Hadn't tried that one, but that is the way it is supposed to work.
Sorry to disagree.
avast is not supplied as, not designed to be an "on demand scanner". The design is intended to be a full function anti-virus product.
It is possible to cripple the product as discussed in this thread. However please do not be surprised if the future developments of the product make it more difficult for it to be run in this crippled configuration.
Permit me to disagree with you, alanrf. I have waited for more than three years, but finally I am glad to see someone use Avast the way I have been using it. As strictly an on-demand scanner.
Cheers, SooperHOP, I also have Vista 32 bit edition.
The ability to "cripple" the program into a highly efficient high-quality on-demand scanner is what has been keeping me with Avast for so long. You see, four years ago I was an F-prot antivirus user. It was all good and well until they released their new version which introduced one service and one additional permanent process. That means I had to live with those new memory hoggers, and if I decided to disable them, F-prot became unusuable. I also had tried Nod32. It was the same. For that very reason, I gave up on the new version of Ad-Aware too, even though I used to like it.
The ability to "cripple" the product in a way that allows me to keep a top-end high-quality on-demand scanner is the number one feature I am looking for and will look for in an anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-malware/anti-rootkit solution. Sure, I have lost virus chest, but I can safely say that I can isolate and report a suspicious file by using alternative means. On the other hand, I do not have a single Avast service or process running in the background. And from a perfomance or a stability point of view that helps. It helps a lot.
That "crippling" allowed me to bypass Wow keyboard problems that everyone else experienced while they were using the "full features". The "crippling" allowed me to have a normal browsing experience without the countless blocked emails or internet web page access denial that I have been reading in the forums for so long. And I can't imagine how many games and applications are working much better for me due to the reason that I am always being highly efficient in terms of what I allow to run in my process and service list and what I do not.
Well, you call it "crippling", but I have another name for this ability of an AV solution to become a minimalistic top protector.
I call it maximum perfomance on computer games, applications, the Internet, and that includes a much better overall computer stability. When one wants to squeeze the last frame-per-second possible in a computer game, achieve maximum stability, and eliminate all possible problems, you will realize that even on a top-end computer, the ability to "cripple" an AV solution, or any other application for that matter becomes invaluable.
I am deeply saddened to learn that the new version will force us to use 2 services and one additional driver and/or process in Avast. Even though I have been a very happy Avast user for more than three years, even though I have recommended it to my friends and personally installed it for them, I will doubtlessly look elsewhere for my protection, if achieving maximum performance in my games while still keeping a top-end fully-functional scanner intact becomes impossible.