thorough scanning

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi
I used avg 7.5 free until a week ago and changed to avast 4.8 home edition.
Thorough usual scanned files with AVG ,were :72000~
Thorough scan with avast: 57000
Can anybody explain the difference ?
Thanking in advance
EP

2

With or without archives ?

As I haven’t used avg in a little over 4 years since switching to avast, I can’t say what files avg scans, e.g. if it scans archive files by default.

Archive (zip, rar, cab, 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.

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.

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.

3

Thank you very much for your reply.The Avast scan was made without archives.
Could that make the difference in the numbers?
Regards
EP

4

Absolutely sure.

5

Thanks Tech.
EP

6

It certainly could make a big difference, but the difference isn’t something that I would worry about. When you consider the fact they are inert you don’t really need to scan these as they would be scanned when files are extracted or before they are executed, so not scanning saves you considerable time.

I also feel that the thorough scan actually scans files that are a low risk of infection, like some of your media, images files, etc. See image extract from the avast help file for what is scanned and how, it should give you a better understanding and help decide what sensitivity you should choose for future scans.

So avast is very configurable and it is this configurability that could account for the different number of files scanned as there is no checking apples with apples.

7

Thank you very much DavidR
EP

8

You’re welcome.