Sick of PREFETCH!!

[bgbopper]

Hi Everyone, I am new here but I have been using Avast for sometime. There have been no problems of what I know of. Until now.

I have scheduled a scan every so often on my pc and, on checking the reports, they seem to work ok. BUT, when I do a manual scan for what ever reason, it always sticks on PREFETCH files!

I have looked through the forum and saw other folk have similar problems with their scanning & I followed the advice.

The result is still the same! I started a manual scan at 7.15 am and it was still "running" at13.25pm! Though the box kept showing PREFETCH.

I have the Professional Avast  & clicked all folders to scan including Archive/

Can anyone advise please?

[Cactusjack]

What"s the problem?
I know that you can once per month or so,remove all the cookies in the Folder PREFETCH.
After a few days can you see, that the folder again is beginning to filling new cookies.

[N@URINE]

Hi ! I think this may help you to solve your problem.
1-try to delete the content of Prefetch.
2-make an update of Avast.
3-go to add/delete program then click on "repair".
4-if the problem still the same, I advise you to installer anti-spyware,malware or adware and scan your computer.

[DavidR]

I have no idea why this might be happening in the prefetch folder as it is essentially no different to any other.

You could exclude the .pf files in the prefetch folder, C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\*.pf. This shouldn't pose a large security risk, but is just treating the symptom and not the disease.

By adding C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\*.pf to the Program Settings, Exclusions, Add, this would exclude the .pf files from on-demand scans and the context menu scan of ashQuick.exe.

When you do a manual scan (right click I assume) monitor the ashQuick screen and see if there is a file listed that it is hanging on ?

Are there any really large files in there that might cause a delay (I wouldn't have thought it would be a large delay as you mention) ?
Are there any files in there other than .pf files and the Layout.ini ?

[Lisandro]

it always sticks on PREFETCH files!

How exactly does it freeze? Does it happen always approximatelly at the same place/folder of the scan?
Do you see a hard disk activity (when it freezes)? Is only the program frozen, or the whole computer (possibly with mouse cursor)?

Additionally, you can go to the program settings and turn on the creation of the report file (with "OK files" to be included as well in the report). This way, you can find out where the scan really stopped (it's going to be close to the end of the report).

After avast! disappears, check the end of the report file - the "troublesome" file is likely to be close to the end (close in the sense that this particular file will probably not be written in the report, but the previous one will be the last line, so it shouldn't be hard to guess). We would certainly like to have this file - if it really causes problems to avast! - so that we could fix the problem.

The report file created (if you turned it on in program settings) will be (default location) at <avast4>\Data\Report\Simple User Interface.txt

Which other security programs do you have in this computer? Any other resident?

[bgbopper]

Hi everyone, & many thanks for your replies. I'll try and answer some of them:

1) I have AVG as well & that scans everyday. Most days it does not find anything, but when it does, it is a website I know about and it is normally a cookie.

2) The Avast board shows that everything is "running" but there is no movement on the "tested files number" and the state where Avast is at the time. I am running Avast as I type this now & it has been scanning since 7.45am. It is now 9.13am and I find it seems to be stuck again. Only this time it's on just:c:\Windows   and the scanning no 367119. It's been like that for ages.

3) When Avast does its scheduled scan, nothing unusual seems to happen. When I check the Reports section, it seems to have scanned ok at the set time.

4) The reason I am wanting to do a manual scan is because yesterday I clicked on a URL about dogs that I wanted to see and immediately Avast told me to cancel. I did cancel immediately, but now want to check that there is nothing on my pc as Avast warned me that it was a Trojan virus that tried to get on my pc by clicking that website. To me, it looked like an ordinary website,but now I have blocked it.

5) Should I un-install Avast & re-install? It will mean a lot of work but I need Avast running properly.

Once again, thanks for all the help. Learn a bit everyday.

[N@URINE]

hi ! I think that you should make an update of the program Avast and see if that can solve your problem.

[DavidR]

Hi everyone, & many thanks for your replies. I'll try and answer some of them:

1) I have AVG as well & that scans everyday. Most days it does not find anything, but when it does, it is a website I know about and it is normally a cookie.

This could be the root of the problem if you are talking about avg antivirus, having two resident scanners installed is not recommended as rather than provide twice the protection it can cause conflicts that could leave you more vulnerable. You should make your choice which one to keep and uninstall AVG. If it is avg anti-spyware then that isn't an issue.

4) The reason I am wanting to do a manual scan is because yesterday I clicked on a URL about dogs that I wanted to see and immediately Avast told me to cancel. I did cancel immediately, but now want to check that there is nothing on my pc as Avast warned me that it was a Trojan virus that tried to get on my pc by clicking that website. To me, it looked like an ordinary website,but now I have blocked it.

The web shield intercepts http traffic and scans it, if an infection is found you are alerted and the only option given is Abort Connection, this drops this download connection and the file isn't saved to your browser cache. So it isn't on your hard disk.

5) Should I un-install Avast & re-install? It will mean a lot of work but I need Avast running properly.

There is no need to uninstall and reinstall it.

[bgbopper]

hi again,

I've just been reading your replies, of which I am grateful.

The AVG is anti spyware not like Avast and I check Avast everyday for updates.

The scan I was doing earlier when it seemed to be doing nothing, I had to abort it. It was still running at 15.00 hours.

I am going to delete the prefetch & try again on a manual scan.

I'll let you know how I get on.

[MeDIeVaL]

Try delete all the files inside your prefetch folder and do the scan once again. If your folder is emptied so there's nuthin' to be scanned but if the problem still persist like avast! do scanning those folder for couple of files so whether you still got s'thing in there or you need to repair avast!.