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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: AvastForever on November 06, 2005, 06:39:30 AM

Title: Scanning Options
Post by: AvastForever on November 06, 2005, 06:39:30 AM

I check the forum for answers but have not found a Straight answer. My question is when i do a Through Scan with Archives about two days ago it took more than 3 hours or so to be done  :o. Not even NAV took that long. Its it userful  or good idea to scan Archives files? and why?

Title: Re: Scanning Options
Post by: lakrsrool on November 06, 2005, 10:52:29 AM

Of course the time for the scan will depend upon how many files (size) that you have on your computer, your OS and computer speed.

I have found that with 9 GIG of files scanning will increase in time by about 5 times if I scan archived files.  Without scanning archived files scanning will take around 40-45 minutes.  With scanning archived files 2½-3 hours.

Archived files are sometimes password protected as well, which won't be scanned anway as a result.

Btw, I usually DO NOT scan archived files.  Maybe once every 4 months or so.

As far as whether it is a good idea to scan archived files as to whether or not they are vulnerable to viruses, that I'm not sure.  I would guess that they are not as vulnerable for the one reason that they are not actively used, otherwise I'm not sure.

Title: Re: Scanning Options
Post by: Lisandro on November 06, 2005, 01:12:26 PM

avast! on demand scanning is not the fast one for sure.
Anyway, you can use the screen saver on-demand scanning.

Title: Re: Scanning Options
Post by: DavidR on November 06, 2005, 03:11:34 PM

When I first installed avast I did a thorough scan including archives and yes it can take a long time (it is very thorough, the duration does depend on your system specs and amount of data being scanned).

However now I do a weekly Standard scan no archives as a part of my regular system maintenance. Archive files are inert until you extract the contents and run/execute the file/s inside. avast's resident Standard Shield scanner will pre scan these files when you attempt to do this, so my view is that regular scanning of archives isn't really productive.

If I have any suspicions then I would do a thorough scan with archives included otherwise I tend not to scan archives.

Title: Re: Scanning Options
Post by: AvastForever on November 07, 2005, 04:18:36 AM

Ok thanks guys.