a little confused

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

iv just installed and registered with Avast 4.8 but iv got a question

on a test computer i have downloaded a virus [odd thing to do i know but pls bear with me] , i run a scan on it and sure enough it comes up with virus detected, i click on ignore/continue or whatever the button is called , then i go to the file in windows and the odd thing is that i can still run it ??? no warning or anything, so i re-run the scan on this file and it said it was defiantly a virus but still i can run it from windows ?
i thought that the active part of the anti virus was supposed to stop a virus from being run at all. please point me in the right direction .

Thx Greg.

2

well, you probably shouldn’t “ignore” the file when it is detected!
it would be better to send it to the chest where the file can’t harm anything…

i don’t know how the exeption list and ignore list works… probably someone else can clear that up…

3

Hmmm… strange that you could simultaneously have access to it and it’s a detectable virus…
Are you using Windows XP/Vista?
Can you schedule a boot-time scanning?
Start avast! > Right click the skin > Schedule a boot-time scanning.
Select for scanning archives.
Boot.
If infected files are found, it’s safer to send them to Chest instead of deleting them.
This way you can further analysis them.

4

well i have been in contact with avast and this is the mail thread:-

Good morning,

If you choose to Ignore/Continue, avast! will ignore it and continue its scan. Since you choose to ignore the virus, from then on you can still run it.

The process how to remove viruses is described in one of our FAQ
here:
http://www.avast.com/eng/faq_virus_deleting.html
It works in most cases.

If it will not help you, try to download and install Windows Defender
from Microsoft web pages.

If it does not work it is not easy to delete this type of viruses and I am not able to
help you directly. I recommend you to use a special program to detect
unusual files on your computer.

Download Hijackthis from web page http://www.hijackthis.de and install
it on your computer. Read instruction about hijackthis on it´s web
page, please.

Kind regards,
Pedro Moniz
Technical and Sales Support
Alwil Software a. s.

Ticket Details

Ticket ID: QLO-938389
Department: [POR] Technical support
Priority: Default
Status: On Hold

afternoon,

so if i download an infected file and its never been seen by the virus scanner, your saying that if i go to that file and try to run it, it will prevent me from running it.
[ just to clarify ]
The reason that its letting me run my test virus file is that i clicked on continue when i was scanning it and therefor Avast put it on a list of files that have been scanned and dealt with and from that point onwards the active protection will ignore it and will allow me to run it.

Thx all,
Greg

Hi,

Yes.

Kind regards,
Pedro Moniz
Technical and Sales Support
Alwil Software a. s.

Ticket Details

Ticket ID: QLO-938389
Department: [POR] Technical support
Priority: Default
Status: On Hold

is very odd though cos Avg,Avp & Kav wouldn’t let me do anything to a file that has been scanned as infected whether or not i pass by it in a scan or not!! i would have to manually add it to the ignore list.
just hope they r right when they say that if i try 2 execute a new infected file that it WILL protect me.

Thx all,
Greg

5

If you use the ‘ignore list’ (a.k.a. Exclusion list), that will be the reason for the file NOT to be scanned!

6

JackDinn,

So avast! finds the virus and it offers you the chance to do something about it, and you opt to tell it to ignore it, and you are then surprised when it does what you asked it to do.

Perhaps a good question is why you would seriously expect it to ignore your instruction? :o

7

Every1 is stuck at the point of me clicking continue during a scan and then going to look at the affected file, well its quite simple IM TESTING AV PROGRAMS i have already said that, my point is that with AVG AVP & KAV you can do a scan and you can ignore or pass by an infection but none of them will let u even hover the mouse over the file without telling u its infected but Avast does not do this, i only wanted to know why it acted differently.

Even when im not testing sometimes when i do a scan i may find an infected file that is doing something important and i don’t want to move it or delete just at that point i would want to wait until after the scan and then go and have a closer look at it to c exactly what it is and what its doing.
Also during scans iv seen false positives and so again i want to pass by them and have a closer look after the scan has finished. but this is all academic as im only curious y Avast acts slightly differently from all the others.

Thx.

8

Did you change the default settings of Standard Shield?

Use the ‘Continue’ button and ‘Do not show this window next time’ option.