Avast! 4.1 Home Edition

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello everyone!

Just started using 4.1 Home Edition and I quite like it and if after 60 days i have no problems then i’ll definately register for a key.

I have a suggestion which maybe i’ll post in the wishlist thread.

I have been using this link to test different anti viruses.

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

my results

eicar.com
eicar.com.txt

With the above 2 as soon as i click on them

norton 2003 - message saying virus detected pops up
mcafee 7 - message saying virus detected pops up
pc-cillin 2004 - message saying virus detected pops up
Avast! 4.1 - Nothing unless I change it to scan all files

with these last 2,

eicar_com.zip
eicarcom2.zip

only PC-cillin 2004 pops up saying virus detected as soon as u click on them.

Avast! / norton 2003 / mcafee 7 - doesnt say anything unless you manually scan the zips once they have been downloaded.

Why not have avast’s real time agent scan all files by default?
and secondly can the real time agent be configured to scan inside zip files like pc cillin?

Keep up the good work 8)

DukeNukem

2

As long as malware is zipped, it won’t do harm. So why have the on-access scanner scan zip files? The content of the zip will be scanned as soon as you unpack it. Avast will detect the malware then.

If you like to have the on-access scanner also scan zip files, add the zip extension to the list of scanned file types.

3

Hi, welcome to the forums.

You can also set your on-access scanner to High and Scan created/modified files, see image.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/for-dwr/scanner-adv.jpg

HTH David

4

:stuck_out_tongue: Thats what I had to do so that avast detects the eicar.txt and .com files.

5

Just adding ZIP extension to the scanned files list in Home Edition won’t do anything. It will be scanned as binary file and not as ZIP archive.
Also .txt files are harmless,so you don’t have to scan them.

6

So avast! does detect them as your initial post said but you have to increase the strength of the on-access scanner.

As to why doesn’t avast have a default setting to scan all files, my opinion only (not Alwil), for the most part certain files don’t need to be scanned on download, there is an overhead in scanning every file.

So those without powerful systems will think the program is too slow, there has to be a compromise so I think that the intermediate settings as a default is preferable.

When you install a program, everyone should start by getting to know the program in order to get to know it and get the best out of it (most people don’t). Rather than start reading the help files and exploring the system until they experience a problem.

Zip files usually have to be downloaded so it could be possible to have your download manager have avast scan downloaded files.

7

Personally i would rather have all files scanned even if it means losing some performance.

Compared to norton 2003 and mcafee 7 I find avast to be a lot faster even when set to scan all files.

:slight_smile:

8

There have been many threads about this. If you do a search for eicar & avast4.xml you should find several threads that talk about this.

They should also tell you what exactly needs to be added to avast4.xml for avasts on-access scanner to scan inside zip files.

9

A red flag just went up here. Do you have all of these AV programs installed at the same time? Search through the threads concerning the Norton/avast conflicts.

10

LOL ;D

No.