Can't merge vrdb 'i' icon with 'a' in Vista

[labrat82]

Hi guys,

I'm using Windows Vista (build 6000). I've just downloaded and installed Avast! 4 Home edition yesterday on it. I switched off animation on the main 'a' icon and also hit "merge with main icon" (or something like that) on the VRDB 'i' icon. In spite of this, the 'i' icon still shows up at regular intervals whenever it seems to be building the database. Its just a little annoying to have an icon popup now and then

Does anyone have the same problem or know of a fix for this?

2 thimbs up for a great product otherwise

Thanks

[DavidR]

The icons split when the VRDB is running and once the task is complete or system no longer idle or screen saver it merges again. Personally I have my VRDB generation set to screen saver, but I never use a screen saver, that way it doesn't auto generate which can take longer if it keeps starting and stopping.

I include the VRDB 'Generate Now' into my regular system maintenance I run this every two weeks, rather than the default 21 days, basically because it is easier to do it every other week, it takes mine around 8-9 minutes, this will differ slightly for each system. This means it is done at a time convenient to you, just go and get a coffee.

I feel you are losing a valuable tool by killing the animation of the ' a ' icon as it can provide an early warning of for instance a trojan spambot sending out email spam. The animation of the icon indicates one of the providers is scanning and if you happen to be doing something that wouldn't generate much activity it alerts you to other activity on your system.

[Lisandro]

Can you make me a test?
Here I explain the VRDB options: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg10271#msg10271
If you set:
ShowTaskbarIcon=0
TagDontShowNextTime=1
What do you get?

[labrat82]

@Tech, sure, will do this and let you know as soon as I get home in another couple of hours...currently at work so don't have any choice

@DavidR, thanks for your advice. Its not that I mind the animation of the main icon (in fact I agree it is pretty useful), I was trying out various combinations to try and stop the vrdb 'i' icon from popping up. I'm fine with the vrdb generation happening in the background, just want all notifications via the main 'a' icon (atleast the behavior I was expecting). If this is not the actual functionality then I'll take your advice and do this weekly. I just thought this might be a bug of some sort.

For now, I've just hidden the 'i' icon using the Windows taskbar "hidden icons" preferences and set it to "Always Hide"

[DavidR]

No problem, welcome to the forums.

I think doing it weekly is possibly to often as the VRDB generates three versions of its data, so that would only give a spread of two weeks. If you experience a problem with a virus infection on a file protected by the VRDB, it attempts a repair using the last generation, if that were to fail it would use the one previous to that and finally the oldest generation. The only reason I chose two weeks was it is easier to remember than every three weeks for manual generation.

[MikeBCda]

My personal little scheduling trick for the VRDB ...

I used to have it set for the default 3 weeks and "when idle" (I don't use any screen-savers), but I found often there was a conflict between when the VRDB tried to generate and fairly heavy activity at my end.  So the VRDB took forever.

I've now changed to "never generate", and set a Yahoo Calendar event for every 3rd week, with an email reminder the day before which I'll leave in my inbox.  Then I can just "generate now" when I'm about to go out walking the dog, or a similar non-computer activity.

Slightly off-topic ... it would be nice if avast's update checks could work the same as VRDB updates.  That is, a manual check for updates would restart the usual 4-hour interval for auto-checks.  Often I'll get an error "update is already running" even though the update icon hasn't yet appeared.  But quite a while back someone from the Alwil team suggested that it would be nearly impossible because apparently a totally different scheduling "mechanism" is used for program/def update checks.

[DavidR]

I'm not sure of the implications of having it set to never generate but periodically doing a generate now.

I was thinking (dangerous I know), if you have the VRDB set to never generate as the default then I don't know if that would have any impact on being able to use the Repair option if a virus is found.

I felt the safer option was set for screen saver and since I don't use one it isn't going to run automatically. Nice trick to set a calendar event if you use such a program.

If you have the Updates set to Manual, I don't think the interval is applicable as it doesn't check for updates as there is no auto or ask option. The update icon doesn't appear any more unless there is an update available, you can change the GUI to show the icon when checking.

[Lisandro]

I'm not sure of the implications of having it set to never generate but periodically doing a generate now.

Technically, on generation, I think there won't be a difference...

I was thinking (dangerous I know), if you have the VRDB set to never generate as the default then I don't know if that would have any impact on being able to use the Repair option if a virus is found.

Here, maybe, I'm not sure (it will be good a confirmation from Alwil) if the cleaning process will use *any* VRDB generated if the setting is 'not generate'.

[labrat82]

@Tech, ok I tried what you said and that removed the main 'a' icon from the tray alltogether. Not exactly what I wanted ...also there wasn't a "TagDontShowNextTime" param in the ini file, so I added that in.

I think I'll just take everyone elses advice and setup a schedule for generating the vrdb manually (unless there is some other way to what I'm trying to accomplish)

thanks.

[Vlk]

The trick is to have the ShowTaskbarIcon=0 line in the [VRDB] section of the file. This will disable only the VRDB icon, not the main icon.

Cheers
Vlk

[MikeBCda]

I was thinking (dangerous I know), if you have the VRDB set to never generate as the default then I don't know if that would have any impact on being able to use the Repair option if a virus is found.
....
If you have the Updates set to Manual, I don't think the interval is applicable as it doesn't check for updates as there is no auto or ask option. The update icon doesn't appear any more unless there is an update available, you can change the GUI to show the icon when checking.

Hi David,
Actually I may have, by going a little off-topic, confused things a bit.  With regard to the VRDB, it's my understanding that "never generate" means only there's never an auto-generate, but the resulting VRDB from "generate now" is exactly the same (and is used exactly the same for repairs) as if I made a different choice for VRDB update mode.

As for program/def updates, I used probably the most common settings, auto-update for defs and advise-only for program updates (the latter usually being much larger).   I do have Show Icon checked, but I get the impression that it doesn't actually appear until avast has successfully connected to one of the update servers.

[DavidR]

Sorry, but I don't think it is the same, you can't set the VRDB up to Generate Now that is a one off option, you have to select one of the other two methods of generation or never generate.

With it on never generate, to me that is so close to meaning disable or don't use VRDB as without generations there is no point in attempting a repair. It obviously leaves a grey area that Tech (and I) seeks clarification.

[MikeBCda]

When I Generate Now with the setting Never Generate, the status window then shows the latest VRDB update as the one I did "manually".

Whether it can later be used for repairs if necessary is another question, of course, and I think that's really what Tech's looking for by way of an answer from the Alwil gang.  I'd be surprised, though, if it's showing as the latest update but avast can't use it.

[DavidR]

When you generate the VRDB the information will get recorded in the same way a full scan does.

What my concern is, seeing that you have it set to Never Generate does the detection process ignore VRDB and repair completely even though you have done a manual generation. You don't really want to wait for an infection to test a theory.

So my personal thought is for you to set it to the 'screen saver generation' option, which because you don't use a screen saver won't run automatically and you continue to manually Generate Now.

[labrat82]

The trick is to have the ShowTaskbarIcon=0 line in the [VRDB] section of the file. This will disable only the VRDB icon, not the main icon.

Cheers
Vlk

Hey thanks...will try this out and post, didn't know the right place to put the parameter

EDIT: my bad actually, I missed this in Tech's post earlier