Scan Time

[doowop4evr]

Hello! I am running ATT Yahoo high speed and when I do my Spybot scan on Wednesdays, it is taking approximately 56 minutes to scan 91K files/records. Is this amount of time standard for this scan, or is there a way to speed that scanning process up? Also, in the last four weeks, the scan has found no bugs or other "bad" things that are out there! guess I'm luck there!!!

[md usa spybot fan]

doowop4evr:


… it is taking approximately 56 minutes to scan 91K files/records.
If you are deriving the "91K files/records" from the status bar in the lower left hand corner of the screen while you are running a "Check for problems", that number does not indicate the number "files/records" scanned. That number indicates the number of malware checks being performed (the number after the 2007-10-31 updates would most likely be 91457 for a malware scan without Usage Tracking or beta signatures).

During the running of a Spybot scan ("Check for problems") the status bar in the lower left hand corner of the screen shows the following:
"Running bot-check(xxxxx/yyyyy:zzzzzz)" where:
[list] xxxxx = Current malware check count.
yyyyy = Total malware check count.
zzzzz = Name of the malware check being performed.
In my opinion the time it takes to scan your system is primarily a function of your processor speed (since Spybot is quite CPU intensive) and the amount of memory devoted to the running of Spybot (since Spybot attempts to store information and re-access it rather than re-read information from the disk). Other factors that affect the time it takes to scan are disk speed, the number of entries in various registry keys that Spybot inspects and the number of files pointed by those entries, as well as the quantity and size of temporary files, the quantity and size internet browser cached files, the number of internet browser bookmarks and cookies, etc.

My scan today took 15:48 after the 2007-10-31 updates (while continuing to actively utilize my system for other things such as downloads, excel spread sheets, etc.).

If you care to discuss more about the amount of time it takes to scan, please provide some information about your system (OS, CPU RAM, etc.), your file system (quantity and size of files) and if you regularly delete temporary files, internet browser cached files, cookies, etc. (which can have a significant bearing in scan times).

[doowop4evr]

Thank you very much for your response! after reading your last paragraph, I realized that prior to running my updates, and then check for problems like I normally do, I forgot to delete the temp files; which in this case was at approx. 21K. in regards to deleting my cookies, several weeks ago I had posted another novice question about my system, and the person that responded helped out very much. she also stated that it's up to me to delete cookies, or just leave them alone. so I would ask you: when deleting temp files on a regular basis, should I be dumping said cookie files too? appreciate your reply.

[md usa spybot fan]

doowop4evr:

I personally only keep approximately 20 selected cookies. The rest I delete.