serious BUG: Avast slows down Vista inhibiting the Superfetch

[Lisandro]

without Avast my pc i s more more faster and I'm sorry because I really like Avast.

Sure... I won't expect that an antivirus has zero impact in the performance.
The question point here if it is acceptable, if there are other solutions to this inconvenience.
Protection takes resources. The equation will be always there. Even comparing products, you'll need to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges.

[rokis]

without Avast my pc i s more more faster and I'm sorry because I really like Avast.

Sure... I won't expect that an antivirus has zero impact in the performance.
The question point here if it is acceptable, if there are other solutions to this inconvenience.
Protection takes resources. The equation will be always there. Even comparing products, you'll need to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges.

I know!  but the difference is awesome like more than 50% slow to open a Oo writer for example and with another antivirus (AVI..) for example I can't tell  the difference but with avast every program I load slow down so much  :'(

[Lisandro]

I know!  but the difference is awesome like more than 50% slow to open a Oo writer for example and with another antivirus (AVI..) for example I can't tell  the difference but with avast every program I load slow down so much  :'(

Try opening the Standard Shield settings and uncheck to scan open/create/modified files and test the impact.

[rolloLG]

without Avast my pc i s more more faster and I'm sorry because I really like Avast.

Sure... I won't expect that an antivirus has zero impact in the performance.
The question point here if it is acceptable, if there are other solutions to this inconvenience.
Protection takes resources. The equation will be always there. Even comparing products, you'll need to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges.

No the fact is that Avast slow-downs a lot Vista forcing HD frequent loadings/writings. It's not a little (expected by a virus scanner) slow down. With the Standard provider disabled there's a big difference. It's an HD unnecessary overwork. Vista has Superfetch that wroks really fine reducing HD access to minimal. With Standard provider ON every action forces some HD noise, which is not normal.
Just test this: disable the Standard provider (=pause) yourself for a short time and you'll immediately notice the difference in HD loadings. You cannnot deny the difference if you make this simple test.
It looks like Avast routines bypass and don't cooperate with Vista's Superfetch.
As I've already written I tried to disable any option in Standard provider but was still the same. Only way to stop this strange behaviour was to Pause it or uncheck the whole 1st page settings... It's like Nort***n + Kasp***y together on a 486! Ok, maybe not so slow but the difference is evident however...

PS
How do I disable my email address view in this forum? You can see it? I've set "Hide from public" but I still see the little mail icon aside...

[Lisandro]

You cannnot deny the difference if you make this simple test.
It looks like Avast routines bypass and don't cooperate with Vista's Superfetch.

I'm an user like you. The programmers should say if avast cooperates or not with Superfetch.
I don't know.

How do I disable my email address view in this forum? You can see it? I've set "Hide from public" but I still see the little mail icon aside...

You're the only that can see your own email, not the other users.

[Solemn]

After browsing over this thread a bit, it does seem that this issue could be the root of my list of problems in my other thread posted here about my own series of odd slow-downs, so I can confirm this as being a viable bug too (however I haven't experienced any significant slow downs for saving in applications as listed here, or whatever, but rather in a series of other odd similar situations).

If those investigating this are looking for more possible relevant material to this, you can feel free to check out my post as well over here.  I'm hoping this issue will make it into the 4.8 update, but I guess the staff should take whatever time they need to properly resolve/diagnose this first rather than rush it.

[rokis]

After browsing over this thread a bit, it does seem that this issue could be the root of my list of problems in my other thread posted here about my own series of odd slow-downs, so I can confirm this as being a viable bug too (however I haven't experienced any significant slow downs for saving in applications as listed here, or whatever, but rather in a series of other odd similar situations).

If those investigating this are looking for more possible relevant material to this, you can feel free to check out my post as well over here.  I'm hoping this issue will make it into the 4.8 update, but I guess the staff should take whatever time they need to properly resolve/diagnose this first rather than rush it.

Indeed

[rolloLG]

No words from the Avast team? 
They are investigating or simply ignored these reports?

[rolloLG]

Hello,
the lastest avast version is 4.7.1098 and it was released 4th December - so it's quite long time!
avast detects Superfetch activities and it fully cooperates with Vista - so I believe this slowdown is not caused by avast.

I'm sorry but IT IS for sure.

Haven't you changed the settings or installed any apps lately?

No, it's an Avast problem with Vista, not a conflict with some other software.

PS. how long does it take than you'll notice that slowdown? immediately or after X hours... ? thanks.

Immediately since it's probably a bug in the way the Standard provider works

[DavidR]

I don't doubt that you are having problems, but if it were truly a bug in avast (alone) then there would be a huge amount of topics/posts about it in the forums and I just don't see them.

I'm just an avast user like yourself but I don't use Vista and will stick with XP Pro for some time yet, so I can't do any tests. I'm sure that the avast team will have done extensive tests on Vista systems and I can only assume that they didn't experience it as it wouldn't be in their interest to fix a problem they encountered.

[Hard_ROCKER]

Hey guys, my boot time with avast! latest stable or latest beta is around 5 minutes on Vista SP1. Without avast!( with Avira installed for comparison) the boot time is around 1 minute. This all started after i installed SP1, before that the boot time was normal. I didn't suspect avast! as the cause before, after reading this thread i decided to uninstall and give it a try and there's a huge difference in boot speed. Disabling the standard scanner helped abit but the boot time was still very long. Checking the " delay loading of avast services ... " box had little effect aswell. Besides the excessive boot time i haven't noticed any other slowdowns though.

I am willing to let Vlk VPN into my machine again if that would help in any way ...

[Lisandro]

Besides the excessive boot time i haven't noticed any other slowdowns though.

Mine too... I wish I had a shorter boot time in my Vista laptop. I know avast has impact, but why will it worth testing uninstalling it if I really want to keep it... If Vlk needs remote access to my computer, just let me know...
Is there any tool like the old Bootvis that could trace Vista booting?

[rbeane]

Found this thread on my monthly pilgrimage to Avast Forums, so I decide to perform some unscientific tests to see if I have an issue too.  On my Vista(non sp1) with 4.7.1098, I don't seem to have this issue.  When I run excel 2007, Avast scans it the first time then won't scan it again.  I presume due to utilizing superfetch.  Same happens with word, powerpoint, etc.  While I don't claim to refute what others are seeing, I thought I would share the info.  Could it be possible that in tweaking vista you have disabled a service necessary for superfetch to optimize performance?  Just a thought.  BTW, my tests were performed using Standard Shield Last Scanned field as an indicator of activity vs. performance timings.  My laptop is pretty fast so excel after the first run does take less than a second.

PS. When opening a file from a link Avast always scans the file and the .lnk but not the executable.

[Lisandro]

but not the executable

Are you sure? There is no sense on scanning the .lnk and not the executable

[rbeane]

When I click excel from the start menu it doesn't increment the scanned count or the last scanned fields.  The .lnk and .xlsx files are scanned when using a link off my quick launch bar on the task bar.  Using the last scanned and scan count as indication. So pretty sure...but using the rudementary visual tools decribed.  Hope it helps.