scanning question

[king1]

I am using avast for the first time and did my first scan(thorough)and noticed it took over 40 minutes and was still going so i had to finally stop it,does it always take so loooong?what is the usual time it takes to complete the scan?

[Marc57]

Hey king1, welcome to the forums, There are several things that can affect scan times. The size of your HD and it's speed, Others are the amount of memory, processor speed, etc. I would suggest using a standard scan, and only use a thorough scan if something is found.

[DavidR]

I guess you probably had it scan archives ?

Archive (zip, etc.) files are by their nature are inert, you need to extract the files and then you have to run them to be a threat. Long before that happens avast's Standard Shield should have scanned them and before an executable is run that is scanned. Thorough is also by its design very thorough (it will take some time) and perhaps a little overkill for routine use, were a Standard scan without archives should be adequate.

I have only ever done a through scan with archives once shortly after installation just to ensure a clean start state, but with XP for example avast will do a boot-time scan after installation if you select it, this I believe will be quicker and reasonably effective. Like everything in life things are a compromise.

The scan duration may also effected by your RAM, CPU, your OS (possibly) and the amount of data to be scanned, none of which you mentioned.