Can I stop Avast free from scanning directory junctions?

[andyxl987]

I made the change to Avast free since upgrading to Windows 7 and am very pleased with it other than one exception. I just ran a full system scan which ended up taking over an hour, scanning 2.4TB of data although my system has less physical drive space than this - I've actually only used about 850GB of just under 2TB total disk space.

Most of my multimedia and user data is stored on a separate drive rather than the system one. I have multiple junction points to maintain compatibility with applications designed for XP and those hardcoded to use certain directories. I also have selected non-essential programs and games installed to this separate disk (using junctions so that they appear in Program Files) to minimize the disk space required when performing a system backup.

Avast doesn't differentiate between these junctions and scans such directories multiple times, this is particularly slow for certain directories which are being scanned several times, e.g.

* C:\Documents and Settings\Andrew\My Documents\My Videos\
* C:\Users\Andrew\Documents\My Videos\
* D:\Documents\My Videos\
D:\Videos\

(* indicates directory junction):

[igor]

avast! should scan the folder only once; sure, it may be through C:\Documents and Settings link (it scans the first "occurrence" and skips the repeated ones if it comes at the same folder later) - but it doesn't really matter.
Are you sure the folder was scanned multiple times? What exactly was the area you chose to scan?

avast! counts the content of unpacked archives (when it's enabled) into the scanned size - that may be the reason for reporting more data than you physically have on your drive...?

[andyxl987]

I performed a standard scan on my local disks with archives disabled. I'm positive it scanned some folders multiple times as I kept an eye on the directory information whilst the scan was active. There's no other way that Avast could have scanned 2.4TB of data, especially considering I had the unpack archive option disabled.

Even if I unpacked every archive on my computer I doubt I would get anywhere near 1TB. My music, videos and downloads directories total about 500GB, with the 3 directory junctions this would account for about 2TB of the scan. I'd imagine the other 400GB is from backups and system files.

[faust]

Like the OP, I also make extensive use of junctions, and I can confirm that Avast 5.0 is indeed NOT skipping junction points.  Not only did I watch it scan down multiple duplicative junctions, it reported scanning 300GB on what are only 100GB of files, and reported finding the same *one* PUP *nine* different times.

You folks *really* need to add an option to skip junctions.

[igor]

Please let a report be created for the scan and upload it to ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming
Also, please include the info about what areas exactly you scanned, and where are the junctions in the detected file paths.
Thanks.

[faust]

I'm not sure what all that info will tell you, other than that I am telling the truth, but since you ask so nicely I'll go through the effort of enumerating my numerous junctions and uploading the report.

It should be trivially easy to duplicate.  Create a directory with EICAR in it.  Create a junction to that directory.  Run "Full System Scan".  You'll find that Avast reports that EICAR is found twice.

Note that "Select Folder to Scan" also scans within junctions, but that is expected behavior when you're selecting which folder to scan.  When performing a "Full System Scan" there is absolutely no reason to scan junctions, since you'll always (neglecting bizarre outlier conditions) end up scanning the appropriate files when you scan along the normal path.  At the very least it should be optional.

Btw, I'm running Avast 5.0 on XP Pro SP3.

[igor]

Note that "Select Folder to Scan" also scans within junctions, but that is expected behavior when you're selecting which folder to scan.  When performing a "Full System Scan" there is absolutely no reason to scan junctions, since you'll always (neglecting bizarre outlier conditions) end up scanning the appropriate files when you scan along the normal path.

Well, that's how it's supposed to behave for some time already... seems like there's a tiny bug somewhere

[faust]

Ok, I uploaded the file.

Let me know the results of your analysis.

[faust]

Any word on this? 

Is there a bug tracking service that I can monitor?

[igor]

I believe the problem should be fixed in the latest build.

[faust]

Igor,

That's great to hear.  Thx.

(btw, Before seeing your response, I finally made my way to the support center and submitted a ticket (XQV-229445), just in case.)