Do you need to scan movie files...?

[WebMaximus]

Hi,

When performing a full system scan, would it be dumb to exclude movie files (*.avi *.mpg) - is it likely a virus could hide within those kind of files?

Thanks in advance,

Richard

[DavidR]

As far as I'm aware there some media files that can be exploited, I don't know if they can load and execute a virus though.

The easiest why to achieve this is by use of the sensitivity of scan in the on-demand scan, Quick, Standard and Thorough.

SETTING THE SENSITIVITY

After you select the area to scan, a bar with a slider appears. Moving the slider, you specify the scanner sensitivity. There are three levels:

# Quick Scan. Only the possibly dangerous files are scanned, according to their extension. It means that the files with extensions EXE, SCR, COM, DOC, etc. are scanned. Within the file, avast! looks only for those viruses that infect the corresponding type of file. It means that macroviruses are not searched for in EXE files etc.

# Standard Scan. Only the possibly dangerous files are scanned, according to their content. The file extension is ignored. Again, only the viruses corresponding to the particular file type are searched for.

# Thorough Scan. All files are tested, against all viruses.

[WebMaximus]

Thanks for the clarification, I know you can change this setting but didn't know in detail what the difference was.

//Richard

[DavidR]

Marvellous that avast help file

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