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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: myrrh on September 10, 2009, 11:56:09 PM

Title: How do I know if avast is running?
Post by: myrrh on September 10, 2009, 11:56:09 PM

I just installed avast 4.8 and when I right click on the "a" ball, one of the choices is "Start avast! Antivirus" which leads me to believe it is not running. If I choose "Start avast! Antivirus," it runs the test of memory and startup. Then the Simple user interface appears. I've run a scan, but nothing tells me that I have real-time AV protection.

Title: Re: How do I know if avast is running?
Post by: .: L' arc :. on September 11, 2009, 12:00:22 AM

 Move your cursor over the avast tray icon and wait till a tooltip appears telling you something like "... 6 providers" running. In that way, you'll know that on-acess shields are active.

Title: Re: How do I know if avast is running?
Post by: spg SCOTT on September 11, 2009, 12:04:28 AM

Hi myrrh,

Here is a way of testing if your real time protection is enabled:

http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com

When you click this link, it should produce an alert.

More info on the anti-virus test file can be found here, if you want to have a read :)

http://eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

-Scott-

Title: Re: How do I know if avast is running?
Post by: norel on September 11, 2009, 12:23:46 AM

"Start avast! Antivirus" is a little misleading now that you mention it. I've never thought about it but I can see how it might be confusing.

Besides the ways already mentioned, the icon itself is another way. In Program Settings>Appearance, "Animate icon when scanning" should be checked and then the icon rotates when something is scanned.

Title: Re: How do I know if avast is running?
Post by: spg SCOTT on September 11, 2009, 12:26:41 AM

Quote from: norel on September 11, 2009, 12:23:46 AM

"Start avast! Antivirus" is a little misleading now that you mention it. I've never thought about it but I can see how it might be confusing.
...

Yes, maybe it should refer to the SUI, like:

'Start Simple User Interface'

It may be like this in avast5, I don't know, I'm not testing it.

Title: Re: How do I know if avast is running?
Post by: SimonG on September 11, 2009, 10:02:45 PM

Sorry, you don't say if you're running XP or Vista.  Here are the obvious ones from my XP & Vista boxes (both have Pro running).

Open Task Manager (right click in bottom right corner near time)
In Vista:
   On Processes tab you should see:
      ashDisp.exe
   On Services tab you should see:
      avast! Antivirus
      avast! Mail Scanner
      avast! Web Scanner

In XP:
   On processes tab you should see:
      ashDisp.exe
      ashWebSv.exe
      ashMailSv.exe
      ashServ.exe
      ashUpdSv.exe

Hope this helps,
Simon