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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: edagro on September 24, 2018, 07:50:35 PM

Title: Avast checks single file?
Post by: edagro on September 24, 2018, 07:50:35 PM
I want to virus-scqn a single file with Avast by simply going to the file name, calling up the dropdown menu, and clicking "Scan <filename>". Nothing happens. When I try to Create a Custom Scan within Avast, it only lets me scan folders, not individual files. What am I doing wrong? Why can't I simply go to a file & scan it? Thanks for any help.
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: schmidthouse on September 24, 2018, 07:55:50 PM
Well when Avast scans a folder, it scans "every file" in that folder. ;)
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: edagro on September 24, 2018, 08:41:40 PM
Well when Avast scans a folder, it scans "every file" in that folder. ;)

Duh. I asked how to scan a single file, not folders. Avast doesn't seem to do single-file scanning on my PC as it should, and trying to set up a Custom Scan inside Avast only allows Custom Scans of *folders* AFAICS. I could use replies that address my question.
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: mchain on September 24, 2018, 09:37:04 PM
Works for me, see below attached pics.

What version of avast (Free, Pro, Avast Internet Security, Premier) and what build number are you using?

What Operating System?  SP/Version?

You can find both the program version and build version in About avast by right-clicking the avast icon in the system tray.

Example: Avast build number used here is 18.6.3983.371
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: DavidR on September 25, 2018, 01:22:22 AM
I want to virus-scqn a single file with Avast by simply going to the file name, calling up the dropdown menu, and clicking "Scan <filename>". Nothing happens. When I try to Create a Custom Scan within Avast, it only lets me scan folders, not individual files. What am I doing wrong? Why can't I simply go to a file & scan it? Thanks for any help.

You don't get an indication that anything is happening as such, you may notice that a scan has been done as the avast tray icon rotates, but for a single file it would be very quick.  You should also get a toaster popup to let you know the scan was run and in my case nothing was found. 

If anything was found you can click on the Details button, though if anything was found I would expect avast to alert rather than show the 'Scan from Windows Explorer has finished.' toaster popup.

A long time ago this was the standard practice as it was a quick scan and the file name is ashQuick.exe
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: Rekrul on September 25, 2018, 09:38:26 PM
This has been a bug in Avast for quite a while now. When you ran a right-click scan, you used to get a progress window which showed the progress and when it finished, it would show if if found any problems or if everything was good (for what that's worth). Now, about 75% of the time, you get no information whatsoever. Sometimes it pops up a message telling you that the scan is finished, but usually it doesn't. There used to be a voice alert telling you that the scan had finished about 50% of the time, but that's disappeared as well.

When you run a scan, you want to see confirmation that the scan is actually working and what the results were. You might be content to just trust that everything is working properly and that it will let you know if there's a problem, but most people aren't like that. They want to see visible signs that it's doing what it's supposed to. Would you want a microwave that didn't have a visible timer, it just shuts off when its internal timer reaches zero? How about if Windows didn't show you anything while copying files?

This is a problem with Avast that needs to be fixed. Among other things.
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: DavidR on September 25, 2018, 10:41:20 PM
Previously and I mean a very long time ago, nothing was displayed unless something was actually detected.

For me that was common sense, if you are using it to check a single file by the time the UI threw something up to show progress for a single file as mentioned in the topics title the scan would have been done.  As I mentioned before for the very short period of the scan the tray icon should be animated and you should get the toaster popup also.

In an on-access, resident scanner on-demand scans are much depreciated and that would include the context/right click scan.

Newly created files, whether downloaded of imported from a usb stick, etc. they should be scanned by the Web Shield or the File System Shield.
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: Cluster-Lizard2014 on September 26, 2018, 03:45:40 PM
I'm very much with Rekrul on this - you need a dialogue box with, preferably, a progress bar to show you that the scan whether on an individual file, folder, drive, or full system is actually in progress.

This is a stupid trend I've seen in other programs too towards not giving the user what has been deemed 'unnecessary' information or at least none until it is finished. I find it positively unhelpful.

What I want visual confirmation a scan is in progress, what is being scanned and some idea as to approximately how long it will take before it is finished. That's what a good GUI with status/dialogue box and progress bar do in the simplest way possible. 

         
Title: Re: Avast checks single file?
Post by: glnz on October 06, 2018, 01:33:57 AM
 
Agree with rekrul and ClusterLizard. 

Same symptoms.  If I first open the Avast interface and THEN right-click on a file to scan it with Avast, then the Avast interface comes to the front, gives me the single-file progress circle and then the results. 

So it is 100% a bug - the right-click to scan a single file IS NOT WORKING. 

My Avast Free is version 18.6.2349 (build 18.6.3983.371).