The "Blocked File" Alarm Coupled with a "File is Fine" Message?

[VirtualTime]

I recently installed two freeware programs: AbleWord (a PDF editor) and FreeORC. I scanned them with up to date definitions before installing, and they both passed the scan.

Just thought I'd mention that, since I normally get my software through more mainstream sources, and this is the most risky I've gotten with installs in a long, long time.  If there's suspicion to be had, it might be there. But given as old as these programs are, there is no way I would ever expect them to not be listed in Avast if there were something wrong with them.

I'm not sure if this is a problem or not, but earlier today I was simply on YouTube catching up with a few channels, when Avast interrupted with that dinging alarm which is usually associated with a blocked file.  Thing is, the window that opened up gave me a message with the name of a file (I should have noted this down) which presumably had just downloaded to my PC, and telling me the file was not a threat.  Moments later, the exact same thing happened with another file of another name.  The Avast window had a countdown timer going on it, where it was presumably going to close itself.

I was not actively downloading anything at the time. It must have been some piece of software doing it.  I do not know what these two files are associated with.  I also expected that I'd be able to find the messages again, somewhere in message history, but I've not been able to locate them.

I'm just finding it really strange, that Avast is behaving in a way I'm not sure I've ever seen it behave before.

I've got up to date definitions, but I do need to update the Avast program. I'm hesitant because I don't know if it's going to force me to reboot this PC, and this PC got hit very nasty by the windows 10 update from last October.  I'm not exaggerating when I tell you it can take hours for this thing to return to a fully stable status, when shutting down and powering back up.  It always bothers me to reboot this thing. Not just because of the lost time, but given all the harrowing things this PC has put me through since October 2020, I'm half scared I'm going to shut it down and it just might never come back.

[r@vast]

Hi,

It is possible for Avast to alert you to a file that behaves suspiciously and then, after scanning it, once again informing you that it is clean (especially if it is a new file that we do not have in our database). Without a screenshot of the message, it is difficult to say which application triggered it. Perhaps you might find some information in "Notifications" (top right of Avast Antivirus window) > "History"

[VirtualTime]

Hi,

It is possible for Avast to alert you to a file that behaves suspiciously and then, after scanning it, once again informing you that it is clean (especially if it is a new file that we do not have in our database). Without a screenshot of the message, it is difficult to say which application triggered it. Perhaps you might find some information in "Notifications" (top right of Avast Antivirus window) > "History"

Thank you. The last message in history, aside from a smart scan, was a website block from July 21, 2021.  So, these pop up messages apparently didn't even register in History.  The alert happened one more time, though the window closed before I could even see it.

I installed Malwarebytes shortly after making my post above.  It found a few things, including something running in memory, but mostly just a few old software installers I've kept archived, yet haven't installed on this machine.  I let it quarantine those files.  My machine quit acting weird.  I also went through the painful process of rebooting.  When this machine returned to a stable status, I ran another scan and it turned up clean.  It's had a few more scans since, both clean until tonight, where it curiously found about five things, including register keys, which I let it quarantine.

I'm not sure where these are coming from.

So, that's the status at this point in time.

If I get another strange notice, I'll try to get a screen capture of it.