I have suddenly realised that Windows Explorer (Win XP Pro P3) works much more slowly with Avast 6 than with Avast 5. It took a day for this to dawn on me. I mention this as feedback rather than complaint. I mainly use GPSoft Directory Opus v6.2.15, the performance of which which is unaffected.
Not seen any such impact on my XP Pro SP3 system.
I should have said that it is noticeable with very large folders, e.g. the Windows folder. The sluggish action of scroll bars is where I particularly notice the effect. Thing is that with Avast 5.1.889 Windows Explorer was very zippy.
My windows folder is 4.16GB and it opens virtually instantaneously I can’t time it as it is well under a second.
So does mine with Avast 5.1.889. I have just tried a clone HDD of the system drive of 2 weeks ago and Windows Explorer responds very quickly (your machine must be more powerful than mine I think). I will try updating it to Avast 6 with no other changes.
Well since you haven’t created a profile signature I would know that ;D
When was the last time you defragged your hard disk ?
Nor the country they are in. 
No problem on my XP Pro system. 8)
I took the clone system disk and updated Avast 5 to Avast 6. The effect on Windows Explorer was immediate so I conclude that Avast 6 is responsible.
I keep my disks defragged with Raxco Perfect Disk which does a beautiful job. I can recommend it with great enthusiasm.
I only raised the issue so that Avast developers might be aware of this possibility. It causes me no difficulty since I use GPSoft Directory Opus which is an excellent alternative to Windows Explorer and much superior to Windows Explorer. Directory Opus goes like a scalded cat and is unaffected by the issue.
I should mention that the system concerned has rather a lot of software installed. My user profile is 360MB in size.
Postscript: I have observed this behaviour on other Windows XP SP3 systems. It was less noticeable than on my machines because my hardware is rather ancient. A modern fast system makes the issue somewhat less noticeable and so less of a nuisance.
Nice to know it isn’t just my installations that are affected.
@DavidR
your Windows folder is so small??
mine have 18,2gb…
lol
That’s because you have Windows 7 and hake and DavidR are talking about XP
Well as I said, I keep it tidy and don’t allow a build up of old uninstallKBxxxxxx entries.
Don’t forget my system is XP Pro, which is much smaller than win7 windows folder. Considering my XP Pro system is two and a half years old (4.16GB) and my win7 netbook windows folder is 10.6GB after just over two ‘months’ crazy.
Thanks for reply. I had XP too but never noticed how large is it’s Windows folder.
I haven’t had the chance to try the issue on a super-fast computer. I guess that a very recent system might not be slowed much but how many people run Windows XP on a very fast computer? All my machines are in the geriatric category so I really notice it.
I have witnessed the slowing of Windows Explorer on several machines, none particularly new. Try to scroll across when the monster Windows folder (5.89GB, 27,584 files, 2,606 folders) is open in list view mode. The scrollbar thingy moves very hesitantly.
As I said earlier, my workaround is to use GPSoft’s Directory Opus (known affectionately as Dopus) and this is not slowed one bit. It is lovely software (thanks Jonathan Potter) and vastly better file management software than Windows Explorer. I hazard a guess that it would make Windows 7 much more friendly.
There is a genuine issue here and I would be glad if the Avast developers had time to look at it.
I would suggest that Windows 2000 and Windows XP users with older slower hardware think very carefully before installing Avast 6 which seems to impose a hefty performance hit on systems equipped with inter alia AMD Duron or Intel Pentium 3 processors.
My only experience with Windows 2000 is that Avast 6 seems to have done something unwanted to the logon process which now takes an age between displaying the logon window and accepting the username/password. Unfortunately, reverting to Avast 5 does not remedy this.
These are observations, not opinions. The Windows 2000 problem was on a recent installation (Win2K runs better than XP on an old 256MB ram laptop).
Doesn’t seem to affect my XP SP3 with P4 too much, although I’ve noticed some programs starting a little slower than normal, but I can’t attribute that entirely to avast! for a fact at the moment.
~SKY~ has no problem with avast! V6 on Windows 2000:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=72053.msg602075#msg602075