Sunday, October 10, 2010

Kaspersky AV2010 Root Scan Issue: Solve it using KAV2011

I have been using Kaspersky AV since 2005 and a legal user since 2007 [From My Desk: Kaspersky Antivirus - It's time to be a legal user]. Since that time I have experienced the best virus protection ever for all my PCs, laptop and netbook. No wonder Kespersky was graded the best Antivirus for the new millennium. However, those comfortable years don't last forever. Kaspersky has been badly criticised after the released of KAV/KIS 2010. Since I'm a loyal Kaspersky user, though a bit surprised, I'm inline with the critics. It's all about the root scan, that's what let me and others down.

Since upgrading to KAV2010, I noticed that my laptop runs slower at the start up, my broadband initialization turns sluggish, as well as my browsers' initialization. Apparently KAV2010 root scan has badly affected my Vista-based PC but not XP. I realized I'm not the only one facing this problem. What an embarrassment to the so-called 'the best Antivirus of the new millennium' after loyal users put so much faith in it but end up with sluggish initialization and poor start up.

The question is why Kaspersky Lab put so much emphasis on the root scan? There must be a solid reason behind it. I spent my 10 minutes googling for the answer and trying to find out what root scan really is and its correlation with rootkit. What I understand, in a layman's term, rootkit is a virus program, but unlike ordinary computer viruses, its code was writen in such a way so that its activities are hidden from detection by users and in a more advanced manner, undetectable by many antivirus software. That's not cool, isn't it? The consequences are also severe - users might end up with their password, identity and secrecies stolen by cyber criminals.

Now I realized how important root scan is. I'm glad that I'm still part of legal Kaspersky Antivirus community. Kaspersky Antivirus has been rated #2 in 2010 Topten Reviews: 2011 AntiVirus Software Review Product Comparisons, #2 in 2010 Notebook Review: Best Antivirus 2010 Buyers Guide and #3 in 2010 PC Antivirus Reviews. Based on my experience, Kaspersky always responds quickly to new viruses, way faster than F-Secure or Symantec Norton.

Untick the Perform Regular Rootkit Scan in General Scan Setting
If you are experiencing sluggish initialization and poor start up, that is not the end of your PC world, just upgrade your KAV/KIS2010 to KAV/KIS2011. There is an option where you can set rootkit scan to be non-regular (I couldn't find this option in my KAV2010). Just do it and have a peace of mind. For my case, my Vista-Based laptop performs much better than before, alhamdulellah.
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