My Avast is a mess. Scans stop prematurely.

[Stones]

I'll be quick.

OS: Windows Vista (64bit)
Avast Version: 4.8

Question #1: My virus scans are ending prematurely, the ones I have scheduled. They last maybe 13 or so minutes, all of them, then end 10-30 seconds later so says the log. Any thoughts why and how to fix it?

Question #2: What should I schedule to scan? Local Disks and Interactive Selection? What is 'Interactive Selection'?

Question #3: There is a 20-30 second pause before my OS starts up after installing Avast. Is this scanning for something?


Thank you.

[Lisandro]

Question #1: My virus scans are ending prematurely, the ones I have scheduled. They last maybe 13 or so minutes, all of them, then end 10-30 seconds later so says the log. Any thoughts why and how to fix it?

Scheduling? Are you using avast Pro?
How exactly does it freeze? Does it happen always approximately 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

Question #2: What should I schedule to scan? Local Disks and Interactive Selection? What is 'Interactive Selection'?

Interactive selection will ask you for which folders/disks to be scanned. Local Disks are physical fixed disks.

Question #3: There is a 20-30 second pause before my OS starts up after installing Avast. Is this scanning for something?

It could be just loading... do you have any other security program?
Thank you.
[/quote]

[Stones]

I took your advice and did some further investigating.

#1 Seems using the predesigned local disk scan there is no freezing. It was only in using my own customized scan.  Suppose that fixes that.

#2 I have Local Disk set to scan everyday. Would you recommend any further security options to maximize Avast protection? My Resident Protection is set to High.

#3 I only have Avast running. I thought possibly Avast had some rootkit or memory scanner on boot. Before I installed Avast I didn't have the pause before loading my desktop. I'm not complaining about the time just want to know if it's my end or Avast's end.

Thank you.

[DavidR]

#2 avast is a resident scanner and personally the resident on-access scans should be fine so I feel that daily on-demand scan as a little over the top. I do a weekly on-demand scan set to Standard sensitivity and without archives selected.

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 have left the Standard Shield set to Normal the default which provides a good balance between performance and protection. However, if your system is powerful and still responsive when set to High no problem.

#3 avast starts early in the boot process and files that load after that point should be scanned, so those loaded into memory should be scanned, this will obviously slow the boot slightly. Eight minutes after boot an ant-rootkit scan is done this only takes seconds and if anything is found it would alert. A rootkit scan is also don with on-demand scans with a sensitivity setting og Standard or Thorough.

I would also suggest a specialist anti-spyware to compliment avast, see my signature for the two other programs I use, the links are here.

If you haven't already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it periodically.

1. SUPERantispyware On-Demand only in free version. I use the paid pro version of this as it has resident protection.
2. MalwareBytes Anti-Malware freeware version http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe, right click on the link and select Save As or Save File (As depending on your browser), save it to a location where you can find it easily later.

[Stones]

Thank you very much. Changing my scan settings reduced my time incredibly with the archives. I have Vista which comes with a spyware defender but I'll pickup another one. Thank you both.

[Lisandro]

#2 I have Local Disk set to scan everyday. Would you recommend any further security options to maximize Avast protection? My Resident Protection is set to High.

Too much, like David said. Maybe monthly is enough.

#3 I only have Avast running. I thought possibly Avast had some rootkit or memory scanner on boot. Before I installed Avast I didn't have the pause before loading my desktop. I'm not complaining about the time just want to know if it's my end or Avast's end.

avast rootkit scanning run 8 minutes after booting/login, it shouldn't interfere just after login.