Application Scanning All the Time

[themus]

Good Evening,

It is just my imagination, or does avast do some sort of scan everytime a new application launched.

I am noticing when I open different applications, the avast systray icon spins briefly, as if it is doing some sort of scan.

I've seen this with Quicken, IE and of course Outlook.

Can this behavior if it is associated with avast be controlled? I am not really worried about some virus with Quicken.

Thank you very much.

[DavidR]

avast is a Resident on-access scanner so it checks files before they are opened, depending on, a) the file type and b) the Standard Shield sensitivity, Normal is the default, High will obviously scan more files. What is your Standard Shield sensitivity ?

Can this behavior if it is associated with avast be controlled? I am not really worried about some virus with Quicken.

Can you expand on your worries ?

[mauserme]

Avast! is not necessarily scanning files other antivirus products don't.  That's what an on-access scanner does.

But it does make you more aware what its doing than some of the others.

[themus]

Thank you for responding so quickly.

I am not really worried, as I am wondering if this is affecting my performance a bit.

Lately I am seeing Outlook 2003 really dragging the first time it is launched; and I've seen other apps a bit slower opening than I remember.

It doesn't seem the scan takes place once the application has been opened at least one; except for Outlook of course.

Could you tell me where this option is so I can experiment with the performance?

Thank you very much for your help.

[Lisandro]

Could you tell me where this option is so I can experiment with the performance?

Left click the 'a' blue icon.
Click 'Details' button to expand the options.
Set the Standard Shield sensibility to Normal level and check the performance.

[DavidR]

I am not really worried, as I am wondering if this is affecting my performance a bit.

Lately I am seeing Outlook 2003 really dragging the first time it is launched; and I've seen other apps a bit slower opening than I remember.

It doesn't seem the scan takes place once the application has been opened at least one; except for Outlook of course.

Performance and protection will always be a balancing act and avast's default sensitivity of Normal for the shields is a good compromise between performance and protection.

Outpost when loaded for the first time may take a little longer as it has the additional avast plug-in (outpost/exchange). There may also be some scanning going on if you have a lot of email in your Inbox, it may be scanning old emails and or message bodies (see image).

It isn't advisable to use the inbox for general storage but like a pending tray as the inbox is the one most likely to suffer corruption or deletion, once read/actioned it should be filed in a folder more appropriate to that email content.