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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: rosso_acido on July 13, 2004, 11:21:22 AM

Title: Are report files safe to delete?
Post by: rosso_acido on July 13, 2004, 11:21:22 AM

Hi... I'm new to the forum and relatively new to Avast! and please forgive me if my question is stupid... I've searched the forum before registering but was unable to find a previous thread where this matter was being discussed. :-[

I've been using Avast! 4 Home Edition for a couple of months (AWESOME programme, BTW) without having tinkered too much with the settings. Just today I noticed you can set it to generate a report after a scan. Inquisitive mind that I am (sometimes enough to be dangerous) I decided to try this option and ticked almost all options offered (including skipped files), which resulted in a monster report file, as I've got a great number of images and music on my PC, and most of those files were skipped due to scanner settings.

My question is, if I want to delete this report, do I just go into the Report folder in the Avast! directory and send the report file to the Recycle bin? I couldn't find any option of doing this from within the programme's interface. Again I apologise if this question is terminally stupid, but better be safe than sorry...

Many thanks in advance,
R. :)

Title: Re:Are report files safe to delete?
Post by: igor on July 13, 2004, 11:46:36 AM

Yes, you can simply delete the report file as you suggested.
I think there's no option to delete the report directly from avast! (except for overwriting the old report with a new one).

Title: Re:Are report files safe to delete?
Post by: rosso_acido on July 13, 2004, 06:42:19 PM

Thank you! 8)

It just appeared too simple to be the right method. :P

Best,
R. :)

Title: Re:Are report files safe to delete?
Post by: MikeBCda on July 13, 2004, 06:49:47 PM

I'd suggest you follow igor's hint and set the option to over-write existing reports.  If you let it append instead (I think that's the default setup), and you think the file's big now, wait till you see it after a few months of scans.  :P ;D

There might be rare occasions when before-and-after comparions would be useful, but for all practical purposes you're only interested in the latest scan anyway.

Best,
Mike

Title: Re:Are report files safe to delete?
Post by: rosso_acido on July 13, 2004, 07:01:52 PM

Quote from: MikeBCda on July 13, 2004, 06:49:47 PM

I'd suggest you follow igor's hint and set the option to over-write existing reports. If you let it append instead (I think that's the default setup), and you think the file's big now, wait till you see it after a few months of scans. :P ;D

LOL! I don't even want to imagine that. :o :P

Thanks for the tip!

R. :)

Title: Re:Are report files safe to delete?
Post by: Lisandro on July 13, 2004, 08:41:31 PM

Quote from: MikeBCda on July 13, 2004, 06:49:47 PM

But for all practical purposes you're only interested in the latest scan anyway.

Well, if you find something could be nice keep the information for a while.
Could be a false alarm, you could ask for help knowing the name of the virus and the path of the file...
Well, if you have something wrong, please, keep the report for a while (saving it with another name) before you run the next scan  8)

Title: Re:Are report files safe to delete?
Post by: rosso_acido on July 13, 2004, 10:42:09 PM

Thanks, Technical. :)

I'll keep that in mind. Although I must say I haven't had any F/Ps from Avast! to this day, and all viruses it has caught on my machine are from infected spam (which I'm now controlling via Mailwasher).

Thanks everyone for the replies and the tips. I'm really obliged. 8)
R. :)