I’ve been using avast! for about one year, but just today it won’t scan files individually. A little box says “Scan was completed with error.” And underneath that it says “Error: Access was denied”.
If I try to do a full-system scan, it opens the interface, but first a message pops up that says: Access is denied
[b]Scan completed with error:
5 = Access is denied[/b]
Then if I press the arrow button to begin scan, a box opens that says Unknown Error, Access is denied.
Anybody familiar with this?
Which is your operational system?
Are you logged as an administrator (or common user)?
Do the messages mention any file or folder which access is denied?
More importantly I think as Tech mentions is what is the file name and location ?
There are many legitimate reasons why this might occur and the file name and location could help to identify that reason.
Also what version of avast are you using, the latest is 4.7.892 ?
I was logged in as administrator. Any specific file I tried to run a scan on in the c: drive in the MyDocuments folder would result in this message, if that answers the question about which folder and location this occured. But even attempting to run a full-system scan of the C and D drive would produce the message blocking me from running it. So it seemed that any file or folder would be blocked, because I tried a few individually as well.
I’m using Windows XP, if that’s what refers to the operational system.
I downloaded avast! last year, and it says 4.7, but I’m not sure if that implies 4.7.892. Is that distinct, or the same as what’s simply displayed as 4.7 when I run the program?
But what developed today was that I deleted a file I had downloaded just when the problem started, which I had suspected had something to do with it because of the timing, and then the issue with avast just went away. It worked normally as soon as I got rid of that file. I wonder, is there a type of virus that blocks access to your virus scanner? But I had opened the file, so I would have thought that if it contained a virus it would have gotten into the computer and stayed regardless of whether I deleted the file it came in on. Strange. Because if it stops blocking the scanner, I can then run a test and find it. What would be the point?
I’m interested to hear what you have to say about this. Even though the problem just went away, thanks for the assist.
Right click the “a” icon, click about avast! . It will give you current version of program and vps. Each version has an improvent over the last. Sometimes just a small bug fixed, sometimes a bit more. Also the new vps’s will require 4.7.892.
Thanks, I completely forgot about using the right-clink function. It said 4.7. No other numbers, so I’m behind. My virus database is always updated so I thought I would be given a prompt whenever there are new updates to the whole program.
I’m guessing that you don’t actually uninstall and reinstall everytime there’s a new edition?
Click the plus sign beside avast! versin 4.7
see image
Usually no. The program updates generally go smoothly. However, there are times when they don’t, then yes uninstall/install.
I did that, and it said 4.7.892. Thanks for showing me that. I’ve used the plus sign in other things but completely overlooked it in this case.
So it will scan other files and locations outside of the mydocuments folder ?
Personally I don’t use the my documents folder (default location, C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents) and use one of my own choosing (also on a different partition) as the mydocuments folder is not your standard folder by a special windows one.
However, there are some programs that place files there without asking, but I have no problem scanning those files either individually (right click menu) or using the on-demand scan. Do you happen to have some protection on that folder ?
I never thought to try outside the mydocuments folder. Now I wish I had thought of that. Since I suspected it was related to a certain file I had, I deleted it right away instead of trying anything else. Now that the problem is gone, I can’t experiment. I would have liked to do that just to see what would happen. With the full-system scan, it wouldn’t even let me start to see if it would scan other areas of the computer. But I should have tried to do that manually with individual programs or files.
I don’t have any particular protection on that folder, no.
It started right after I downloaded that particular file, then went away right after I deleted it.