I must say that Avast is GREAT but I am CONSIDERING LEAVING Avast as I have a few problems with it that NO ONE seems to be able to help me with.
The problems I have with 5.1.889 are:
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First this isn't to topic to post this in it has nothing to do with the new build. Second I haven't seen you post this in another topic of 'your own,' viruses and worms or avast free/pro/ais forums, so how can anyone answer it/help you it isn't a problem. Not to mention a search for ERROR PASSWORD PROTECTED or COULD NOT BE SCANNED would no doubt have brought you an answer.
Files that can't be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.Many programs (usually security based ones) password protect their files for legitimate reasons such as AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy, there are others (and avast doesn't know the password or have any way of using it even if it did know it).
When you run scans with the above programs and you delete harmful entries that they detect, a copy is kept (in quarantine/restore/backup) in case you need to reverse what you did. These are usually password protected, you should do some housekeeping and delete old backup/recovery/quarantine entries (older than two weeks or so), this will reduce the numbers of files that can't be scanned.
By examining 1) the reason given by avast! for not being able to scan the files, 2) the location of the files, you can get an idea of what program they relate to. You may need to expand the column headings to see all the text.
Why you are wasting time scanning archives is another question as they are inert, until the files are extracted and run the contents of an archive present no danger and before that happens the file system shield should scan them (when they are no longer password protected).
Data on your system changes as windows updates, programs update, etc. etc. so there will be times like this which are totally unrelated to the build.