PST Files

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I searched and saw this a few times, but no solution for it.

I have the newest paid version of Avast Internet Security. And every single morning, i come down to see that “Some files could not be scanned”. It is always outlook.pst, and that some process has part of the file open. I have several other pst files that i archive to. And if I happen to access those through outlook during the day (looking for an old message), i then also get a notification the next day on those pst files as well.

Yes, I leave outlook open 24 hours a day. I work from home, and do internet software and administration. Outlook will remain open all the time.

How do i make this error go away? Its getting extremely old.

2
How do i make this error go away?
dont scan every day....not necessary to do

or…close outlook when avast scan

3

Thank you for your reply. Here are your suggestions:

  1. dont scan every day, no reason to:

Why shouldnt I? I work on the internet 10+ hours a day. I would think that I should scan as much as possible, to ensure i didnt pick something up. I wouldnt want to wait until days later, once something had a chance to propogate across my whole system.

  1. Close outlook while it scans:

Outlook is open 24/7. I come in and check messages all the time, even when not working. Avast is scheduled for 3am when I am (hopefully) in bed. So no, closing outlook while i scan is not an option. And I shouldnt need to.

4
Why shouldnt I? I work on the internet 10+ hours a day. I would think that I should scan as much as possible, to ensure i didnt pick something up. I wouldnt want to wait until days later, once something had a chance to propogate across my whole system.
all antivirus programs with [b]real time protection[/b] is watching your back all the time avast file shield is running in the background 24/7 and any file that moves in the computer is scanned, so if a malware file start to move...BANG....avast got you ;)

so if you do a quick scan a week it is plenty

5

While I do understand that, I randomly get things nightly that get cleaned. a couple nights ago i got some script exploit that needed to be cleaned. I should let stuff like that just wait until once a week?

6

and where does avast find these script exploits ?

in mail?..or website?

7

Well the psts never scan. So its not finding anything in mail.

The script exploit it was found in temporary internet files.

8
The script exploit it was found in temporary internet files.
Which should be deleted on a regular basis using a tool like [url=http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner][b][u]Ccleaner[/u][/b][/url] or, the browsers built in function. :) If scanning daily makes you happy, enjoy the practice. I have better things to do since as Ppondus already mentioned, it isn't really adding to your security.
9

Ok, while I understand what you are saying, it does not address my problem. If I scan once a day, once a week, or once a month, I am still getting the .pst error every scan. Avast is supposed to be able to scan the pst even if outlook is open.

THAT is my issue.

10

what type of scan is this…quick / full / custom ?

11

Full system scan.

12
Avast is supposed to be able to scan the pst even if outlook is open.
If Outlook is using the file, avast! may not have rights to that file and therefore may not be able to scan it. One of the reasons that avast! has a boot time scan feature where it has access to those files that under most circumstances are used by the system and aren't available. Since I don't use Outlook, I don't have a .pst file to verify this myself.
13

try with quick…to see if it does not scan that area and the avoid it…and yes the quick scan will scan all area where malware normaly hide and run active

alternative add that folder to exclusion list

14

From the different responses, I’m not sure if the problem of CodeLizard is that he actually wants to scan the PST files while Outlook is using them, or the problem is the presence of that part of the log, or the problem is to skip / avoid scanning the PST files when running those scans. ???

15

Well first I was annoyed by this message every day. But then after I googled my issue, and saw that Avast SHOULD be able to scan into my PST files, I’d actually like my email scanned as well. I run a small business and communicate with my customers all via email, and received hundreds of legit emails a day. So yeah, I’d like them to be scanned.

16

The emails are scanned with the email modules of avast. It shouldn’t be necessary to re-scan them with the File System Shield.

If you close Outlook (just for a test) are those PST files scanned using the same scan you used before?

17

Scanning your emails as you receive them is one thing and that happens
through the interface.
Scanning the .pst file is a different matter and attempting to san the .pst file while it
is used by outlook (which is the case if Outlook is open) is another matter entirely.