Q: it takes longer and longer to perform the anti-virus &anti-spy scan. everytime I do the scan, I notice the number of objects scaned keep increasing. despite my disk cleansing and defragment, the free space available becomes less and less, nevertheless, the analysis still says my computer does not need the defragment. to be precise, the anti-spy object started was only about 140,000, now has increased to 160,000+. the anti-virus object scan was around 40,000, ever since I up date my window, suddenly the object increased to 58,000+ though I did not add any files or whatsoever.
A: There are a lot of various reasons why your anti-virus and spyware scans have been taking longer than usual. One main reason that one doesn't realize is that everytime you update your anti-virus, antispyware, windows/microsoft update, iTunes, and any other softwares in your computer, you're actually adding files to your hard disk. When you do updates to any of these programs/softwares, you are actually downloading files from the internet. It just makes sense that your anti-virus and antispyware programs take longer and longer everytime you update then scan because these programs have to scan each and everyone of these updates because it is in fact a file in your hard disk. You follow me yet.............? Second, before you scan, make sure you clear and delete your Temporary Internet Files and your Internet Cache after surfing the net and before doing your scans. Because once again, it is a file in your hard disk until you clear them off. Third, do not perform anti-virus and antispyware scans simultaneously. Peform them individually and make sure you're offline and not connected to the internet. To make your scan even faster, turn off you antispyware program first (but just make sure your offline) then perform an antivirus scan. Then turn off your antivirus and turn back on your antispyware then perform the antispyware scan. Then reboot your computer. Hope this helps and clears everything.