Author Topic: How to scan ALL files?  (Read 15979 times)

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writerguy

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How to scan ALL files?
« on: March 02, 2004, 12:21:38 AM »
I gave up on NAV after it missed 6 viruses on my hard drive.

I tested BitDefender 7 and it won't work well with my wireless home network.

I installed avast! 4 Pro yesterday and everything seems to work OK. BUT -- I tried to scan all the files on my hard drive and it scanned a total of about 190,000. With NAV, the full scan was something around 560,000. And the full scan with BitDefender scanned over 1,000,000.

Why the big differences?? How can I get avast to scan ALL the files on my hard drive?

Thanks,

Gary Speer ("writerguy")

Offline Vlk

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2004, 12:36:14 AM »
Did you do the scan with archive scanning enabled?
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writerguy

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2004, 01:07:32 AM »
To be honest -- I'm having a hard time figuring out how to set which files I'm supposed to be scanning.

I thought I had selected all of the "Packers" under the "task" for scanning all local drives?

Is that the setting I needed? I have to say the avast skin/interface looks very nice, but I'm not having a lot of luck figuring out the settings and how to set them? Sorry.

Gary Speer

EVdB

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2004, 01:31:50 AM »
Hi Gary,

Can this help you?



 ;) Eric

Offline Lisandro

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2004, 02:52:45 AM »
I thought I had selected all of the "Packers" under the "task" for scanning all local drives? Is that the setting I needed?

Yes (this is the setting for the Enhanced User Interface, Professional version).

I have to say the avast skin/interface looks very nice, but I'm not having a lot of luck figuring out the settings and how to set them? Sorry.

For the Simple User Interface (skin or Home version) you have to run a Thorough scan and check the option 'Scan archive files'.

Wellcome to forums.
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CoJo

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2004, 03:12:02 AM »


For the Simple User Interface (skin or Home version) you have to run a Thorough scan and check the option 'Scan archive files'.

Wellcome to forums.
Quote

Technical my friend! this is one of the great things you do...put things into terms even I can understand ;D
and I  really do appreciate it...
thank you!

cojo

Offline Lisandro

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2004, 03:19:06 AM »


For the Simple User Interface (skin or Home version) you have to run a Thorough scan and check the option 'Scan archive files'.

Wellcome to forums.
Quote

Technical my friend! this is one of the great things you do...put things into terms even I can understand ;D
and I  really do appreciate it...
thank you!

cojo

Cojo, you always give me hope! We need hope these days: somebody understands me!  :D
Now, I hope writerguy understands too...  :)
The best things in life are free.

writerguy

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2004, 04:30:34 AM »
 ;D

Well, I thought when I was using the enhanced interface that I had checked archives -- but maybe not.

I switched to the simpler enterface, set the options to "Thorough" scan and checked to scan archives.

Worked fine. Only one question: The report I got said there were a number of files unable to scan, because they were "password protected." Turns out most of them were Norton SystemWorks "protected" files in the recycler. Got rid of those.

Why won't avast scan "protected" files? Is that a problem?

BTW -- Thanks to all for welcoming me to the forum. I love this product already and expect to purchase avast Pro in the next couple of weeks. So I'll probably be hanging around here from time to time.

(Hi, Eric. Good to see you from the PocoMail forums  ;D)

And while I'm mentioning PocoMail: I figured out how to run PocoMail with Popfile spam software AND avast Pro. Seems to be a great combination for us email freaks.  :)

Gary Speer

Offline pk

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2004, 07:44:37 AM »
Why won't avast scan "protected" files? Is that a problem?
Yes, it is. To unpack all files from the password-protected archive we need one detal: password ;). We can't do anything than skip such archives.

Offline RejZoR

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2004, 07:51:08 AM »
Thats why password protected archives are good for transporting viral files :)

Each password protected archive could be brute-forced and scanned after password found,but this procedure takes time and lots of CPU time. And why the hell would you need such function ;)
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Offline Vlk

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2004, 08:29:30 AM »
I've heard that some of the latest viruses (was it some variant of Beagle or Netsky?) actually sends itself in a passport-protected ZIP add tells the password in the message body. Ie. if the user is devoted enough, he/she can extract the virus and run it (provided there's no file-system based on-access scanner installed on his/her machine).

Interesting idea :)
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Offline igor

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2004, 09:40:38 AM »
Yes, latest Beagle variants really spread themselves as password-protected ZIP files - and append the (random) archive password to the message (so that the user can extract it).

Offline Lisandro

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2004, 01:39:44 PM »
So that the user can extract it.

If he/she is stupid I suppose  ;D
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CoJo

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2004, 02:00:32 PM »
So that the user can extract it.

If he/she is stupid I suppose  ;D

 ;D hey! are you talking about me???...just joking!

cojo

EVdB

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Re:How to scan ALL files?
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2004, 03:01:52 PM »
Quote
Technical wrote: If he/she is stupid I suppose
??? You would be supprised, how stupid some people can be!