AVAST 4 resource (memory) requirements

[Gary]

AVG uses 450KB.  Thats not a typo. Very lean. But not as pretty as Avast!

Gary

[Vlk]

AVG uses 450KB.

LOL
Could you tell me where exactly did you get this information?

FYI, the scanning engine of AVG is located in a kernel driver. Hence most of its memory allocations are done from the driver, and don't show up in things like Task Manager etc...

We can discuss this in more detail, if you wish, but I'm getting increasingly tired hearing that avast is a memory hog. I just don't think so.

Vlk

[Gary]

Don't get tired. Its just getting interesting!
Yes it is loaded as a kernel driver. The associated service shown in task manager shows  460K (VM). The question is, does this service reflect the true memory usage of the kernel driver? That is, if the service is stopped does the kernel driver get unloaded and the memory freed?
Otherwise, how does one determine how much memory is being used by this (and other) drivers? What are the advantages/disadvantes of loading as a kernel driver.

Memory usage is probably not so important (its cheap). Resource usage and how efficiently the code is written is. Inefficient memory usage may be one indicator of how well the code is written.

Gary

[Vlk]

Don't get tired. Its just getting interesting!

All right, why not, I agree...

Yes it is loaded as a kernel driver. The associated service shown in task manager shows  460K (VM). The question is, does this service reflect the true memory usage of the kernel driver? That is, if the service is stopped does the kernel driver get unloaded and the memory freed?

No way. Anyway, these are two questions (with possibly different answers).

Does task manager show memory allocated from a driver? --> No.
Does the AVG driver get unlaoded when the service is stopped? --> No.

Otherwise, how does one determine how much memory is being used by this (and other) drivers?

Not easy, really. You can try the driver verifier. Go to the Start menu, click Run, type verifier and hit enter. Depending on your OS, couple of things can show up. The GUI of the verifier in Win2K is totally different from the one found in XP. Anyway, the interface is little quirky but it shouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes to find out how to enable the verifier for the 2 AVG drivers (these are avgcore and avgfs, I believe (I may not recall the names exactly)). Then you'll be prompted to reboot the machine.

After the reboot, fire verifier again and go to monitoring. Here you can see the number of paged and nonpaged bytes the drivers have allocated.

What are the advantages/disadvantes of loading as a kernel driver.

That's a difficult question. Each approach has its pros and cons. However, the trend now is it move (everything that can be moved) to user mode. The reason is that every single bug in a driver usually results in a BSOD - and people hate BSOD's. This is why e.g. McAfee, whose VirusScan engine was traditionally in a driver, moved it a DLL...

Resource usage and how efficiently the code is written is. Inefficient memory usage may be one indicator of how well the code is written.

Absolutely.
But as I already said, when designing the avast 4 engine, we faced a dilemma whether to employ some advanced, new data structures that will require extra memory but will let us work faster, or use the conservative low-memory-usage approach. We chose the new approach, and I'm happy we did.

Vlk

[fhn]

I agree that the use of physical memory can speed up performance.  And Avast is faster than Norton AV in some repects.  However, your should work toward reducing system resources usage because it is a fixed quantity in Windows 9.x.

F.

[mantra]

sorry Vlk
i use taskinfo pro 2002
AVAST mail servise 5.412kb in ram
avast servise 10.788 kb in ram
distribuited com servis 2096 kb ram

at all how many ram does avast! suck ?

[Culpeper]

I use taskinfo 2003

Snapshot:

6776 AV Serv
4660 AV email scanner
2060 Dist COM

Big deal!

[deadcoat]

I am running a win98se 166mhz cpu with 56mb ram yes those numbers are correct. I use to have problems completing a scan of my harddrives. I always pick thorough scan with archive scan enabled.
However I did find an odd solution useing the backup utility that comes with win98se I backup my c: drive to a folder on my d: drive than selected restore backup and selected replace all files . There was a bunch of warnings a few about avast being busy and a few about regestry settings just kept clicking ok. After the reboot the key to avast was lost likely I saved it was able to put back in. Now here is the interesting part now when avast starts it uses its safety mode skin and not that blue one. Now that it is running with safety mode skin it runs faster.
I would like to caution trying to follow what I did there is a good possibility that you might lose your entire system.

[Culpeper]

Sounds dangerous!

Anyway to get the safey skin to load without all that backing up?

[mantra]

deadcoat
TRY DR.WEB 4.29c
it's GREAT GREAT
AND need 1MB to work!!!
 
i'm using now

[Waldo]

deadcoat
TRY DR.WEB 4.29c
it's GREAT GREAT
AND need 1MB to work!!!
 
i'm using now

could be, but i will stay loyal to AVAST!4.0 (saved my ass to many times, to drop it)

Waldo

[igor]

Culpeper: It is a low-res skin, that's used automatically for low monitor resolutions (or more likely for low number of colors (16), I'm not sure) - which is the case when the Windows are running in Safe mode.

If you want to use it even for ordinary resolutions, you can enable it - go to the avast4\Data\Skin folder, find the "low res.asws" file and rename it to anything else (e.g. "verysimple.asws"). Now, you will see the skin in the ordinary "Skin selection" dialog and you will be able to use it as any other skin.

But I warn you - it's really not a nice skin  

[jdong]

I personally don't think Avast is a memory hog.

Besides, I would rather use a memory hog if it:

(1) Is accurate in detection and quick with updates. (eg Avast, F-Secure)
(2) Is quick to scan (eg McAfee) and leaves little slowdown footprint (eg Avast)

[Culpeper]

I personally don't think Avast is a memory hog.

Besides, I would rather use a memory hog if it:

(1) Is accurate in detection and quick with updates. (eg Avast, F-Secure)
(2) Is quick to scan (eg McAfee) and leaves little slowdown footprint (eg Avast)

*Applause*  

[Culpeper]

Culpeper: It is a low-res skin, that's used automatically for low monitor resolutions (or more likely for low number of colors (16), I'm not sure) - which is the case when the Windows are running in Safe mode.

If you want to use it even for ordinary resolutions, you can enable it - go to the avast4\Data\Skin folder, find the "low res.asws" file and rename it to anything else (e.g. "verysimple.asws"). Now, you will see the skin in the ordinary "Skin selection" dialog and you will be able to use it as any other skin.

But I warn you - it's really not a nice skin  

Thanks!