Avast Boot time Scan is a scan that runs prior to the Operating System fully loading drivers, start-up programs, or other places where viruses or Trojans can hide from scanners. Start the Avast user interface from the Start Menu, by double clicking the orange Avast icon in the System Tray, or double clicking the desktop shortcut. Apr 10, 2015 Once a boot scan has been run, avast! Has checked all the files that are possible to be checked. Thereafter, anything added or changed is automatically checked. Why run a boot scan weekly Does it make you feel better Your computer, your choice.
I have been an Avast Free user for some time and am overall quite satisfied with the level of protection afforded, suffice to say that I can’t even remember the last time my machine was infected. One of the features included with Avast is the ability to perform a Boot-time scan, in fact I believe it is unique to Avast.A Boot-time scan can be beneficial because the scan is taking place before the operating system and drivers are loaded, and by association before any malware can be loaded as well. It is also the most thorough of scans because it scans everything, including any files which might normally be locked or in use.It’s a very simple procedure to schedule a Boot-time scan in Avast here’s how:Open up the Avast interface by right clicking on the icon in the system tray and selecting “ Open avast!
User interface“. Or double click the desktop shortcut if available. If that’s your intention, click the appropriate button.
If you’d prefer to wait until later, bearing in mind that the Boot-time scan does take quite a long time, select No – (the scan will still run once the machine is restarted).If, for some reason, you later change your mind and want to cancel the scan altogether, just access the Scan options screen again and click the “Unschedule” button:Avast – Move to Chest plus QuarantineSelecting the ‘Move To Chest’ option will move any files identified as a threat away from where they can do harm and into “quarantine”. Access to quarantine, (aka the Virus Chest) is available via one of three links included at the bottom of the Scan options window:Reversing the action, moving a file from the Virus Chest back to its original location, or deleting a file permanently, is just a matter of right clicking the file in question and selecting either “Restore” or “Delete” from the ensuing menu. Avast Boot-time Scan: Important notes! System files and ActionsAvast’s Boot-time scan does generally take a long time to complete, often around 2 to 4 hours, depending on numbers of files – and here’s the rub – if a system file is flagged as a threat, even though the action parameter has been preset, the scan will pause and ask the user to confirm an action.
The scan will not start back up again until that answer has been forthcoming.While this is certainly a prudent precaution it can also be a pain in the butt. You start the scan and toddle off to bed only to wake the next morning to find it stalled while waiting on user input.If the scan stops and waits for an action to perform, do not use the “ Yes” or “ Yes all” options for system files – always press number 3 on the keyboard to skip moving the file. A Powerful Tool!The Avast Boot-time scan is a powerful tool, do not overuse it, only utilize it at those times if/when you have good reason to suspect your machine may be infected. Use with care and make sure not to select those ‘action’ options which lead to repair, fix, or deletion of files. Boot-time Scan’s Log FilesEach time you run Avast’s Boot-time scan the program will log the event internally and, if a scan identifies malware, a log file is created and saved in Avast’s Program Data folder.These event logs and logfiles can be accessed easily via the Avast interface.From within the Scan options window, click on the Scan history link at the bottom:A window will open which lists each Boot-time scan that has been completed. A clean scan will just appear here as a summary.
How To Run Avast In Boot Time Scan
Scans which have identified malware will be displayed in red, clicking on any of those red entries will activate the Detailed Report button. Highlight the red entry you want to investigate further and click on that button to open up a um well detailed report.More experienced users can utilize these logfiles to analyze scan results after selecting “No Action” from Avast’s action parameters menu. Bottom LineAvast’s Boot-time scan can be a useful addition to a user’s malware cleanup toolkit but moves into dangerous waters whenever system files are involved. Please do utilize it only when necessary and always with the utmost caution. Tagged with:.See more. Prev:.
Back:. Next:About the AuthorJim is the resident freeware aficionado at DCT. A computer veteran with 30+ years experience who first started writing about computers and tech back in the days when freeware was actually free. His first computer was a TRS-80 in the 1980s, he progressed through the Commodore series of computers before moving to PCs in the 1990s. Now retired (aka an old geezer), Jim retains his passion for all things tech and still enjoys building and repairing computers for a select clientele. As well as writing for DCT, of course. Excellent to know this about Avast!It’s already my fav AV especially for the seniors I work a lot with.
I know it gets good marks + it pops up each day to let you know it’s running. That’s also helpful because I can just tell my seniors to let me know if it doesn’t pop up. I can’t tell you how many systems I’ve seen with massive infections & the AV had been shut down (of course)- but the people had no ideaHow would you rate/compare this with doing a boot-time scan with AVG bootable?Cheers!. Hi Tracy – Apologies for the tardy response. I saw your comment but initially missed the question.It’s difficult to compare Avast’s boot-time scan with the bootable media provided by most anti-virus companies.
How To Run A Boot Time Scan In Avast
They all do pretty much the same job, scanning the system outside Windows, some possibly more effectively than others. The advantage that Avast’s built-in boot-time scan has over the bootable disc/USB solutions, for your average user, is simplicity.Once a user learns how to schedule a boot-time scan, the rest is very easy – no need to know about burning an ISO, or how to change boot preferences in BIOS, or even how to access BIOS for that matter.Cheers Jim. If/when you have good reason to suspect your machine may be infectedGood reasons for suspecting an infection would include any abnormal behavior; unusual messages or images popping up, or unusual sounds. Programs start running without user input.
CD-ROM tray opens and closes all by itself. Etc.A slow system can be symptomatic of malware but is not definitive.
System slowdowns can be caused by a number of issues; too many processes auto-starting with Windows, poor maintenance, as well as by malware. Just because a system is slow doesn’t necessarily mean it is infected.If you merely “suspect” that the system might be infected but don’t really have a good reason, your best plan of attack would be to scan with something like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Then, if malware is detected/confirmed, run the Avast Boot Time scan.Cheers Jim.
As you are users of Avast antivirus or want to try this antivirus. Question is why you use Avast. There are many other good antiviruses which also help to protect your system (computer, Laptop). Avast have some benefits on other antiviruses. One of the benefits which I personally like in Avast antivirus is “Boot scan”. Avast also have facility of other scans like removable media scan, quick scan, full system scan.
But avast boot scan is best.How Avast boot scan work. It scans your system before the start of an operating system (like before the start of windows). And it scans system drives one by one. Sometimes antivirus detects a thread but it unable to remove this virus because it executed and uses operating system resources.So the advantage of boot scan is; antivirus scans and removes virus when it is stop. So after seeing this befit of boot scan we need to try this. The procedure of how to run Avast boot scan is as following: Follow stops to run Avast boot scan:-.
Open Avast user interface and go to Scan. You see different scanning options; Select Boot-time scan from here.