Author Topic: How do I change settings so that Avast doesn't search my drive periodically?  (Read 4287 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

REDACTED

  • Guest
I don't want Avast to search and scan my hard disk periodically every 12 hours or so. It always costs ressources and is unnecessary in my case. If i want avast to do this, I'll start it manually.

I have no schedules set up for scans.
I have smart scan mostly disabled (completely is not possible, avast will crash then)

I don't want to enable "passive mode", it should just stop scanning other files randomly with no reason.

What should I do?

Offline Pondus

  • Probably Bot
  • ****
  • Posts: 37507
  • Not a avast user
Quote
I don't want Avast to search and scan my hard disk periodically every 12 hours or so.
How do you see this?

Note that all antivirus have realtime protection, meaning evrything that goes on in your computer is monitored in realtime .... could it be other disk activity you see avast monitor?


REDACTED

  • Guest
Just make an exception to the specific HD

REDACTED

  • Guest
Quote
I don't want Avast to search and scan my hard disk periodically every 12 hours or so.
How do you see this?

Note that all antivirus have realtime protection, meaning evrything that goes on in your computer is monitored in realtime .... could it be other disk activity you see avast monitor?

I notice my hd working, then analysed with procmon which process is working on my hard disk and it always was AvastSvc.exe.
and no, the computer is idling. no read/write going on. there should not have been a reason for avast to scan around stuff.

REDACTED

  • Guest
Just make an exception to the specific HD

where should I make an exception? global? pup? manual virus scan?

i think if i make an exception to my whole hard disk, it is completely unprotected. that's not what I want. Avast should still intercept when I accidently clicked on a malware .exe on my drive. but it should not scan around without a reason.

REDACTED

  • Guest
It seems it doesn't matter what you do, Avast will keep reading your entire HD periodically. Once or twice each day (so I think you're spot on with "every 12 hours or so") AvastSvc.exe insists on reading the 3 terabytes of data on my second hard drive. This serves no useful reason since that drive only contains games downloaded from Steam and GoG, so I added the HD as an exclusion in both active shields (details below) but that makes no difference at all. What else can I do to explain to Avast it shouldn't go over the whole 3 TB of data twice a day, each and every day, slowing down my computer for several hours each time? This is behaviour you'd expect from spyware, not your AV.  >:(

- settings > Components > File Shield: customize > Exclusions

- settings > Components > Behaviour Shield: customize > Exclusions

REDACTED

  • Guest
It seems it doesn't matter what you do, Avast will keep reading your entire HD periodically. Once or twice each day (so I think you're spot on with "every 12 hours or so") AvastSvc.exe insists on reading the 3 terabytes of data on my second hard drive. This serves no useful reason since that drive only contains games downloaded from Steam and GoG, so I added the HD as an exclusion in both active shields (details below) but that makes no difference at all. What else can I do to explain to Avast it shouldn't go over the whole 3 TB of data twice a day, each and every day, slowing down my computer for several hours each time? This is behaviour you'd expect from spyware, not your AV.  >:(

- settings > Components > File Shield: customize > Exclusions

- settings > Components > Behaviour Shield: customize > Exclusions


agree on that. this is the same problem i'm having since month now. I haven't found a solution for it.. you can disable everything that makes sense to stop it, but it still searches the complete hd every 6 or 12 hours.

making an exception for the harddrive is no solution of course, why would I still make use of an AV product then?
Avast is not changing this behaviour and not responding to my requests and questions.

Therefor I came to the conclusion that I need to get rid of Avast AV. As soon as I'm able to uninstall it without other errors (grrr§"%§$%) i'm sure i will not regret chosing another product which does exactly what the user wants and nothing more.



Offline Alikhan

  • Avast Evangelist
  • Super Poster
  • ***
  • Posts: 2220
Why don't you just set Global Exclusions of that specific areas you do not want to be scanned from Settings > General > Exclusions.

You can then remove the shields exclusions as global applies to everything.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2018, 09:48:06 PM by Alikhan »
Windows 10 Home 64-bit • Avast Free (latest stable version) •  Malwarebytes 4 Premium (On-Demand) • Windows Firewall Control • Google Chrome • LastPass • CCleaner • O&O ShutUp10 •

REDACTED

  • Guest
Thanks for your replies.

Why don't you just set Global Exclusions of that specific areas you do not want to be scanned from Settings > General > Exclusions. You can then remove the shields exclusions as global applies to everything.

Found out about this third screen where you can enter exclusions a few days ago. Tried it. Didn't work. After that, I also sent an e-mail to Avast support and haven't received a reply (yet). Besides the fact that it scans 3TB of data for no good reason every day (despite the HD being set as an exclusion three times now!) and besides the sound of that hard drive being read in full every time starting to drive me crazy, I've also mentioned that Avast is shortening the lifespan of my hard drive considerably. At least 80% of the hard drive's use is Avast reading every file on it again and again. That's malware behaviour, not AV behaviour.

Add to that the fact that about once a week when I boot my pc, Avast's protection is turned off - just like that. I have to be very careful to notice the tiny exclamation mark on the Avast logo next to the system clock. When I click on it and Avast's interface opens, it just says that I'm not protected (all shields are off) and presents me with a button to activate shields. When I click that button, everything is peachy again. I suppose it's Windows Defender playing games with Avast, although it's shut off completely, but still, an antivirus that's so easy to shut off completely doesn't offer me a feeling of security. And why doesn't Avast pop up a huge warning to let me know all shields are disabled? Because of Silent Mode? Come on, immediately after booting the PC Avast notices it got switched off and only places a tiny little exclamation mark on top of an already small logo... because I had the audacity to activate its innate 'gaming mode'?

I'm also looking into switching to another AV when my Avast subscription runs out in a couple of months. The obvious choices are... well, obvious. Problem is I don't know which of those AV offer some of the functions of Avast I've come to like, especially Silent Mode (gaming mode), Web Reputation and Site Blocking. Reviews on AV are never that in-depth.