Is your computer slow for the first 30 minutes to hour every morning?

Does it seem like every time you open your laptop or log on your computer, several minutes later a pop-up alert that says your computer anti-virus scan just completed?

There is a good chance your backup software and or your anti-virus is running. I see it all too often.

In life and with technology, we expect things to go as scheduled. When you installed your backup software you probably scheduled it to run in the middle of the night while you were asleep. The same with your anti-virus (AV) software. Unfortunately, computers don’t always do as they are told.

The short version is if you “log off” or “Sign out” at night many programs won’t run. Acronis backup products and Malwarebytes are two examples.

Without creating scripts or being on a domain, the best way to resolve this is to simply “lock” the computer instead of signing out at night.

Simply click on the Windows “Start” button and on your name.

If you don’t use a password to log on the computer, this may not be an option for you.

The other reason a backup or anti-virus scan may not be running is because the computer is going to “sleep” or “Hibernate”. In theory the backup software and AV should wake up the computer from sleep mode and maybe from hibernate.

Some of the programs for this you have to select to wake up the computer, even then they don’t always run.

IESEt specifically states the scan won’t run in their KB3207 https://support.eset.com/en/kb3207-schedule-a-scan-in-your-eset-windows-home-product

Your backup software and AV will be different and you may need to search for how to enable or if they can scan.

Another option is to be sure your computer doesn’t sleep or hibernate. While I don’t like hibernate, I do think you should allow them to sleep in order to save power and also the monitor.

This article is a short and simple one. At night, when you are finished working, simply “lock” your computer.

Until We meet again, have a virus free week.