New to Avast

[Lasarre]

I just installed Vista and my previous av didn't work.  I had installed Avast on my daughter's computer when she got it so I installed it on mine when I upgraded to Vista.  Does Avast do automatic scans or only when you boot the computer.  I know it does them on my daughter's, but I don't remember what I did to get it to do it.  She never turns her computer off and normally I don't either.  Will it perform an automatic scan at a certain time?

Thanks

[DavidR]

avast is a resident on-access scanner, it is always on and scans files prior to them being opened. It also scans some of the files during boot. You can initiate scans manually 'on-demand'

You can also schedule a boot-time scan (if this is what you mean ?) to happen before windows starts on your next boot, however this is only available with winNT, win2k, winXP, but not for Vista.

If you have XP or Win2k, you could enable a boot time scan. Right click the avast icon, select Start avast! Antivirus, Menu, 'Schedule boot-time scan...' This option will be greyed out if your OS and avast doesn't support it.

[Lasarre]

Actually, the "boot time scan" does work with Vista.  I was just wondering if it scans the system if you don't turn the system off.  Can you explain the "real time scanner"?  How is this different from a full system scan?  By doing this residential scanning will it catch virus'?  Thanks again

[DavidR]

Sorry, I haven't got Vista and there was an issue at one point I believe possibly with the beta version of Vista, thankfully that appears to have been resolved.

The on-access 'real time' scanner scans files before they are opened (depending on your standard shield settings and sensitivity), so if you double click an executable file before it has free reign to run amok, avast scans it. If that file were infected avast would alert and effectively stop the file from being executed.

The on-access scanner doesn't require any use input, it is resident, always running. So it only scans files in use and not every file as you would with the on-demand scan.

The 'full system scan' is an on-demand scan, on-demand in that you initiate it (demand it).

I suggest a browse of the avast Help file, Resident Protection section.

[Lisandro]

I was just wondering if it scans the system if you don't turn the system off.

No, it's an on-demand scanning that run when you turn on the computer...

Can you explain the "real time scanner"?  How is this different from a full system scan?  By doing this residential scanning will it catch virus'?  Thanks again

The real-time scanner is a resident protection, always on, running in background, protecting you all the time (when you read an email, browse, download a file, etc.). The on-demand scanning just run when you ask it to run, it follows your order, just run when you start it, so just to see if any infected file is in your computer, sleeping quietly there...

Hope it helps.

Edited... David posted before