Speed of MSE scan

Lost Colonist said:

I have seen it go into CAB files (I'm sure.) But what I found interesting was when I used to have the Avira anti virus, it allowed you to set how FAR it would scan into a archive file directory level (zip, cab, rar etc.) I always had it set to 3 levels down maximum. I don't see that option in MSE. Maybe MSE is scanning every part of a archive file ;/

It's slow regardless, better on a quick scan now though.

Bill2 said:

Two interesting things I had read a few days ago. One, apparently MS claims that MSE doesnt skip files like other vendors to reduce scan time. That would mean that compressed files such as .rar and .cab files would be loaded into memory and scanned each time MSE is run, that would naturally slow down the process. So MSE may not be flagging files as safe and probably scans them every time.

In support of these two posts, last week i was intending to restore to a clean image but before doing so i thought i would uninstall Avast & take MSE for a test drive. I wrote down my results from a full scan just to satisfy my own curiosity but never took a screen shot as i thought i would never be wanting to present them.

The result of a full scan with MSE on my OS was 173100 items scanned & took 25 minutes

Now here is the results of a default Full scan with Avast taking note of the amount of files scanned compared to the amount MSE scanned

Attachment 133766

After this i created a custom full system scan with Avast to include "Test whole files" and to scan all 26 listed types of packers not just the 4 as in the default scan

Attachment 133767

So in all fairness to MSE, when Avast is set to scan as near as thoroughly as i can get to how MSE scans. Avast takes pretty much the same amount of time to scan near on the same amount of files.

I just found the result interesting although i don't use MSE i like to keep an open mind as Security is an ever changing world