Hi. I am attempting to get control over a computer gone berserk. Maybe it’s not all that bad… But I don’t trust my McAfee after reading that it misses a lot. Also I’ve been getting weird emails from myself with links that are marked yellow by my site advisor. I don’t click on them. But it seems fishy to me that they exist.
So I downloaded Avast home version, and also ran the cleaner. The cleaner came up with several files that said “file could not be scanned!” Three were in Documents and Settings, 2 in windows/system32/catroot, and 2 in windows/temp. Is there a simple explanation? Before discovering Avast, I’d downloaded Spybot and deleted a bunch of junk. However, each time I go online I seem to collect the same things, they just seem to stick to me.
I have Windows XP, I’m not sure if I have all the updates or not. I use Outlook Express… But I’m turning over a new leaf. I downloaded Firefox to use as a browser instead of IE, and I’m going to find something better for email.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. As you can see from my name here, “nontechie”, you will have to go slow with me, lol. If I could afford to hire someone to just come and “fix it!” I would. But not an option. Having to do this myself… I need a stiff drink first.
Did you use avast Cleaner or you’ve installed avast home and run a scanning with it?
Please, schedule a boot time scanning…
Click on the Menu button.
Choose Schedule Boot Time Scan.
Doing so displays a dialog allowing you to schedule virus scanning.
Check Archives, if you want scan all the archives.
Specify whether all the disks or just a specific folder should be scanned.
Select Advanced options for scheduling details.
Select how to automatically process infected files (suggestion: send to Chest)
Choose how to automatically process infected system files (suggestion: ignore/do nothing)
Click the Schedule button to confirm the settings.
I first downloaded Avast Home, but decided to use the Cleaner first. The cleaner found the files it could not scan. I am running a scan now with Avast Home, like you directed. Only problem is when I clicked on “Schedule Boot-Time Scan” it got stuck on my screen and will not go away. I see it now, even though the only window I have open is the Firefox window I’m typing in…
Avast Home said I already had Boot Time Scan scheduled.
It is scanning now, but says that Scan Archive Files is disabled. Do I need to enable it? This is a little confusing.
Okay, the scan is done. There is a big long list of things that came up “unable to scan: archive is password protected”.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should I just move them all to the box? There are @ 70 items in the list. And then what? Give it to me straight, lol… is my computer about to die? :-[
avast can’t scan files that are password protected, it doesn’t know the password.
There are many legitimate reasons why a file was password protected. For instance, the ones you’re talking about. Lavasoft stores its data in a password-protected ZIP archives (to prevent other similar tools from messing up with them). It’s really nothing to worry about - it’s normal.
In AdAware and S&D, when you fix/remove things it keeps backup/recovery information so you can restore anything that was mistakenly fixed/removed, etc. After a reasonable time your system has suffered no adverse effects, you can get rid of the older recovery/backup points.
This should reduce the number of protected files.
Many programs (usually security based ones) password protect their files for legitimate reasons such as AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy, there are others (and avast doesn’t know the password or have any way of using it even if it did know it). Do you use any other security based programs ?
When you run scans with the above programs and you delete harmful entries that they detect, a copy is kept (in quarantine/restore/backup) in case you need to reverse what you did. These are usually password protected, you should do some housekeeping and delete old backup/recovery/quarantine entries (older than two weeks or so), this will reduce the numbers of files that can’t be scanned.
By examining 1) the reason given by avast! for not being able to scan the files, 2) the location of the files, you can get an idea of what program they relate to. You may need to expand the column headings to see all the text.
Files that can’t be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.
Takes me a while to figure things out.