virus chest

[dana]

I don't quite understand what happens to all the viruses and trojans that Avast recommends to send to the virus chest.
Why place something in the chest instead of just deleting it?
Aren't I just keeping them on my computer?
Can these ever get out?
Can all these viruses and trojans be deleted safely from the chest and from my computer after they've been placed in the chest?
I realise these are probably silly questions but I couldn't find anything in the FAQ or knowledge-base about it.
Thank you

[Lisandro]

Why place something in the chest instead of just deleting it?

Chest is a safe place. Viruses cannot get out of there. This is safer than deleting because, this way, you can test the file again (and correct a false positive detection), you could keep the name of the file (and path) and virus name (for further investigation), etc.

Aren't I just keeping them on my computer?

No. They're safe and cannot harm you.

Can these ever get out?

No.

Can all these viruses and trojans be deleted safely from the chest and from my computer after they've been placed in the chest?

If you're sure they're infected, you can right click the files into Chest and rescan, then you can delete them. You can wait 15 days for instance, keeping the files into Chest.

[DavidR]

You have done the right thing, 'first do no harm' don't delete, send virus to the chest and investigate.

There is no rush to delete anything from the chest, a protected area where it can do no harm. Anything that you send to the chest you should leave there for a few weeks. If after that time you have suffered no adverse effects from moving these to the chest, scan them again (inside the chest) and if they are still detected as viruses, delete them.

Deletion isn't really a good first option (you have none left), 'first do no harm' don't delete, send virus to the chest and investigate.

[dana]

Thank you.

[DavidR]

No problem, glad we could help.