Disabling Standard Protection 4 improved performanc (realtime on-access scanner)

[martosurf]

Ok, this one goes to developers and power users like Tech, DavidR, Bluesman and so on... you know who you are!

I'm sure some of you will be upsetted but, is really needed the On-Access provider when you know your system is quite clean? I mean, avast! cover all major if not all infection vectors, so why the need to have a scanner that checks time after time something you know is already clean and degrading overall system performance?

Since I stopped the Standard Shield some days ago I noticed an inmediate boost in system performance like upgrading from my old P4 2.4ghz to a new P3 or Core 2 Duo, etc.

I think in some particular cases, like mine, having the Standard Shield on is not needed any more and it's a quite a prehistoric practice from old times when all antivirus software did was scan time after time the same files.

Today, with AVs scanning USB's, P2P, web surfing, messenger sessions, email and so on seems to be pointless to have an 'extra layer of protection' if you are not visiting dangerous sites like warez and alike or at least you check the files downloaded manually before running them.

I must say I complement avast! with a little HIPS utility that have a very light footprint, Ghost Security Suite (5mb with %0 cycles) and on demand inmunization/protection from spyware with SpyBot and SpywareBlaster. The firewall is Windows XP built-in and because the HIPS application have a network access control I can have total control over outbound connections without sacrifize CPU cycles with packet filtering and alike.

What you think?

Thanks!

[RejZoR]

You can disable everything under Standard Shield second tab "Scanner (Advanced)".
But it's recommended to use Web Shield in such case.

[DavidR]

Of course you would notice an improvement, nothing is being scanned, you will also experienve a huge increase in risk of being infected. So there has to be a balance between performance and protection. I shudder to think what it might be like woth other AVs not noted for their light resources footprint.

I barely see any noticeable with avast running on my old system AMD mobile cpu running at 1.8Ghz with 1GB RAM on winXP Pro and my new one, spec in my signature.

You don't mention what sensitivity you have the Standard Shield set to, I suspect High when the default is Normal ?

Not visiting dangerous sites, don't make me laugh, you only have to check out the viruses and worms forum for the number of sites that have been hacked (safe sites, US forestry being one very recent one), you simply don't know what is safe today will be safe tomorrow.

The web shield is very hot in this rapidly escalation infection method, injecting iframe code into legit sites, way ahead of its competitors. Of all those reported in the forums that I have checked all had proved to be good detections.

The standard shield isn't just another level of protection, it is the main scanning engine of avast. Disabling it has other ramifications, you can reduce what it scans as RejZoR says, but you should leave it running.

Your system your choice.

[Lisandro]

you will also experienve a huge increase in risk of being infected.

David, I think you're exaggerating. The open/create/modified files could not be scanner without a huge risk. The executables and scripts are still being scanned, you can scan email and http traffic. The advantage of avast is the configurability, so you can have dedicated providers to scan specific things like P2P and IM and do not have to scan everything. Well, it's my opinion.

[DavidR]

What not having your AV running isn't going to have a huge increase in risk! I think not

Again the selective quoting of what I said takes it out of context as my reply was directly related to disabling the standard shield completely.

The standard shield isn't just another level of protection, it is the main scanning engine of avast. Disabling it has other ramifications, you can reduce what it scans as RejZoR says, but you should leave it running.

Your system your choice.