I upgraded Avira yesterday and now it seems to be running all the time, slowing my computer down to a crawl. Anyone know how to stop this continuous running? Or, at least to slow it down so I can get something done.
Weird. If the new version includes an email scanner or link scanner, you need to shut those off. I think it’s under “configure” on the system tray icon.
Otherwise, I think the install got botched up. I’d simply try booting into safe mode, and then uninstalling it. Then I’d reboot back into regular mode, and install it again.
Other than those two suggestions, I don’t know what to tell you.
Are there any other processes that seem to be running overtime? Sometimes with AV programs they can go a bit ‘mental’ scanning the same process over and over again. I know that there are sometimes issues with .NET updates where the .NET software runs all the time causing the AV to keep scanning it.
That sounds like the new version is running an automatic initial scan of everything on your computer, which slows it to a crawl and could take hours. The control center allows you to stop it if this is the case.
Yes. That would be my guess too. There should be a second process labeled “Luke Filewalker” - and no, I’m not kidding, that’s what they call it.
To narrow it down, in W7, go to the performance tab in task manager and click on resource monitor (near bottom)
In the overview tab, find the avira programs and put a check mark next to each one. This will limit the other displays to showing only the activity of those programs and their dependencies - for disk, network, cpu, etc. This should give you a good idea of specifically which program element is causing the problem either via high disk access or high cpu utilization.
I never even thought of the possibility that Filewalker was running, as the way to stop that is usually to click the Stop button. While I’ve the stop button not work, that’s only when Filewalker has stopped working entirely, and thus wouldn’t be causing problems. And, even then, all you have to do is right-click on the Taskbar button and click Close, and you can force the program to quit.
And, anyways, assuming the OP left the computer on, it should be finished by this point. If not, I’d still consider that something was botched in the installation.
Well, after 2 days, I bit the bullet and uninstalled it. I have Microsoft Security Essentials running now temporarily until I find something better or perhaps reinstall Avira.:dubious: I just thought about something. My computer only has 512Mb memory. Perhaps that is a problem with the new system from Avira.
512 isn’t much memory but according to the system requirements for Avira premium security suite, it should be sufficient for XP or Win 2000. However for Vista and W7, minimum is 1gig.
While XP will run with 512MB, it runs a a whole lot better with 1GB. A whole lot better.
I recently ditched AVG for MSE. Not only does my computer run much more smoothly, MSE discovered a few trojans & spyware programs which AVG completely missed.
It’s a strange world we live in when Microsoft has the best A/V software…but then again, weirder things have happened.
By all accounts, MSE is indeed the shiznit. However many people may not realize that even most of the leading programs are only capable of doing a database search for bits of malware code called “signatures”. If a piece of malware hasn’t been recognized and it’s signature cataloged, then you are still vulnerable.
Most of the time that shouldn’t be an issue, especially if you run firefox and have installed noscript and adblock+. The advantage you get with Avira and a few others like Sophos is code that can recognize emergent threats - code referred to as heuristics. Even if a virus, trojan or whatever isn’t in the database, Avira can still flag a program as malicious by observing its behavior.
I’m not sure how Avira reports such threats. I think it tries to compare it something similar and you get a message that sounds like it’s saying it’s not sure what the code is, but it looks a lot like xxx malware. But it’s been a while since I’ve seen that sort of message so I’m not sure at this point. If anyone knows, I’d be interested.
So far so good with MSE.