Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: dansorin on October 06, 2010, 07:46:37 PM
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after using avast for over a year, I gave it up due to update problems. now I'm considering switching back to avast, I just have a question: is avast scanning real-time wmv files, or on-demand?
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It scans everything in real time.
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Well everything considered an immediate risk or a target of infection. So does .wma present an immediate risk (if allowed to run could perform a malicious task) or the target of infection.
As far as I'm aware wma files can't be infected in the same way an exe or dll file can, but I think it is more a case of crafting it to try and exploit the media player. Personally I think it should be scanned.
If it is it doesn't appear to have any impact on my system on the very odd occasion when I play one.
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he said wmv David.
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My bad, I meant wmv, but some weird reason put wma as it is another windows media file format that can also be used to try and exploit the media player.
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thank you guys for replying. the reason for asking this: after giving up avast (update problems with the new v5) I switched to f-secure (license available from my employer). but on large wmv files, f-secure is scanning like crazy and my computer becomes unresponsive. I now consider switching back to avast, hoping the v5 is now more polished.
... it doesn't appear to have any impact on my system on the very odd occasion when I play one.
this is what I was searching for. you meant wmv files, right? I guess that scanning a large wmv file (or any very large file) should/could have some impact on executing that file. if it's unnoticeable, maybe avast isn't scanning wmv files? is this possible?
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The wmv files I ran were relatively small a couple of MB and even with the file system shield open so I could see what was being scanned. However, as soon as I clicked the .wmv file in explorer the avastUI loses focus, as quick as I was switching back to it I couldn't see if the file was scanned.
Avast has been blisteringly fast in its scans (coming top in many tests for speed of scanning), so I didn't see any huge delay in the wmv file being loaded. But since I started by clicking the wmv file in explorer the media player has to be loaded (didn't take long at all as that would have a scan overhead) and still no appreciable delay in it starting.
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I couldn't take it anymore with f-secure and the wmv files, and switched to avast. everything running as it should, no delays on playing wmv files.
but, I checked and can say that avast is not scanning on-access the wmv files, only on-demand. this is why there is no delay in playing such files. if avast is happy with this, I'm happy too. just for information, the scanning (on-demand) of a 700MB wmv file takes around 30sec.
the only thing I will miss is the Deepguard in f-secure, I don't think the behavior shield in avast is a match for it.
thank you, David and scythe944 for your replies.
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You're welcome.
Whilst not knowing what exactly deep guard does, there are upgrades to the behaviour shield in avast 5.1 which shouldn't be that far off now.
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Plus that whole, 6.0 that they're toting about.
It's closer than we think
as well!
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Yes, but 6.0 being closer than we think, isn't something that even figures on my radar, whilst 5.1 is looming large on the radar. I fancy a beta notification fairly soon.
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Yes, but 6.0 being closer than we think, isn't something that even figures on my radar, whilst 5.1 is looming large on the radar. I fancy a beta notification fairly soon.
God I hope so.