Avast 4 Home Finds Virus and Stops Scan?

[RastusWashington]

I set up Avast 4 Home to run a scan overnight.
I checked this morning. Avast found a trojan, posted up a warning wanting to know how it should handle the trojan. It stopped scanning. It was at 22%. This is retarded and a huge waste of time.
How do I make Avast 4 Home continue scanning and ask me how to handle the problems at the end?

Rastus

[scythe944]

It wants to know what you want to do about the virus.  You can tell it what to do, and check the box that says something like, "do this for all infected files" so that it won't just stop the next time.

Actually, there are lots of posts about this, and unfortunately with the free version of Avast, it's something you just have to deal with.

Welcome to the forums.

[DavidR]

Well you could always purchase the Pro version which is more flexible and the major restriction in the free Home version is the interactive non automated requirement, otherwise the Home version has almost everything that the Pro version has, the programmers have to eat

In the Home version you can check the option "Don't show this window again" when the first virus warning appears, select the "No action" button. This way, no action will be taken and you will given the results at the end of the scan (and you can perform actions from there). Over time this will become less of an issue, as the resident, on-access scanners are designed to intercept infection before it gets into your system.

- There was one suggestion to place something like the eicar virus test file at the start of the first drive to be scanned in a file like ~a-eicar.com that should soon be detected and you can do the option "Don't show this window again" when the first virus warning appears, select the "No action" button. So you should have a list of files waiting your action.

[RastusWashington]

...check the box that says something like, "do this for all infected files" so that it won't just stop the next time.

Thanks for your reply. I just uninstalled AVG 8.5 and installed Avast 4 but if I can't prevent Avast 4 from pausing my scan after finding an infection that's a deal breaker and PITA. I'll try a different program.

So I understand. If I check that box, will it do my selected process for that specific type of infection or all future types of infections and file types?

Thanks again.

Rastus

[scythe944]

So I understand. If I check that box, will it do my selected process for that specific type of infection or all future types of infections and file types?

Yes, but only for that scan session.

Again, as DavidR has explained, the only way around this limitation is to pay for the professional version of Avast.

Others have used a test virus file to make avast find it during a scan, then they do the "Don't show this window again" thing, which allows the scan to continue until complete.

[RastusWashington]

Well you could always purchase the Pro version which is more flexible and the major restriction in the free Home version is the interactive non automated requirement, otherwise the Home version has almost everything that the Pro version has, the programmers have to eat

I understand and respect that there has to be a profit motive.
Unfortunately Avast has competition that creates an effective product w/out these limitations during a trial. I just want to try the product hassle free (with out a hack) and waste as little time and computing resources as possible. That's why I set the scan to run overnight. Different people like different things about different programs. Avast is not for me.

Thanks again for both of your quick reply's.

Rastus

[lukor]

You can always run the Pro version in Trial mode, it's 60 or 90 days (not sure).

[scythe944]

60 days.

[Bluesman]

Thanks again for both of your quick reply's.

That's one of the good "features" of avast...fast answers in the forum

[tripplec]

I am running Pro on an XP Pro Notebook SP3 and when I do a full scan it also stops on files it thinks are infected. False positives (no way to have it ignore them either in the future). I tried check marking the box to not show it and got a summary at the end of the scan. Many files could not be opened, password required etc in the log. I am running with administrator rights. Can't say this Avast interface is intuitive either. I've run or seen most AV products over the decade being in IT and from what I have read it was suppose to be better than AVG which I uninstalled before giving this a go.

Just the other day I got a BSD and the dump tracked it down to a driver. Well nothing has changed hardware wise, nor has any drivers been altered. Only Avast updates and their engine files and their drivers. I prefer the AVG Home and Pro screens. You know exactly where to go and can modify manual scans etc clearly. Their engine was missing some viruses a while back so I dumped it and switched but might uninstall this and go back to it. There have been updates to their revision from what I have seen. It works well on Vista 64 since I have that running as well on another system. I have about 6 systems in my mix and get a good feel for what works and doesn't. I don't change them all at once either when updated come out or new utilities appear.

[DavidR]

You can have avast ignore them in the future (just that the option you tried it a one off action), but you should first confirm it actually is an FP and then report it to have the FP corrected for 'all' avast users, that is the best way to go about it, see #### below.

avast can do nothing about password protected files and this isn't unusual.
See http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=35347.msg297170#msg297170 this topic for more information on why files can't be scanned.
Files that can't be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.

####
You could also check the offending/suspect file at: VirusTotal - Multi engine on-line virus scanner and report the findings here the URL in the Address bar of the VT results page. You can't do this with the file securely in the chest, you need to extract it to a temporary (not original) location first, see below.

Create a folder called Suspect in the C:\ drive, e.g. C:\Suspect. Now exclude that folder in the Standard Shield, Customize, Advanced, Add, type (or copy and paste) C:\Suspect\* That will stop the standard shield scanning any file you put in that folder. You should now be able to export any file in the chest to this folder and upload it to VirusTotal without avast alerting.

If it is indeed a false positive, see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=34950.msg293451#msg293451, how to report it to avast! and what to do to exclude them until the problem is corrected.

[tripplec]

That means I must pull an associated app file from its group folder and place it in this excluded directory to prevent it from being acted on.
This is not a requirement for most known AV products I have used in the past and currently do use.

 AVAST needs to add it to an excluded database in which files names added/placed there are ignored. An exclusion list, that's the proper way to handle them. Also scanning process should continue by default to the end and present an action request for detected files as most other product do. Background detection upon opening files etc is different situation whether its Home or Pro versions. They generate alert immediately for all the products.

All these product continue without stopping and I am sure others do as well. I use them all here and many systems.

AVG Home & Pro
MalwarebytesAntimalware
SuperAntivirus
Zonealarm Suite 7 & 8

[DavidR]

It doesn't mean that at all, this is just so that you can upload it for scanning without a) avast detecting it again or b) disabling the protection for a period whist you do it.


I presume that you haven't read the info on the link I gave on how to report and exclude or you would have seen that is how they are handled. I just don't believe you should first exclude before confirming that it 'isn't' infected.

The interactive input is as has been mentioned a restriction of the free version. So rather than like the free version of avg avast doesn't cripple/restrict the protection, in the free Home version.