BleepingComputer.com: AVG Scan

I was just wondering if someone could please tell me why sometimes, when the scan is done with AVG 8.0233 it takes forever?

One time the scan will take 1 hour and then yesterday it started run at 2 am (like it does everynight) and it took 11 hours to go through it.

I don't understand why it would take so long to go through and come up with the cookies list. Could someone explain why the scan time can take so long or take a short amount of time?

Thanks



Windows XP

The speed of an anti-virus or anti-malware scan depends on a variety of factors.

• The program itself and how its scanning engine is designed to scan: using a signature database vs heuristic scanning for suspicious behavior or a combination of both.
  
• Options to scan for spyware, adware, riskware and potentially unwanted or unsafe programs (PUPs).
  
• Options to scan memory, boot sectors, registry and alternate data streams (ADS).
  
• Type of scan performed: Deep, Quick or Custom scanning.
  
• What action has to be performed when malware is detected.
  
• A computer's hard drive size.
  
• Disk used capacity (number of files to include temporary files) that have to be scanned.
  
• Types of files (.exe, .dll, .sys, archives, email, etc) that are scanned.
  
• Whether external drives are included in the scan.
  
• Competition for and utilization of system resources by the scanner.
  
• Other running processes and programs in the background.
  
• Interference from malware.
  
• Interference from the user.

To speed up your scans, uninstall unnecessary programs, clean out the temporary files or use ATF Cleaner first, and then perform your scans in "Safe Mode"

Thank you so much for the information. This was very good and I understand it better.

Thanks again

You're welcome.