Author Topic: Temporarily Disabling AVAST?  (Read 5364 times)

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David90

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Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« on: August 06, 2004, 08:45:27 AM »
I've just installed the home version of AVAST 4 and like it a lot, but want to know how to occasionally shut it down to free up memory and keep it from conflicting with 3D games. How can I temporarily disable AVAST after boot up or occasionally keep it from loading at boot when I want to run a resource hungry 3D game?  Since installing AVAST there are five or six new processes running in my Windows XP Taskmanager all using memory I would like to free.  I've experimented with different ways to shut the program down, but need some advice from an expert on how to do it properly.  After loading during boot up, Is it better to shut it down from the system tray icons (the area on the lower right by the clock), or should it be shut down by ending AVAST's processes in the XP Taskmanager? For example, I can shut down my firewall and screensaver from their system tray icons by simply right clicking and selecting exit, but no similar command for AVAST is available.  What commands for shut down should I select?  If it's better to shut down the processess in the Taskmanager, what are their names?  Thanks for any help!

Offline Vlk

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Re:Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2004, 09:04:28 AM »
The main thing (the services) can be easily stoped using the Services applet in Control Panel -> Administrative Tools.

The rest can basically be killed in Task Manager and then simply restarted (by directly running from the avast folder, with no command-line arguments). But they really don't take much resources so you can leave them running unless you have an truly oldish 'puter...

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Vlk
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Offline Eddy

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Re:Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2004, 10:29:12 AM »
As Vlk said and as you can see in the taskmanager, Avast hardly uses resources. No need imo to shutdown for a game. Another thing is that with (3D) games it is more the video memory that is important and Avast hardly is graphically active when it runs in the background. With some games you will see the message that the vps/program is updated through the game. This is called "steeling focus". Microsoft has a little application called tweakui in which you can set applications not to steel focus. This way you will not see the update message while playing and Avast still updates if needed.

Offline Lisandro

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Re:Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2004, 01:52:33 PM »
If you click on 'Control' in my signature, you will find a standalone application to control avast (including temporary disable)  8)
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David90

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Re:Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2004, 06:28:02 PM »
Thanks for answering my questions, gentlemen!  And thank you Avast for offering the program for free to home users.  Some of us are on a tight budget.  Best Regards!

CharleyO

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Re:Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2004, 10:49:47 AM »
   
   
Also, if you have combined the 2 "a" balls on the taskbar, you can right click the one "a" ball and select "Stop On-Access Protection and Exit". A restart or reboot of your computer may be needed to restart these functions.

By the way, do not disable these features if you are playing games on-line!

Hope this helps you!    :)  

« Last Edit: August 08, 2004, 10:53:06 AM by CharleyO »

Offline bob3160

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Re:Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2004, 06:48:13 PM »
Quote
A restart or reboot of your computer may be needed to restart these functions.
A smarter thing to do would be to download
RejZor Avast External Control Program (AEC)
This program can be classified as avast! Rescue Kit.
You'll find many features to help you remove that nasty parasite or to check avast! status and versions.
Readme with full description of all features and Changelog included in ZIP package
http://freeweb.siol.net/razor256/downloads/avast_external_control.zip
As always, Thanks RejZor :)
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David90

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Re:Temporarily Disabling AVAST?
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2004, 12:12:23 AM »
Thanks for the tips, guys!  I don't  go online without antivirus and a firewall.  Used to be I didn't worry about it, but I wised up. I don't do any on line gaming because I connect via a dial up modem and performance on dial up isn't so great, so disabling Avast isn't a problem when running games.  I Downloaded the External Control Program, but haven't used it yet.  Looks like it should work fine.  Among many usefull features, you can shut down all Avast processes, which is what I was hoping to do before running games.  Thanks, RejZor!  While Avast uses very little CPU power when running in the background, it apprently does use quite a bit of the Page File.  Being an intermediate to novice computer user, I'm not exactly sure what the Page File is, but I think that's virtual memory, which takes over when your Graphic Card can't handle everything thrown at it.  Perhaps I am mistaken;  If anyone knows anything about this, I would appreciate some furher insight!  I have a 64mb Graphics Card, 650mb of RAM with a Pentium 4 at 2.3Ghz running WinXP Pro, but I play some very demanding 3D games, and I usually get better performance when I kill as many uneeded (for gaming) processes as is safe to do so.  Thanks for the help!  ;D