Apologies.
Perhaps I misunderstand I thought that the whole point of having a virus program such as avast was to help prevent you from downloading virus's not to find them after you get one (it seems I am also a confused computer user )
Yes this is true but think about it. Every time you go on the web you are downloading info on your machine. Downloading doesn't apply just to actual file transfers (I'm sorry if I am stating something you already know). Avast scans web browsing and warns you if any malicious file is downloading on your computer, before it actually does so. At least this is how I see it. If it's wrong I appreciate any intervention to correct this.
Well your wrong on that score, as depending on how it is downloaded avast most certainly can.
The avast Web Shield scans http port 80 traffic using the localhost proxy before it is saved to the hard disk, that is the reason I asked how you were downloading it as this would only apply for port 80 http traffic, either using your browsers download function or a download manager.
Again, apologies for this. WIRMI (What I Really Meant Is) that I download files from say download.com using Firefox. At the end of the download, with-in the download box I see a message saying that the file is being scanned. I presume that this is being done by Avast. I don't use torrents so I have no knowledge in that aspect.
Also if you can explain this DavidR. When I save something to a folder (download from the internet) I see it and another copy of it but with a different extension. So say I save FILE1.EXE. When I go to the location where the file is being saved, I see: FILE1.EXE and FILE1.PART. The later disappears after the transfer is done. What is this PART file used for?
Thank you and sorry for the confusion.