avast Free Real Time Scanning doesn't work

I installed avast free Anti Virus on my Win 7 machine yesterday. After the installation was complete, including updates, I decided to test whether the Anti Virus was working correctly. I downloaded the virus test file from http://www.eicar.org/86-0-Intended-use.html and saved it on my desktop. After waiting 10 minutes for avast to automatically warn of a virus, I gave up.So I decided to open the file in a notepad to check whether avast can detect it on opening. Still nothing…I could open the file and close it with avast doing anything. It was only when I right clicked on the the file and said Scan with Avast, did Avast detect it but I guess by then in a normal scenario it would have been too late.

I am extremely disappointed with the Real Time scanning abilities of Avast and am looking to uninstalling it and switching to AVG Free.

Did you reboot after installation of Avast?

Did you change any of the default Avast settings after installation?

What other security software do you have on your machine both in the past and now? If in the past, how did you remove it?

http://www.eicar.org/85-0-Download.html

Try these files

I only have Malware AntiBytes and a Zone Alarm Firewall on my machine. I did a complete reboot post installation, but did not notice any change in avast’s behavior. It is still not able to detect the EICAR test file (downloaded from the new link) as a Virus. Whats worse is that I can even open the EICAR Test File without avast raising any alert.Here’s a screenshot

http://i.imgur.com/xRMmI.png

I would drop ZA.

So when you click the eicar.com file nothing happen?
If not something is wrong with your avast install

Can somone else test this?
I am on my htc phone so…

i have done a bit of research. its only the .txt file which Avast does not alert on access (real time file system shield). a right click on demand scan detects it.
(capture 3&4)
tested the rest: site, exe are all blocked by real time shields (capture 1&2)

my guess is that by default, file shield does not scan .txt files when u read/write to it (refer to capture 5) (i guess opening the .txt file is reading it, not executing it)

please refer to the screenshots :slight_smile:

last screenshot