Slow scan with newest update

[DavidR]

Well 1hour 51minutes is still a huge time, but moving in the right direction down.

Your older compaq if you just did a down and dirty conversion and tripled the time it would be 54 minutes which would be nearer the mark. Presumably that system doesn't have any itunes media files on it.

Whilst S&D's tea-times is only using a limited amount of CPU it could still have a greater impact as it could effectively interrupt the avast scan, so personally I would disable it and test again, a pain I know but trying to pin something like this down isn't easy and you can't make multiple changes to your set-up or you won't know the true culprit.

Then it would be exclude the itunes folder's itunes file types, how big are these media files in total ?

I still don't know anything about itunes file types but my friend google might help.

Songs purchased through the  iTunes Music Store are encoded as 128kbps AAC files. AAC files normally have a .m4a file extension (i.e. U2 - Vertigo.m4a). However because Apple uses DRM to "protect" the files (more on this below), iTunes purchased songs have a .m4p extension.

So perhaps this DRM is getting in the way ?

[petek471]

I was thinking the same as you on the Compaq scan time. I'm also not sure there is any special roadblock presented by the iTunes files, as the scan on some of the other apps were just as slow as the Apple scan.
But I will not do a full scan as often as I had been doing. I think with the resident Avast (and now Spybot) I should be virus and nuisance free. Do you think that's adequate? How often do you think a standard scan should be performed? ..same question for a Thorough scan.

[DavidR]

Archive (zip, rar, etc.) files are by their nature are inert, you need to extract the files and then you have to run them to be a threat. Long before that happens avast's Standard Shield should have scanned them and before an executable is run that is scanned. Thorough is also by its design very thorough and perhaps a little overkill for routine use, were a Standard scan without archives should be adequate.

I have only ever done a Through Scan with Archives once shortly after installation just to ensure a clean start state, but with XP for example avast will do a boot-time scan after installation if you select it, this I believe will be quicker and reasonably effective. Like everything in life things are a compromise.

I generally weekly is fine or even monthly (though the longer it is left I would consider a deeper scan) but still without archives. Of course if you have excluded the itunes files then perhaps that duration won't be an issue.

[petek471]

Thanks DavidR, I think I have been overscanning by doing a standard scan every time Avast updates. But I'll just scan less frequently and start Avast before I go to sleep and forget about the long scan time.
When I installed Avast on my wife's PC (Vista/Core2 Duo) the program did a boot scan on installation. So I think we're adequately protected now.
About DRM affecting Apple's files...who knows what evil lurks in DRM. I don't like intrusive programs, copy protects, etc. anyway. I'm thinking of deleting all iTunes files from my PC after we get them copied onto her PC (if drm will allow us to do it). 

[DavidR]

I'm not a fan of DRM either even though I'm no music fan, I believe if you buy it you should be able to move it wherever you like and play it on whatever media player you link. Unfortunately the RIAA and other organisations like these leaches don't agree with my view

[petek471]

Agreed!

[Geoffo]

One thing that puzzles me is why all this started only after the latest update (as the thread title says). Surely all the depth testing and investigation suggested above would have been necessary before the prog update. It looks like the slow scanning was a direct result of the latest update???

[alanrf]

My weekly scan time is one of the first things I check in every avast beta program.

With the most recent avast beta and final release there was no change in the weekly thorough (with archives) scan time of the 5 drives on my Win XP SP3 system.  However I am not an Apple customer - for any of their offerings.

[DavidR]

Before a program update there is usually a beta release announced on the forums and if anything like this is experienced it is ironed out before the regular program release.

However, it is almost impossible to check against all the system permutations out there against those involved in the beta testing. If this were happening on 'all' systems after an update the forums would be swamped by topics relating to it and that clearly isn't the case, that doesn't make it any less a pain in the rear for those experiencing a problem.

You should also note that scans have been getting progressively longer for Peter as it is probably cramped by system resources/components. Program updates alo include additional functionality like the anti-rootkit scan (though this shouldn't have a major impact), it may also include additional archive unpackers which would also have an impact if archives are selected (not in this instance). So the price you pay for additional protection is often an increase on scan duration. Fortunately in this example it isn't common.

[petek471]

As DavidR stated, my scans got progressively longer as more files were added to my PC. The subject line does suggest it happened in step function fashion with the latest Avast update, so my choice of words could have been better.
 
As of today, I have managed to get my standard scan down to 1 hour, 30 min, so that is a big improvement. This was a result of deleting a lot of files that were not used, cached, etc. I also did some other maintenence, and followed all by defragging.

So I apologize for the misstatement of my subject line, and I would like to thank DavidR for his kind support.

[DavidR]

You're welcome and thanks for your feedback.

[rogerfgay]

I just installed Avast and am running my first thorough scan on a dual core intel machine (HP dv9000 series laptop). It's been running for about 2 hours so far and says it's scanned 8% of the files. I'm also running it on an older machine that's so far scanned 3% of the files in about 3 hours.

[DavidR]

It would be best to post this in your own topic so as not to confuse the other topics you have jumped into, thanks.

Go to this link, http://forum.avast.com/index.php, scroll down to the avast! 4 Home/Pro forum and click it, click the New Topic button at the top of the list and post their.

In that topic we will need some more information about both systems, CPU, RAM, HDD size and amount of data on it which will be scanned. More importantly the Type of scan you have selected, e.g. Local Disks, Thorough, with Archives, etc. Without this information we would be just guessing.

[petek471]

I just installed Avast and am running my first thorough scan on a dual core intel machine (HP dv9000 series laptop). It's been running for about 2 hours so far and says it's scanned 8% of the files. I'm also running it on an older machine that's so far scanned 3% of the files in about 3 hours.

I have a similar notebook (HP dv6000, dual core CPU) and I just ran a thorough scan on it and it took 1 hour, 30 min to complete. This is a pretty new notebook I got for my wife and its not yet loaded down with too much other than the original preloads (minus any Norton/Symantec programs which I have removed). Its a 1.83GHz dual core, 100GB HDD, 2GB RAM, running Win Vista.
On my older notebook I can get a standard scan to run in about 1:30, but to do so I had to do all the basic housekeeping I could think of. Good luck with yours. 

[wyrmrider]

petek
in addition to the add-remove programs uninstall did you run the norton uninstaller?

http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallnorton.shtml
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_can_i_fully_remove_norton_antivirus_from_my_system.html

Then try Using the AntiVir Registry Cleaner

If for some reason the normal uninstall does not work, you may have to download AntiVir's registry cleaner utility to remove all traces of it (NORTON) from the registry and allow you to reinstall Your AV.

1) Click on the following link and download the AntiVir Registry Cleaner to your desktop

http://dl.antivir.de/down/windows/registrycleaner.zip

2) Create a folder on your desktop called Antivir and Unzip the file to your desktop
3) Double-click on the file called RegCleaner.exe to run it

4) Since the program is German, you'll have to click on the button called "keys asulesen" to search the registry for any issues. Then place checkmarks next to the registry entries you wish to delete.

5) Finally, click on the button called "loschen" to delete the keys

6) Restart your computer and try to reinstall your antivirus