To Disable or Not?

[BobbyZee67]

     
   Hi,
   My OS is Vista Home Premium SP2,Avast4.8 Home Pro,ZoneAlarm Pro,Malwarebytes(Protection Enabled),Superantispyware(Free)
   and Spywareblaster.

   Lately, it has been taking longer to boot up,latest security program updates downloaded,and daily scans indicate nil infections,so
   I'm now looking at disabling some programs from Start Up,to see if that helps.

   My question is "Would it hurt to disable Avast from starting up,or is it not recommended"?

   Grateful for any advice.

   Cheers BobbyZee67

[Hermite15]

it's not recommended to disable an anti-virus at start up at all 

[DavidR]

There is little point in installing a resident on-access antivirus only to try and disable it on startup, so another 'no it isn't recommended.'

The only thing you should have run on boot are windows essential services, resident security applications and any other absolutely essential applications.

Many programs set themselves to run on boot when there is no requirement; media applications typically do this and there is no need for it to start until you click on a media file.

Doesn't ZA Pro have other functions over and above just being a firewall, which could impact on boot duration. I know mine Outpost firewall Pro has anti=spyware and some other bells and whistles which if running on boot caused avast to scan many more files (hundreds more). For me I want a firewall to do just that. ZA Pro's privacy function can also cause issues with avast and the web shield.

I don't really rate the ZA Pro firewall any longer and I'm not alone, see http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php. Just check out its ranking and it is very poor.

[Lisandro]

My question is "Would it hurt to disable Avast from starting up,or is it not recommended"?

Not recommended at all.

[BobbyZee67]

   Many thanks for all replies, I will leave well alone!

   Having said that, I have seen one or two posts in the forum to the fact that Avast! seems to be slowing startups.

   Re: ZoneAlarm, I take the point and I have tried to trim it down and I have in fact uninstalled their ForceField toolbar.

   Cheers,

   BobbyZee67

[DavidR]

No problem, glad I could help.

Welcome to the forums.

[nadiamdq]

I'm new here as well, and I also wanted to ask the same thing. Since obviously everyone advices not to disable the starting up scan, is there any way to make it quicker? Any help is appreciated.

[Tarq57]

It shouldn't do a "startup scan" by default, just start with Windows.
Is yours trying to do a boot-time scan?

Generally: Check the "msconfig" application (Start>run, type msconfig, click Enter) and check the startup tab, to see what is starting with Windows.
As DavidR has indicated, there are a lot of programs that grant themselves startup rights when they certainly don't need to.

[DavidR]

I'm new here as well, and I also wanted to ask the same thing. Since obviously everyone advices not to disable the starting up scan, is there any way to make it quicker? Any help is appreciated.

Depends what you mean by make it quicker, e.g. how long is it taking (hence the boot-time scan question by Tarq57) ?

Can you give is some idea of your system specs, e.g. OS, CPU, RAM and other security software ?

[nadiamdq]

I meant boot-time scan, sorry.

By making it quicker, I referred to the time it takes, since it seems to scan every single file in the computer. If I set the scan to check, for example, only the C unit, could it take a little less time? (Oh, and sorry I can't answer all the technical questions, but my knowledge is a bit limited, I suppose  )

[Hermite15]

I meant boot-time scan, sorry.

By making it quicker, I referred to the time it takes, since it seems to scan every single file in the computer. If I set the scan to check, for example, only the C unit, could it take a little less time? (Oh, and sorry I can't answer all the technical questions, but my knowledge is a bit limited, I suppose  )

there's something wrong going on, you shouldn't have the boot time scan running every time you're booting your system. That's an on demand scan.

[DavidR]

I meant boot-time scan, sorry.

By making it quicker, I referred to the time it takes, since it seems to scan every single file in the computer. If I set the scan to check, for example, only the C unit, could it take a little less time? (Oh, and sorry I can't answer all the technical questions, but my knowledge is a bit limited, I suppose  )

It doesn't scan every single file but it is quite thorough, it isn't designed to replace the standard on-demand scans which are far more configurable, but to be run when you find a problem dealing with an detection where the file is in use or protected in some way when windows is running.

When you schedule a boot-time scan there is an Area to scan, which you can select the areas to scan (see image), there are also Advanced options to deal with detections - Don't opt for deletion (you have no options left), always send to the chest and investigate. So as you can see it can be configured, but it is best to use it as intended to deal with detections that can't otherwise be dealt with in normal windows mode.