Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: mikeman10 on April 12, 2011, 04:27:01 PM
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I'm new to avast free. I was going through all of my shield settings and i saw that you can turn the sensitivity up to high. Now my question is should I keep them on normal that is how default was or should I set it to high? And what are the benefits of keeping it on normal over high or high over normal thanks!
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Personally I would leave the default settings for a while until you get more used to avast and how it runs on your system before increasing the sensitivity or priority, etc.
Spend some time rummaging through the avastUI to get used to it and if there is something that you aren't fully aware of how it might work then refer to the Help Center to try and gage any impact a change in those settings might have.
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I quote from av-comparatives.org testing:
"Avast, ... : asked to get tested with heuristic set to high/advanced. For this reason, we recommend users to consider also setting the heuristics to high/advanced."
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Yes, because many of the other scanners were doing the same.
But a period of consolidation by the user to get an idea of how avast works on their system before making changes is advisable.
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Just to add to this, I have all settings set to high sensitivity and have never had a false positive due to this and have not noticed any impact on performance.
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For most people that will be correct, but in order to see any noticeable difference you have to have a reference point, hence the use of default setting for a period of time.
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So keeping the shields to high will use more system resources ?
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I quote from av-comparatives.org testing:
"Avast, ... : asked to get tested with heuristic set to high/advanced. For this reason, we recommend users to consider also setting the heuristics to high/advanced."
Yes, but doing that resulted in so many FP's that Avast! failed the AV-Comparatives test. I would recommend leaving things on default. Especially the heuristics.
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I keep all my real time shields at normal, but I have my quick scan and full scan set to high. Kind of the best of both worlds.
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I agree with David's response in keeping settings at default for now. For other users who have been using the program for a while, it would also depend on your setup (other security software on your system). If you look at my Signature as an example, I cannot put my Avast settings on high with all shields as this may cause a conflict with other software and as of now all my software play well together. I have tested and tried putting things up higher for extra protection on certain software but it only disables other software, so I have a happy medium right now.
Keep in mind that everyone has a different set up, so what works for one person may not work for another. But using default settings initially for Avast is recommended as previously stated.
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So keeping the shields to high will use more system resources ?
Not necessarily as until a shield is used then its level of resource use would be the same. Increasing the sensitivity/heuristics, etc. could mean more scanning requirement and an increase in resource use.
So as SafeSurf said it also depends on an individuals system and other running applications. So a period of running on normal settings and then check how it runs after the increase; for most with a reasonably modern system (CPU and RAM) will probably find little performance hit.
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What do you keep your shields on davidr
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What do you keep your shields on davidr
I would say keep it on normal,(default), unless you are looking for malware.
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I keep all my real time shields at normal, but I have my quick scan and full scan set to high. Kind of the best of both worlds.
Same thing here.
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I have everything maxed out and enabled PUP's on d every shield. Not one issue or performance drop.
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What do you keep your shields on davidr
As I said, it will be different for individual users based on their system, applications and browsing habits, etc.
I do a lot of investigating of certain sites reported in the viruses and worms forum, I have the Web, File system and Mail Shields set to high, but I do not have scan for PUPs as personally I don't consider them a huge risk.
PUPs are only an issue if a) you didn't know about them b) didn't install or download them; so because of their purpose might be considered possibly unwanted programs, basically I would be aware of that purpose and if it is unwanted.
However, this might not be the case for all users and to be honest, much of what would be detected as a PUP is more likely to scare the pants of most users, when in fact they are just tools. So it does really require a little bit of knowledge or you could be reacting as if this were a virus and not just a tool (crucially that you or the system manufacturer) has been installed for a legitimate purpose.
One size doesn't fit all, and that is why the avast default settings are a good balance between protection (not having it too sensitive) and performance (if your system isn't particularly fast).