Moved to Norton for Mac board for better exposure.
It’s scan isn’t skin deep; it delves several layers into files; thoroughly examining each file and its subfiles.
On top of that, some of the files are compressed and need to be decompressed to be analyzed…
Regardless, even though an initial scan can take a very long time, subsequent scans are usually a lot faster. I suspect that the engine checksums the files so that it doesn't need to re-analyze them if they haven't been modified between scans.
Hi-
Mike, Mac product manager here.
Yes...a lot of files. A lot of files, big hard drive...and we gotta scan it all. One way to shorten your scan is to turn of "scan compressed files" in the preferences. This will speed things up a bit. But, honestly--ANY virus program on the Mac is going to have this problem, and we are all limited by the speed of your Mac's hard drive. Personally? I would scan the Mac before going to bed, and do it once a week or so--if that. You could probably get away with once a month and just keep Auto-Protect turned on.
hope this helps, thanks for posting!
mike