AV runtime priority (Feature request)

  • Thread starter Thread starter William W. Plummer
  • Start date Start date
W

William W. Plummer

AV software can make your machine very sluggish. To cure this, go to Task
Manager, find the process (nav...), right-click, set priority to lower than
normal. AV software writers would be doing us a favor if they made a
start-up parameter that sets the runtime priority when their product is
started.
 
William said:
AV software can make your machine very sluggish.
Click to expand...

And V software can make your machine into a slug.
To cure this, go to Task
Manager, find the process (nav...), right-click, set priority to lower than
normal. AV software writers would be doing us a favor if they made a
start-up parameter that sets the runtime priority when their product is
started.
Click to expand...

Is your problem with trying to use your machine while doing a full
system scan? Or is it just resident file protection you're talking
about? In the latter case, lowering the priority isn't going to help
much, as file access will be blocking on checking the file for viruses
anyway.

alex
 
William W. Plummer said:
AV software can make your machine very sluggish. To cure this, go to Task
Manager, find the process (nav...), right-click, set priority to lower than
normal.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, this could potentially be more dangerous... if you have
a piece of malware on your system and the author has set its priority to be
higher than the process level the AV, then you run the risk of the malware
getting first look... before the AV... Not a good thing.

Hence, I would suggest that this is not a good way to go.
AV software writers would be doing us a favour if they made a
start-up parameter that sets the runtime priority when their product is
started.
Click to expand...

I am sure there are activities in this area... but implemented in a
different way.

One specifically I know about is McAfee VirusScan 7.x (Corporate) where the
admin or user can specify processes / applications they consider to be of a
higher or lower risk...

On the On Access Scanner Properties, you have three icons down the left of
the GUI which is "Default Processes", "Low Risk Processes" and "High Risk
Processes".

These special scanning groups can have a specific scanning configuration
assigned to it e.g.:

Default: Scan default files, unzip, Packed Exe's.

High-Risk: Do everything!!, All files, With Heuristics, find jokes /
potentially unwanted programs

Low-Risk: Scan default files, Don't Scan .Zip's, Don't Decode MIME, Don't
use Heuristics.

For example the Web Browser and the Mail client would be listed as a high
risk process by the admin / user as this is a key conduit into the host
machine for malware... Backup or Compiler software (which would increase the
speed of backup/compilation) would be deemed lower priority. In my case, I
have added "Retroclient.exe" to the list of Low-Risk processes - my backup
agent.

Its something you can tailor to your own environment, without giving up
globally on the level of detection for all applications/processes, but
making sure the key applications which are known to introduce viruses (one
way or another) will do the most thorough job they can.

I do not know which other AV products have this kind of functionality, but I
am sure others "in the know" will be able to post on those and how it can be
implemented.

..\/.artin
 
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