Repairing files with viruses with Avast Home

[smithwk2]

I have done a scan on my PC with Avast Home and it found one file with a virus.  I am not given the option to repair the file.  That option is grayed out.  How do I repair this file?  Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Wayne

[sanctuary24]

sometimes a file cant be repaired because the whole file is the malware, only in cases were the file was a normal file with a virus infecting it can an attempt at repairing it be made

[DavidR]

You don't say what the malware name or file name was, but at a guess I would say the malware had [trj] (short for Trojan) at the end of it.

Trojans generally can't be repaired (either by the VRDB or avast virus cleaner), because the entire content of the file is malware, so it is either move to chest or delete, move to the chest being the best option (first do no harm). When a file is in the chest it can't do any harm and you can investigate the infected warning.

The VRDB only protects certain files, mainly .exe files, it doesn't protect data files or all files, it is not a back-up program, so there are going to be many occasions where repair won't be an option.

Only true virus infection can be repaired, e.g. when a virus infects a file it adds a small part to it, provided that file is one that avast's VRDB would monitor and you have run the VRDB, then it may be possible to repair the file to its uninfected state.
However, for the most part so called viruses, trojans (adware/spyware/malware, etc.) can't be repaired because the complete content of the file is malicious.