I have come up with a ‘work around’ to correct the slow running that appears to have been introduced by the roll-out of the new 2015 version. I have done this on my computer which is Windows XP SP3.
Open the Avast control window (double click the circular item in the system tray).
Click the Statistics tab on the left. This opens a new window. Ensure it is showing Your Stats, and Realtime data. Look at the Last scanned items. On my computer this list was rapidly scrolling up as files were being checked. I noticed that just two files made up more than 80% of the items. If you find something similar make a note of the name and location of those items. Now close this window, and click the settings tab from the main control window.
Expand the Exclusions section. Enter the path names of the files. These files will now not be checked anymore. You should notice that there is a significant reduction in the amount of ‘spining’ by the Avast icon, and your computer should be faster.
Warning. The files you have excluded will not be checked at any time or in any way by Avast. In my case they are programs I have had running permanently for quite a few years, (Acronis non-stop backup which is continually checking for new items to backup, and process monitoring software that I find useful from time to time) so I am happy to take the risk.
Although I would much rather that Avast was changed so that it didn’t scan a running program that it had already scanned a couple of times already during the last second. I’m sure it could be changed to wait a couple of seconds before re-scanning without increasing the virus risk
