Problems with Arabic files...

[AhmadShawki]

Hi everybody, I live in Egypt and we speak the Arabic language, so we have many files and folders named in Arabic, but still the AVAST! home edition doesn't scan the Arabic files, and skips all of them,
So, does anyone know how to resolve this problem, 'coz I like the program very much and I'd like to keep it on my computer.
Thanks in advance...

[igor]

What is your operating system, and what is your OS locale setting? (specifically, "Language for non-Unicode programs", if you're on WinNT/2000/XP)

[AhmadShawki]

I'm using Windows XP Pro + SP2, and the Unicode is English (United States),
I can change it if you want me to do...

[igor]

I believe that if you change the settings, it will work.

[AhmadShawki]

WHAT settings and to WHAT ?

[igor]

The setting you suggested (as least I believe so):
Control Panel / Regional Options / Advanced / Language for non-Unicode programs
If it's set to Arabic, avast! shouldn't have any problems with Arabic file names.

[AhmadShawki]

I'll change it, and I'll do the scan right now.
Then I'll tell you what happens...

[AhmadShawki]

It went pretty fine, thank you very much.
BUT STILL some files cannot be scanned, it says either;
 1. "Unable to scan: Archieve is password protected", should I uncheck the box of Scan inside the archieves ?
 2. "Unable to scan: THe file name, directory name, or or volume label syntax is incorrect" , do you think I should rename them or what ?

[Lisandro]

BUT STILL some files cannot be scanned, it says either;
1. "Unable to scan: Archieve is password protected", should I uncheck the box of Scan inside the archieves ?

avast can't scan files that are password protected, it doesn't know the password.
There are many legitimate reasons why a file was password protected. For intance, the ones you're talking about. Lavasoft stores its data in a password-protected ZIP archives (to prevent other similar tools from messing up with them). It's really nothing to worry about - it's normal.

[igor]

2. "Unable to scan: THe file name, directory name, or or volume label syntax is incorrect" , do you think I should rename them or what ?

No, don't rename them. It seems that avast! still has some problems with opening these files. Can you tell me something more about them? I mean, do they have "normal" Arabic names, or are they somehow special?

Thanks.

[RejZoR]

I thought avast! fully supports UNICODE

I have extra letters that are used in Slovenian language,but the setting for non-UNICODE programs is set to English. Thats because many programs use localized language and i don't like that. Windows are english,programs in slovenian language and everything looks terrible. Not to mention that translations are usually crappy,so i stick with English setting for non-UNICODE stuff. So if i have English set here i can't scan files with special characters!?

[igor]

The resident protection drivers do support Unicode, i.e. they won't allow you to start an infected file. However, the "higher" functions (display, actions, ...) are still mostly ANSI - so, they require a matching setting of the "Language for non-Unicode programs".
Recently (= after the build 652 was released), I did some improvement, regarding the On-Demand scanning, and I plan some more in the future.

Btw, do you say that when you change the language for non-Unicode programs setting, the programs change their interface language? I wouldn't expect that...

[RejZoR]

Yeah,that was the case with NVIDIA Control Panel and tray settings.
If i set the language to English for non-UNICODE i got English interface for Control Panel,otherwise i got Slovenian interface (like translated). And it was really terribly translated,thats why i decided i want to have only english interface programs on my PC. But i have ATi graphic card now,so i don't know if NV fixed anything regarding this.
I'm not sure about other programs now since i use English setting for non-UNICODE since then.

[AhmadShawki]

2. "Unable to scan: THe file name, directory name, or or volume label syntax is incorrect" , do you think I should rename them or what ?

No, don't rename them. It seems that avast! still has some problems with opening these files. Can you tell me something more about them? I mean, do they have "normal" Arabic names, or are they somehow special?

Thanks.

That's on of them - if you're interested, its name is "ótTnº dƒd½e ƒƒƒ8 fd¡.asf".
It's fully working video and its original name when I downloaded it from the net was "نانسى تقليد.asf", I don't know may be the download wasn't right, but still it is working on the media player...

[RejZoR]

I have seen this funny renaming stuff while ago.
I created a folder with special characters from Slovenian alphabet,downloaded EXE file from net directly into this folder and AV automatically created another folder with similar name next to it with letters "c","z" and "s" without any lines above it and placed file there. This was the case of ArcaVir,but i think i have seen the same with avast! and NOD32.