Avast Boot Scan Time
Jan 4, 2015 - You can remove Virus from your PC via boot-time scans available in Antivirus software like Avast.But the reality is you can do it in your desktop too.Boot-Time scans actually allow the Anti-Virus to quarantine the infected files. If you suspect that your PC contains malware, Avast Antivirus allows you to schedule a Boot-time Scan to run the next time your computer starts. It scans for known types of malware and removes threats before the operating system and other services are running.
- Pros
Boot-time scan cleans malware before Windows boots. Very good at blocking malicious URLs and downloads. Finds and fixes unpatched vulnerabilities. Automatically sandboxes suspicious programs. Can remove unwanted browser toolbars. Built-in remote assistance.
- Cons
Installation on infested systems required hours of support. Boot-time scan may require user interaction. So-so phishing protection. Test results decent, but not great.
- Bottom Line
Besides antivirus protection, avast! Free Antivirus 8 offers patch management, Web reputation, and more. However, its test scores are merely good, not great.
The advent of Windows 8 is having a profound effect on user interface design. Hyperlinks and small buttons are out; big, touch-friendly panels are in. Avast! Free Antivirus 8 is the latest of many antivirus products to exhibit a Windows 8 redesign, along with some interesting new bonus features.
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The biggest panel in the updated main window displays overall security status. It's not just color-coded red and green—a happy or unhappy face emphasizes the message. You will find that not all of the other panels actually function in the free edition. Clicking on the Firewall or SafeZone (sandbox) panel brings up an offer to 'Activate' the feature by purchasing avast!'s security suite.
For a complete view of avast!'s commercial offerings, click the Market tab. Here you can purchase a variety of security tools for PC, Android, and Mac. This is also the place to sign up for a free credit alert service.
Some Installation Challenges
The product installed without incident on most of my malware-infested test systems. Ransomware on one system completely blocked access to the desktop, even in Safe Mode. Tech support advised opening Task Manager and killing a specific process. Doing so didn't bring back the desktop, but it allowed me to install avast! and run a full scan, which wiped out the ransomware.
On another test system, malware actively killed avast!'s installer and its associated process. After a few back-and-forth emails, the agent suggested remote assistance. After verifying that remote assistance would be available to any user, I agreed.
We couldn't use the Remote Assistance feature built into avast!, since the product could not install, but a third-party remote tool did the job. Even so, the malware repeatedly deleted the remote control tool, the avast! installer, and various other tools that the support agent brought to bear on the problem. It took the agent a couple hours of intense work to get avast! properly installed on this system.
Rating the Install Experience
For some years, I've scored antivirus products on their ability to remove malware in general and separately on their ability to remove malware that uses rootkit techniques to hide malicious activities. My latest malware collection doesn't include enough rootkit samples to reasonably report a separate rootkit score, so I've turned my thoughts to another facet of antivirus competence.
There's a wide variation in the way antivirus products handle cleaning up malware-infested systems. Quite a few examples of modern malware actively fight back against installation of security software, or prevent successful scanning. I've devised a rating system to reflect how well products handle this kind of resistance.
If the product installs and runs without incident on all my test systems, it gets five stars. If malware does manage to cause trouble, but the installer works around it, that's still good for five stars.
Quite a few vendors offer secondary cleanup tools to handle installation problems. These may come in the form of a rescue CD, a command-line no-install scanner, or a threat-specific cleanup tool. If the use of such ancillary tools allowed all my installations to complete successfully, that's worth four stars.
Sometimes the only recourse is to let tech support remote-control the affected system, to diagnose and actively fix whatever problem is preventing the antivirus from installing or running correctly. This can be very effective, but it's also intrusive, requiring significant attention from the user. If completing the test requires remote-control support, or a very lengthy series of email exchanges, I'll award three stars.
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When remote-control support takes hours, it becomes a real time-waster for the user. You can't necessarily walk away and let the tech do the work. You'll frequently have to reboot the system, or supply specific information, or resume the connection. If getting any of my test systems working takes over an hour, I knock the score down to two stars.
In some cases, even with all the help tech support can offer, the product just never does install or scan correctly. If a product simply can't function on any one of my test systems, it's down to one star. And yet, that's not the lowest possible rating. Sometimes the cleanup process renders a system totally unusable. Perhaps it won't boot at all, or the keyboard doesn't work, or it can no longer connect to the Internet. If tech support can't solve this kind of collateral damage, if running the product effectively 'killed' a test system, that product gets zero stars.
On this basis, avast! takes two stars for installation, because I had to spend over an hour with a support agent performing remote-control tech support.
Bottom Line: Besides antivirus protection, avast! Free Antivirus 8 offers patch management, Web reputation, and more. However, its test scores are merely good, not great.
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Every Avast antivirus (Free Antivirus, Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier), even the free version, offers a great feature which can search for any viruses and malware on your computer before it even starts. It’s called a Boot-Time Scan and below are the steps how to perform it in the latest 2018 version. It works great even with the latest Windows 10 release.
Technically boot-time scan runs before the Windows are loaded, so it doesn’t give malware any chance to hide. From our experience we recommend running a full boot-time scan at least once a month, to make sure your computer is clean.
Quick Summary
- Open Avast interface and go to ‘Protection‘ » ‘Scans‘
- Select ‘Boot-Time Scan’ and click on ‘Run on next PC reboot’
- Restart your Windows and the boot-time scan will take place
Read more detailed steps and other options including screenshots below.
1. Schedule a Boot-Time Scan
Open interface of your program and navigate to tab ‘Protection‘ » ‘Scans‘ in the left menu. Once the scan overview shows click on ‘Boot-Time Scan‘ option.
Running a Boot-time Scan in Avast 2018 – Scan Overview
On the Boot-time Scan window click on ‘Install specialized definitions‘ to add special virus definitions which detects malware on inaccessible places for Windows. Once done click on the green button ‘RUN ON NEXT PC REBOOT‘ and you are set.
Running a Boot-time Scan in Avast 2018 – Boot-time Scan
Also, the message will change to ‘Scan will run on next boot‘. To cancel boot-time scan simply click on the ‘Cancel scheduled scan‘ link.
2. Advanced Settings of the Boot-Time Scan
For more advanced options click on the cog-wheel icon in the Boot-time Scan tile on the Other Scans overview (second screenshot in this article). In the boot-time scan settings you can select following options:
- Areas to scan – All hard disks, only system drive, or auto-start programs
- Heuristics sensitivity (analysis which detects not yet known viruses) – Off, low, normal, high (recommended though it may increase amount of false-positives found)
- What do to do if a threat is found – Ask, move to chest, repair, delete, no action, or fix automatically
- Others – Scan for potentially unwanted programs (PUPs), unpack archive files
Changing any of the settings or just confirming doesn’t make the boot-time scan scheduled. You still need to perform the steps above.
Running a Boot-time Scan in Avast 2018 – Boot-time Scan Settings
Please note the boot-time scan isn’t happening in Windows but before Windows are loaded. Below you can see the example of how the boot-time scan looks in the Avast antivirus 2016.
Running a Boot-time Scan in Avast 2018 – Boot-time Scan In Progress
Cancel Avast Boot Time Scan
Your Windows will boot automatically if there is no virus found. If Avast founds a virus, you can perform one of the actions below by pressing a relevant number on your keyboard
Boot Time Scan Malwarebytes
- 1 – Fix automatically
- 2 – Fix all automatically
- 3 – Move to Chest
- 4 – Move all to Chest
- 5 – Delete
- 6 – Delete all
- 7 – Repair
- 8 – Repair all
- 9 – Ignore
- 0 – Ignore all
If the infected file is in the folder you also need to confirm the action by pressing
- 1 – Yes
- 2 – Yes all
- 3 – No
You can always press ‘Esc‘ key to cancel the scan and continue with the boot. After the boot-time scan is complete, you can find its report in ‘Scan‘ » ‘Scan for viruses‘ » ‘Scan history‘. Alternatively, you can navigate to report by going to ‘C:ProgramDataAVAST SoftwareAvastreportaswBoot.txt‘.
Additional Notes
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Although we have used Avast Free Antivirus 2019 screenshots in this article, these steps are also applicable for all Avast Antivirus solutions (i.e. also for Avast Pro Antivirus, Avast Internet Security, or Avast Premier) running the latest version available.
Steps are relevant for all Windows versions – Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 (including Anniversary Update).