Deleted (safe) attachments

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I installed Avast Free plus Grime Fighter a couple of weeks ago, when I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. Since then I notice that a number of messages have attachments deleted when they arrive in my personal email. This includes emails from my work address. Is this an avast problem? Or Windows problem? I am now using Windows Live for emails (that’s new, too). Thank you.

2

I rather doubt it is an avast issue as the only reason for it to do that would be if it was infected.

If it was infected you should get, A) an audible, B) visual alert and C) the email subject would be branded Virus

The other thing that you don’t mention is the email program that you use ?
Or if this is web mail only, e.g. viewed through your browser ?

3

Thanks for your reply, I did mention I’m using Windows Live for email. Not sufficiently proficient to know if there is some other email software applicable?
I wondered if it was a Windows Live issue, which would be my next point of exploration.
I also noticed today that I do receive attachments from my office email, but they are scrubbed out after some time.

4

Unfortunately for me there have been so many things called windows live (enter app name here) and Microsoft’s habit of changing application names I really don’t know what they are currently on now.

The crucial difference is do you view your email using your browser (webmail) or do you download the email using a program other than your browser and view it on that ?

If it is Windows Live Mail/Email (application not a browser) the next issue is where is the email being downloaded from. Microsoft have been using outlook.com as one source. This can cause issues as it might not be using the standard email protocols (SMTP and POP3, etc.) expected by the Mail shield, it could be using a Microsoft proprietary protocol called Delta Sync.

Unfortunately my questions may be too technical for you to answer, but I don’t know how else to word them. Mainly because I have never used any of the Windows Live range of products, so I don’t know how the current product range works.