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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: JimDirt on May 15, 2010, 09:07:46 PM

Title: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 15, 2010, 09:07:46 PM
I am having issues that i can't find a setting for , i am using the Free Avast and i am having a issue with my pictures  , every time i open a folder i have pictures in  Avast seems to scan it , so it takes forever for the pictures to show up as it has to finish the scan , i can not find any setting to stop it from scanning My Pictures EVERY TIME i open a folder , this is not a scheduled scan or a manual scan  , it decides on its own to scan the folder EVERY time i open it to view my pictures (the orange/white icon in the taskbar spins every time i open a picture folder) , when it scans the contents of the folder shows blank till it finishes the scan then the pitures load so i can view them , this takes several seconds to a minute to do this depending on how many pictures are in the folder , it is very annoying

Is there any way to stop it from scanning a folder EVERY time it is opened ??

Any help would be appreciated !
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans
Post by: DavidR on May 15, 2010, 09:12:52 PM
What avast version are you using 4.8 or 5.0 ?

This doesn't happen by default on my system and I'm working in image folders lots for the forum.

Have you been tweaking the avast settings ?
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: Hermite15 on May 15, 2010, 09:13:48 PM
@ the OP: weird...even if scanning when opening (the pics), it shouldn't slow down. You should do a scan of this folder where your pics are with "persistence cache" enabled (storing and using >>> go to the expert settings of "folder scan" or explorer scan). This will cache the signatures of those files (the pics) and they won't be scanned again unless modified.

edit: if you're using Avast 4, ignore this post.
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 15, 2010, 10:12:15 PM
I am using version 5.0545

and NO i have not adjusted ANY settings  , i left everything default

The exact issue is when i go to My Documents , and ANY folder that has pictures in them , it seems to scan the folder on its own , the icon in the taskbar spins , then when it stops spinning the pictures finally load , this can take a while depending on how many pics are in the folder , in the case where there are 50 or more pics , it takes close to a minute before i can see any contents of the folder , and again , this happens EVERY time i open a folder with pictures , even if i open a folder  , close it , then open it again right away , it does the exact same thing
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 15, 2010, 10:25:05 PM
I just looked at the Advanced Settings you spoke of and the Persistance Cache thing is already checked !
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: Hermite15 on May 15, 2010, 10:30:52 PM
I just looked at the Advanced Settings you spoke of and the Persistance thing is already checked !

okay sorry this seems to be on your system only, I've never observed such a behavior...you might want to reinstall Avast?
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 15, 2010, 10:51:15 PM
OK i tried to Uninstall using Add and Remove Programs and i keep getting a error saying there was a Error trying to uninstall from the Avast panel that shows when un-installing  , if i close Add and Remove Programs then re-open it , Avast is still there  , i try to un-install again and get the same error

so do i try to Re-install while it is still there ??
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: Hermite15 on May 15, 2010, 11:12:42 PM
no, just close the interface if you can. If you can't use the normal uninstall procedure (which is always preferable when accessible), use this now:
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

then reboot, then check that the alwil folders in program files and in document and settings\all users\application data\alwil...have been completely deleted, then reinstall.
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 16, 2010, 12:05:02 AM
OK i un-installed in Safe Mode , then deleted the folders , then re-installed , Updated , Re-booted , then tried to open my picture folders and it STILL scans the folder before i can view anything  , it took about 53 seconds to be able to view any pictures in that folder with 202 pictures in it  , before the icon in my taskbar stopped spinning  it showed blank just like before the un-install/re-install

so what can i do to correct this ??

Or am i stuck with this issue  , as it gets real annoying when it takes almost a minute for a folder to open
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: Hermite15 on May 16, 2010, 12:08:41 AM
I have really no idea sorry...not even sure the scanning is responsible for the folders opening slowly. You're sure everything is back to normal if you stop Avast? you can try that by stopping the services (in computer management)...
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 16, 2010, 12:10:57 AM
OK i just tried to open the same folder again and it seems to be opening fine now  , it seems that once the folder finally opens , the next time i open it , it seems to open like it should , i tried another folder with pictures and it did the same thing  , the first time i open it  , it takes forever , then if i close it  , and either open another folder then go back or just try to open it again  , it opens fine  , so hopefully the re-install fixed    

Thank you for your help !!
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: Hermite15 on May 16, 2010, 12:12:56 AM
you're welcome. If that happens again don't hesitate to try stopping avast services to make sure if it's it or not ;)
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: DavidR on May 16, 2010, 12:19:12 AM
It is probably worth running a Full System Scan a couple of times as this also builds/populates the persistent cache. Once built/populated it speeds on-demand scans also in subsequent scans.

See avast blog article - http://blog.avast.com/2010/04/25/how-to-make-the-full-system-scan-6x-faster-in-10-days/ (http://blog.avast.com/2010/04/25/how-to-make-the-full-system-scan-6x-faster-in-10-days/)
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 16, 2010, 12:26:32 AM
OK i will do a Full System Scan right now  , i did have to go to EVERY folder i had with pictures and let them load then i could click on any one of them and they open fine now  , so whatever it was , it seemed to be the re-installation that fixed the issue

Again  , thank you  !
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: DavidR on May 16, 2010, 02:06:49 AM
You're welcome.
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 16, 2010, 03:13:59 AM
Well crap  , i guess this only works till i restart my PC , then i have to go thru the process of opening each folder again , so i guess it did not fix the problem completely :'(
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: Hermite15 on May 16, 2010, 10:40:02 AM
Well crap  , i guess this only works till i restart my PC , then i have to go thru the process of opening each folder again , so i guess it did not fix the problem completely :'(

okay,then you you might have an operating system issues ...
or: what view mode are you using when you open a folder containing pictures? list, thumbnail view? which one? could be that Windows is either rebuilding the thumbnails again and again or that you're not waiting long enough when you open a folder for all the thumbnails to be built and cached...and Avast is scanning that too.
I don't know which version of Windows you have...if you display a preview pane in folders or not (Vista/Seven). Anyway you can tweak the behavior in advanced settings/performance. What I mean is do you still have the same issue when displaying the pics just in list or detailed view? Are you using Windows Live Photo Gallery >>> it's a CPU hog on first use...just a few hints...
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 16, 2010, 06:03:19 PM
I am using XP SP3 and i put it on Thumbnail View , but it looks like a combination of Thumbnail and Tile view when i open a folder  , i have to go to the view and it will be on Thumbnail , but i have to change it to Tile , then back to Thumbnail for it to look like a normal thumbnail , but this is only after it loads everything which takes almost a minute  , there are Thumbs.db and ZbThumbnail.info icons in each folder , so it should load correctly  , and i use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer  as i dont like the way Windows Live looks

But every time i open  the Avast Icon is spinning in the taskbar , that is why i feel it is Avast doing it

What else could it be making it re-load ??

I have done a Scandisk , and the issue is the same so if it was i Windows Issue then that should have fixed it i would think
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: DavidR on May 16, 2010, 06:26:48 PM
I don't have the ZbThumbnail.info on any of my image folders, I have done a google search on that file and some say it is related to Cannon, http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9963 (http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9963) and http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/34547-5-what-zbthumbnail-info (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/34547-5-what-zbthumbnail-info).

So it may be that this file when you open the folder actually checks the images files against its information for new additions/deletions, etc. and this may cause avast to scan the files that it accesses.

I have many image folders in many of then I have also deleted the thumbs.db as I don't want the database updated as my system can display the folder thumbnails quickly.
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 16, 2010, 06:55:29 PM
Yes i use a Canon camera so that would be the ZbThumbnail  , but that is not in every picture folder , just some of them so i dont think that should be any problem

But i would still like to know how i can stop Avast from scanning my picture folders EVERY time   , as that still seems to be the issue causing the delayed loading
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 16, 2010, 07:10:45 PM
I just tried setting Exclusions on scanning that is supposed to stop it from scaning those folders anytime and it still scans the folder when i open them after telling it not to scan my pictures folder  , so why is it still scanning ??

it says "Exclusions will apply to both on demand scans and to real time shields"  

But it still scans the folders i checked to not scan
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: DavidR on May 16, 2010, 08:18:54 PM
First, it isn't normal behaviour (default action for file system shield) for avast to scan the folders contents when you open it. avast is an 'on-access' scanner so something is accessing those files to cause avast to scan the contents. That is why I mentioned the ZbThumbnail.info as I don't know what that is meant to do as I don't have a Cannon camera nor the software to see what it does.

So that is the quandary, as avast doesn't initiate scans, but reacts to something accessing the file or you have changed the default settings in the file system shield (and I believe you said that you hadn't in an earlier post).

Second, what Exclusions did you use as the avast Settings, Exclusions are effectively for the on-demand scan and these are being scanned by the on-access scanner (file system shield, expert settings, exclusions).

However, I wouldn't advise excluding complete folders or just file types (e.g. *.jpg) within a folder as there are image file types , which can be exploited/infected so they should be scanned on-access.

Whilst doing this I have opened 17 image folders/sub-folders and the file system shield started with an activity count of 822 ending 939. There are many hundreds (I didn't count them) of images in those folders and only on the odd occasion did avast actually scan a file in the folders, one time it scanned a thumbs.db file that it left behind.

Most of the files scanned were through my use of image capture software to grab some basic images (the creation of a new file, etc.) and only a few images were actually scanned outside of that, why I don't know as I wasn't physically accessing a file in the folder/s. So it is still a mystery to me why it is scanning your files.
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 17, 2010, 05:46:59 AM
Maybe i should be more informative  , i do not mean thea Avast is poping up with a "Scan" page  , what i am meaning is that every time i open a picture folder , the Icon in the taskbar starts spinning like it is alerted to something (like it does when you open a web page) , and the entire time the Icon is spinning the window(open folder) is blank , then when it stops spinning (up to 1 minute depending on the number of pictures in the folder) the page finally loads 

So to me it is Scanning when i open the folder and it seems to be stopping anything from loading until it stops scanning or whatever it is doing

Does that make more sense ??
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: DavidR on May 17, 2010, 03:57:54 PM
I understand the problem, I just can't understand why it is happening.

My images aren't scan pages and that wasn't what I thought was happening for you. The purpose of the images was to show the current scan count (file system shield, info) before opening any of 17 image folders, with a couple of images during that time and one at the end to show it wasn't scanning all my images.

So that behaviour isn't happening on my system and I really can see how it is happening on your system as you say you haven't changed any default settings and avast doesn't scan files of its own accord. So something has to be accessing those files in the image folders you open, what that is, is the big question.

My only thought was what created the ZbThumbnail.info file and what that might do when a folder is opened, but then you say that it isn't in all folders, so there we have inconsistency as if it were that then presumably it wouldn't cause avast to scan in folders where there was no ZbThumbnail.info file.

So I'm really at a loss as to what might be causing this.
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: spg SCOTT on May 17, 2010, 04:03:45 PM
Could it be that avast! is scanning the thumbnail cache, as stuff is written/created?

Everytime I open a picture folder, it is being scanned.

If you open avast! and go to the file system shield, and then look at the 'Last file scanned:' what is being scanned?



Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 17, 2010, 07:27:50 PM
Well i just went to a folder i had pictures in , then went to Avast and the last file scanned was the folder i just opened  , so does that mean anything ??
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: JimDirt on May 18, 2010, 11:02:16 PM
Update :

I just tried something and it seems to have fixed the problem at least for now

The problem seems to have been Adobe Photoshop 7 , not Avast as far as i can tell the issue was fixed by going to any photo and right clicking and going to Properties , then under the Adobe tab , uncheck Generate Thumbnail  , i had never had this issue before so i dont know what caused it to do this , but so far it seems to have solved the issue  , i still dont know why Avast still scans or whatever its doing , but for now the speed of loading  pictures is working normally again !!
Title: Re: Issue with opening pictures Avast Scans it for no reason
Post by: DavidR on May 18, 2010, 11:28:07 PM
Well as I said avast doesn't scan of its own accord, so all I can think of is that Adobe Photoshop is converting the file to display a thumbnail image and that would force avast to scan it. Windows already has a Thumbnail option in the View menu list (I use this in my image folders and that doesn't force avast to scan), so no need to have another program convert to thumbnails.

Happy that you have finally got to the bottom of this mystery.