary, these file are still available in your HDD/SSD. Even when they are deleted from recycle bin, they still exist physically in your HDD/SSD.
  2. Pondus showed you the option, although they are less detail than other scans, they are there.
4

The used to be malware hiding itself in the Recycle bin folder. It’s an ordinary folder - and a file can be placed there without actually having to go through the “Move to Recycle bin” action.
If you don’t want some folders to be scanned, you can put them into the list of global exclusions - but asking about Recycle bin before every scan… that’s too specific.