BootTime Scan

[xchino24]

Hello, my 2010 Norton Internet Security expired and I uninstalled it. So, I went to download Avast 5 Free ( recommended by my friends ) and I installed it. So I registered it and found out that Avast 5 boot time scan is not compatible with Win 7 64 bit PC... so I wondered, is it a must to have boot time scan? What is a boot time scan? and what does it do? And now that is not compatible with 64 bit pc, will it affect my security for my computer?

[DavidR]

It is hardly a must have as avast was the first to introduce such a scan and very few others have it even now. Currently it is only available in 32bit versions of win2k, winXP, Vista or win7; it is hoped to be available when the avast 5.1 update is released around September (date not fixed/confirmed officially).

What it is is the ability to run a scan before windows has fully started. So if there is a problem in dealing with an infected file with windows running normally than the boot-time scan can generally overcome that problem. Without the boot-time scan you can boot into safe mode and run the scan from safe mode.

It should have no effect on your security by not having a boot-time scan available.

[xchino24]

Oh okay, thanks! I was just worried about my security for my computer because Im not really used to Free Antivirus as I was forced to buy a new computer because my old computer was infected really bad and it had AVG free antivirus... and the whole OS was messed up. From there, I went on to buy new PC which came with 60 days Norton and now that it has expired, I plan to get new antivirus which I have Avast! 5 now. In the future, if Avast secures my computer really well, I may buy the professional version.

[DavidR]

No problem, you will find that avast, even the free version has functions not on some paid versions either.

It may be worth running one of these removal tools to ensure all remnants of Norton are gone, it can be a bit of a pig to get rid of at times.

A link worth looking at, which is a program removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs:
Removing your Norton program using SymNRT
Or ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe


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