hello. will a boot scan scan as thoroughly as a normal “thorough scan”?
so far ive been using thorough scan, shud i be using a boot scan once in a while or will it make no difference?
if it makes no difference whats the point in it and are there any times i shud make use of it?
thanks
The boot-time scan is designed for use when you can’t deal with a problem whilst windows is running, e.g. a file is detected as infected and it is in use or protected by windows and you can’t move it to the chest, etc.
Thorough is also by its design very thorough and perhaps a little overkill for routine use, were a Standard scan without archives should be adequate. Archive (zip, etc.) files are by their nature are inert, you need to extract the files and then you have to run them to be a threat. Long before that happens avast’s Standard Shield should have scanned them and before an executable is run that is scanned.
I have only ever done a through scan with archives once shortly after installation just to ensure a clean start state, but with XP for example avast will do a boot-time scan after installation if you select it, this I believe will be quicker and reasonably effective. Like everything in life things are a compromise.
I’m not sure that at boot time all the unpackers are loaded… seems that thorough scanning is ‘deeper’ than the boot, but at boot time, all files are ‘free’ to be scanned (i.e., not used, not loaded).
ok, ill do thorough without archives then, yes?
Not without completely… some packers are supported at boot time (as far I know).
I’m just guessing. It would be good if some programmer come here to answer our questions…
Here are the (un)packers supported by avast!; the bold ones are supported in the boot-time scanner as well:
7-ZIP
ACE
ARC
ARJ
BZIP
CAB
CPIO
DBX (Outlook Express DB)
DosExec (multiple)
GZIP
CHM
Installer (multiple)
ISO
LHARC
MAPI (Outlook DB)
MIME
OLE
RAR
RPM
SIS
NTFS Streams
TAR
TNEF Streams
WinExec (many)
ZIP
ZOO