Behaviour shield causes excessive slowdown

[tasker]

I am running the current version of Avast 5 on an old machine with a 1200 Athlon Processor and 1.25 Gb of memory.Windows XP (SP3). I have used Avast for a good number of years and been very satisfied, but recently found my machine becoming very slow. After trying the normal things (disk space, defragment, check for viruses, trojans etc) I tested the effect of switching on and off different modules of the Avast protection.

I have identified that on my machine the Avast Behaviour Shield has a very significant effect upon the time that operations take.

	Behaviour shield on	Behaviour shield off
Open Microsoft Word	6 secs	<1 sec
Open print dialogue within Word	5 secs	1 sec
Open Firefox	16 secs	4 secs
Open Photoshop 7	1 min 4 secs	7 secs

These timings are consistent and reproducable - the only difference is whether the Behaviour Shield is on or off.

All programs tend to get more complicated and demand more processing resources over time, but it seems to me that Avast is in danger of becoming unusable on older machines. For the time being, I have turned the Behaviour Shield off permanently.

I would be interested to learn if anyone else is encountering this problem or can suggest a different solution.

[igor]

What filesystem is your drive (the one with the programs) formatted to?

[tasker]

FAT32

[Vlk]

This was one of the problems in v5.1 which should be fixed in v6.

[tasker]

I have now upgraded to Avast v6 and the Behaviour Shield no longer seems to be causing delays - thanks.

As v6 is not an automatic update from v5, it would have been helpful to let users of v5 know that there was a problem which could slow down machines in some cases.

[Zyndstoff (aka Steven Gail)]

I have now upgraded to Avast v6 and the Behaviour Shield no longer seems to be causing delays - thanks.

As v6 is not an automatic update from v5, it would have been helpful to let users of v5 know that there was a problem which could slow down machines in some cases.

The Avast 5 GUI informs you about the new version. Don't know if it would install automatically (if you had the option enabled, which is prerequisite), but I would assume so.

[Nesivos]

I have now upgraded to Avast v6 and the Behaviour Shield no longer seems to be causing delays - thanks.

As v6 is not an automatic update from v5, it would have been helpful to let users of v5 know that there was a problem which could slow down machines in some cases.

Good point.

Most problems with Avast are discussed on this forum.  So if you spend a few minutes several times a day dropping in on this forum you will probably become informed when the problem is identified.

No intent to be sarcastic.    Your point is correct.  I was just pointing out the benefit that Avast users can obtain by visiting this forum on a regular basis whether they choose to participate or not.

[Vlk]

As v6 is not an automatic update from v5, it would have been helpful to let users of v5 know that there was a problem which could slow down machines in some cases.

You mean like sending a popup message to all our users, saying hey if you're seeing some slowdowns on FAT32 volumes you may want to upgrade to the latest version? Or sending it via email?

Sorry, but I don't think it would be appreciated, especially by the vast majority of users who have not been affected by the problem...


Thanks
Vlk

[tasker]

Update on my setup had the default settings of updating the virus definitions automatically and asking whether to install updates to the virus engine. I do not recall being given an option to update to v6. Likewise I continued on v4 for some time without being aware there was a v5 - only spotted it when installing avast on someone else's machine.

Like most users, I only go into the forums if I am aware of a problem. I just want my AV to work away quietly in the background.

[firzen771]

As v6 is not an automatic update from v5, it would have been helpful to let users of v5 know that there was a problem which could slow down machines in some cases.

You mean like sending a popup message to all our users, saying hey if you're seeing some slowdowns on FAT32 volumes you may want to upgrade to the latest version? Or sending it via email?

Sorry, but I don't think it would be appreciated, especially by the vast majority of users who have not been affected by the problem...


Thanks
Vlk

well not like that, but i think a small popup saying a new program version is available should be there for reasons mentioned above me

[Vlk]

As v6 is not an automatic update from v5, it would have been helpful to let users of v5 know that there was a problem which could slow down machines in some cases.

You mean like sending a popup message to all our users, saying hey if you're seeing some slowdowns on FAT32 volumes you may want to upgrade to the latest version? Or sending it via email?

Sorry, but I don't think it would be appreciated, especially by the vast majority of users who have not been affected by the problem...


Thanks
Vlk

well not like that, but i think a small popup saying a new program version is available should be there for reasons mentioned above me

It will, of course... as always.
We just need to throttle it a little.

[DavidR]

@ firzen771
You might have noticed that this forum received many irate complaints on how to 'stop' avast constantly nagging them to upgrade from avast 4.8. In avast 4.8 there was no internal (GUI) way to update the program as if you checked for program updates it would report you had the latest version (which was correct for avast 4.. That was the reason for the larger out of GUI warning to update.

The avast5 Program Update setting of Ask, should do just that pop-up a small notice that a Program update is available. I don't know how many times this is displayed. In 5.x after the release of avast 6.0.1000 I believe that you could update from the UI and should have got the pop-up notice of a program update being available.

[firzen771]

The avast5 Program Update setting of Ask, should do just that pop-up a small notice that a Program update is available. I don't know how many times this is displayed. In 5.x after the release of avast 6.0.1000 I believe that you could update from the UI and should have got the pop-up notice of a program update being available.

i guess it has quite a long delay before it actually shows that popup since ive never gotten one, i always have to open the UI and see that it says im outdated

[DavidR]

The program update cycle (and notification) is usually spread over seven days.

[firzen771]

The program update cycle (and notification) is usually spread over seven days.

ah, i see