Why do my virus scans take 5 to 6 hours????

Oh, OK...sorry. With AVG, you right click on AVG taskbar icon, then click "Launch AVG Test Center". When it opens, you click on "Scan selected areas", not "Scan Computer", if you want to scan just one of your two HDs.

Thank you!

 

IS YOUR SYSTEM CLEAN? MY SYSTEM IS OLDER PRESARIO / SEMPRON 3000+ / 1gB MEMORY / 250 GB SEAGATE HDD....NOT A ROCKET BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION, HOWEVER IT RUNS GREAT AND AVG SCANS GREAT BECAUSE I CLEAN IT CONSISTENTLY.

NORMAL PROCEDURE IS WHEN EVER I GET OFF OF INTERNET (DSL), I WILL RUN CCLEANER.......WEB TRACKS ERASER.....I USED TO RUN REGISTRY MECHANIC, WHICH IS A PRETTY GOOD PROGRAM, BUT CCLEANER SEEMS TO DO ME A GOOD JOB.  I ALSO USE AUSLOGICS DISK DEFRAG (MUCH BETTER THAN WINDOWS IN MY OPINION).

I WENT INTO MY FILES AND ELIMINATED ANYTHING THAT I KNEW I WOULD NOT USE, SUCH AS GAMES, TRIAL OFFICE PROGRAMS, ETC.  NORMALLY IT TAKES ABOUT 2-3 MINUTES TO DEFRAG; 1/4 TO 1 SECOND TO RUN CCLEANER; AND WEB TRACKS ERASER RUNS IN LESS THAN I/2 SECOND................THE KEY IS DOING THIS OFTEN AND CONSISTENT.  SURE, IT IS NOT REQUIRED THIS OFTEN, BUT ONCE THE SYSTEM IS CLEAN, KEEP IT THAT WAY. 

I BELIEVE THAT MOST OF YOUR PROBLEM IS REGISTRY RELATED......I USE THIS ILLUSTRATION WHEN TALKING TO LAYMEN ABOUT REGISTRY.........IF I TAKE ALL OF THE SPADES OUT OF A DECK OF CARDS, AND PUT THEM IN ORDER....THEN I TELL YOU TO GIVE ME THE QUEEN OF SPADES; YOU CAN ALMOST INSTANTLY PERFORM IT.  HOWEVER, IF I SHUFFLE THEM BACK IN THE DECK AND ASK YOU TO PERFORM THE SAME FUNCTION.......YOU CAN STILL DO IT, BUT IT WILL TAKE YOU MUCH LONGER.....UNDERSTAND?

ONE MORE THING IS MEMORY; I WOULD RECOMMMEND THAT YOU NEVER EXCEED 50-55% OF YOUR MEMORY CAPACITY.  I KNOW IT IS THERE, BUT IT IS "EASIER TO RUN THROUGH A ROOM THAT HAS ONLY A FEW OCCUPANTS, THAN IT IS TO RUN THROUGH A CROWDED ROOM"

I RECENTLY DID A REGISTRY CLEAN ON MY DAUGHTER'S COMPUTER AND SHE HAD NEVER DONE THIS, AND IT TOOK REGISTRY MECHANIC ALMOST AN HOUR TO SCAN HER SYSTEM; BUT IT REVEALED OVER 60K TEMPORARY FILES....SHE'S A CHAT AND EBAY FANATIC.  I GUESS OVERALL, ONCE YOU GET IT CLEANED, GET INTO THE HABIT OF REGULAR MAINTENANCE.

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

122 gb of free space.

But how much total space do you have?  In My Computer, it typically lists Free Space and Total Size.

[Global Moderator]

If you're using 80% of your hard drive with over 500,000 files, the scan is going to take a very long time (maybe hours) to scan them all for viruses.
This is basically what we are trying to ask. It is possible the antivuris is taking a long time because you are using a lot of space in your Hard Disk.

[Moderator]

gator,

You may want to do a scan for the capslock_virii.exe....

You guys are way over my head but let me just give some info.

free space - 122 GB
used - 19.6 GB
Capacity - 142 GB

I defrag once a week, run Ad-aware every day.  I make sure my windows updates are up to date.  I run Max Registry Cleaner once a week.  I get rid of cookies and temp files once a week.

I have asked this question in another thread.  If I do a search for pictures...in other words go to search and click on pictures.....I have over 44,000 of them.  I have no idea where these pictures came from.  They are logos, smiley faces...hundreds of them, square, circles, squigglies anything you can imagine are in there.  Someone told me don't delete them because they might mess up some programs but I'm thinking maybe the scans are checking out these 44,000 pictures and why are they there?

There is no way to tell where those pictures are from. We checked your computer for malwares, and right now it appears to be clean, so I doubt anything malicious is lurking around your computer.
As I said in other thread, your only way to find out what those pictures are is to open them one-by-one.
To make things easier for you...any graphic file, which is not in Windows, or Program Files directory should be safe to delete, unless you saved your own picture collection somewhere on your computer.

ok thanks broni

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

When going through your pictures, Picasa may be helpful.

My  free program Avira Antivir takes over 3 and 1/2 hours, I run it at 12 mid when things are slow, so its not the end of the world. I do have a lot of files.  Funny thing is, I'd rather have a slow free program that stays in the background than a high priced program that gets in my way all of the time by slowing down my pc......Its your choice.......

swalerroe7ab

Welcome aboard

You need to start your own topic.