Follow the spinning ball

[TheNut]

Please forgive me for a question that has probably been asked a million times.
I tried a search but there are soooo many somewhat related threads.

Anyway, I was wondering if it is necessary to have the "Standard Shield on access scanner" to be doing it's thing every time I open a program....any program.

Like Photo Shop, Quicken, My Computer properties, device manager....well, you get the idea.
Any program I open of course causes the Avast ball to spin in my system tray and I've noticed a slowdown of opening these programs as a result.

I'm sorry this is such a lame question, but it's been a while since I used this program.
I also realize that's the whole idea is to be protected at all times, but when I know for a fact that my device manager isn't infected, why does the resident shield "ball have to spin" and slow down my opening of the program?

Forgive me for mentioning it, but why doesn't AVG slow things down as much?
Is it just because I can't actually see it doing it's thing?
I don't think so because I notice a definite slowdown.
I'll get used to it, but it's a little slower none the less.

Any way to have it leave my installed Programs alone while still protecting me from the big bad outside world?  

Thanks for listening to this nonsense.  My entire post probably makes very little sense.  

[techie101]

Please forgive me for a question that has probably been asked a million times.

Maybe it has, but ask anyway.  

......if it is necessary to have the "Standard Shield on access scanner" to be doing it's thing every time I open a program....any program.

Yes.

I've noticed a slowdown of opening these programs as a result.

This is normal in that Avast scans any file opened to insure that it has not become infected.  It is the best way to do things.

but when I know for a fact that my device manager isn't infected, why does the resident shield "ball have to spin" and slow down my opening of the program?

You know it isn't infected (you hope) but Avast does not.
It will not differentiate between "good programs" and "maybe programs".  It checks them all.

........ but why doesn't AVG slow things down as much?

Avast will slow things down a bit due to the manner in which it scans.  It is however negligible.
AVG is a decent program but does not show you what it is doing and when (or if... )  The scanning engines of the two are different and therefore, AVG may not appear to slow things at all.

Any way to have it leave my installed Programs alone while still protecting me from the big bad outside world?  

Not in the Home version.  The Pro has more versatility.

Thanks for listening to this nonsense.  My entire post probably makes very little sense.  

 On the contrary.....I understood it all.  

[TheNut]

Thanks for the speedy reply Techie101
I kind of figured as much.

I've come over to "the other side" from AVG (again), because I really don't like their new V7.0 free release at all.

Actually, I've always like Avast better, but when I "only" have a 1 gig Athlon, it doesn't take much to notice any kind of slowdown. Which of course bugs me.

Isn't that amazing? Back when I built this thing it was considered screaming fast (Especially with 768mb of Ram).
Now, it won't be long and it will be in the pile of junk in the basement with some of my old 486 computers.  :'(

Anyway, thanks again for the reply....I should be thankful for such a great free program and stop complaining about things being a tiny bit slower.  

[techie101]

Actually, I still run Avast on a W98 333mhz machine and it runs just dandy.  I use it as a test bed.

Nowadays, people complain that 2ghz is slow!

Take Care and stop by whenever you have a problem.

Good nite.

[Lisandro]

Stop complaining about things being a tiny bit slower.  

In fact, some threads compare the performance of AVG and avast:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=9;action=display;threadid=8606