Recently I took a look at Avira AntiVir 10 (Personal and Premium). In that post, I had briefly mentioned a new service called avshadow.exe. I have noticed that many users have been baffled by this new service (its shadowy name isn’t perhaps the most comforting). Anyway, as mentioned in my earlier post, AvShadow is Avira’s own enhanced implementation of the Shadow Copy feature present in Windows Vista and 7.
However, what does an antivirus product have to do with Shadow Copy? The answer was provided by an Avira GmbH employee in the public forums.
This process (avshadow.exe) is our implementation of the Shadow Copy Service
(something offered by current Windows Versions). It is used to scan
files that are locked or in use by creating a “shadow copy” of the file,
which:a) allows us to scan it and
b) does not interfere with any processes continuing to modify the “original” file.
So there you go. Now you know why avshadow.exe is required.
How do you know? Trust me the stock broker said!
I stopped using AV a long time ago , after MS security essential was provided free with my laptop os 7 … if MS become a littel smart and start offering AV along with the OS package , they do a better business …
Sourish
If Microsoft did that, then they would get sued left and right (definitely by the EU) for being anti-competitive.
Kind of unfortunate though that they can’t provide that, just means we the consumers have to spend more money sometimes on certain softwares 🙁
-Jean
Hardly, since two of the best Vs out there (Avira & AVG) both offer fully-functional not-time-limeted FREE versions.
(This clue was provided free of charge…)
Thanks for this information. Very helpful.