I’m on a network and didn’t know if AVAST 5 Home Edition will automatically scan my network drives or I need to manually select them? Does it only scan local drives? I tried looking at report to determine if it was scanning network drives too but didn’t see anything…thx
OK I just tried, no problem scanning shared folders (from another computer), but you can’t scan a mapped network drive. I just tried with creating a custom scan on such a drive and nothing get scanned. “Error, the system cannot find the path specified”, appears in the result window after the scan. You should rename your thread title to include “network” before “drive” 
edit: I think that’s what you’re looking for…(you’re not eligible if you only run “free” avast)
http://www.avast.com/distributed-network-manager#tab1
What exactly did you put into the list of areas to be scanned?
not sure if you’re asking me…
successful scan >>> I just put a shared folder
unsuccessful scan >>> I put the letter of the network drive (actually containing the same folder) … and anyway a direct scan from the explorer context menu leads to the same result.
edit: I don’t know. Could be that these editions of avast 5 are not supposed to be able to scan network drives…
I’m asking about the exact text
I mean, was it X:, or [b]X:[/b], or X:\something, or a UNC path (\server\share\something), …?
avast! 5 is generally supposed to scan network drivers - but it’s not simple (internally). The thing is that the scan is running in AvastSvc.exe - which runs under LOCALSYSTEM account. So, the process don’t have any network access… and has to impersonate the logged-on user somehow. Also, the mapped drives (X:) are not valid inside of AvastSvc process - so thay have to be converted to UNC beforehand (that should actually happen right at the moment you close the task properties window - the UI should do that).
So, we tried to make it work, but I’m not saying there aren’t any scenarios where it fails - so, if I were able to simulate the problem, maybe it could be improved.
OK thought so…so that’s:
Z:*
where Z is labeled:
Public (\computer name)
… and no automatic conversion to UNC when closing the task panel. It remains like I typed it, with just the drive letter.
OK it works if I type \computer name\folder , but it doesn’t have to be mapped as a network drive (with a letter assigned) for it to work.
Thank you all very much as it does work when I place in the path the server name and folder (i.e. \server\users\name). Is there a way to set this up to scan automatically, like AVAST does for local drive, or will I always have to manually perform this scan? Thanks again!!
yes, create a custom scan and set up a schedule for it
Strange… even Z:* works here.
OK I got to try again…may be there was a drive disconnection or an issue with the credentials not retained (just a guess), I’ll report back…