Odd files that Avast seems to see that don't seem visible to the OS

[Lisandro]

Thanks for the suggestion.  I don't care so much about the weird files, although earlier in this thread, it seems to suggest that these files are created by AVAST to deal with encoding.  But I can live with ignoring the file.  It is dealing with ignoring the "decompression bomb" that is a bit harder to swallow.  This can't have anything to do with Vista, or am I missing something?

I'm not complete following you here...
If you want a way to configure Decompression Bomb settings, click 'Settings' in my signature and browse for them. There is a way to configure them in any Windows, including Vista.

[sgolux]

Unfortunately you are not following me, and I am not following you.

One poster on this thread has said that these weird files are files created by VISTA.  Another poster on this thread has said that these weird files are temporary files created by AVAST when it encodes or inspects certain types of files.

Question #1:  Which of these two is true?

The next thing -- regardless of whether VISTA is creating this file, or whether AVAST is creating this file, AVAST is finding a "decompression bomb" in ONE of these files.

Question #2:  What is a decompression bomb, and what do I do about it?  AVAST does not allow me to deal with it with the MOVE or DELETE option.

Finally an observation:  I went to your "settings" link.  On that page, I searched for the word "Decompression" and I searched for the word "Bomb".  (I did this without trying to match case).  It seems that neither word exists on that page, so I am unable to find anything about decompression bombs on that page.

[Lisandro]

One poster on this thread has said that these weird files are files created by VISTA.  Another poster on this thread has said that these weird files are temporary files created by AVAST when it encodes or inspects certain types of files.

The temporary FILES are created by avast.
Vista creates LINKS to files under the user profiles and these LINKS can't be scanned.

The next thing -- regardless of whether VISTA is creating this file, or whether AVAST is creating this file, AVAST is finding a "decompression bomb" in ONE of these files.
Question #2:  What is a decompression bomb, and what do I do about it?  AVAST does not allow me to deal with it with the MOVE or DELETE option.

Please, search the board for decompression bomb, I've posted a lot of times and right now I don't have my 'canned' answers on my hand...

Finally an observation:  I went to your "settings" link.  On that page, I searched for the word "Decompression" and I searched for the word "Bomb".  (I did this without trying to match case).  It seems that neither word exists on that page, so I am unable to find anything about decompression bombs on that page.

Sure there is: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15908#msg15908

[sgolux]

Thank you!

all clear now!

[igor]

Are you sure you really get
c:\users\sgolux\realestate\PartNo_something
in the scan results?

From the report file you posted, I don't see any record with
c:\users\sgolux\realestate\PartNo_*
I can see only
C:\Users\sgolux\realestate\Complete History\PartNo_*

So, it looks like realstate is a folder (which really shouldn't have any subarchives detected), and there's a file below, called Complete History where avast! detects a MIME attachment (correctly or not).
Maybe the column is too short and the path is somehow shortened in the middle, so you can't see the whole text? (try to widen the column)

Thanks.

[sgolux]

Yes, you are correct -- so sorry.  It wasn't a column width problem, it was a mistype on my part because I can't cut and paste from that "results" dialog, I had to retype it by hand and I am not a great typer.

But I think I am now understanding that a decompression bomb is merely a very very large archive file?  Is this true?

[igor]

Well, not just very large archive file, but rather a big file with a (suspiciously) high compression ratio.