I dont know what to do in the rare occasion that Avast! finds something. Should i Quarantine the file or should I delete it? My friend says that deleting it is best because viruses can break out of quarantine, which I think is impossible, but you never know, do you? Anyway, Should I delete the malicious files or send them to quarantine? And I already have a few files in quarantine. Should I delete them or keep them there?
The virus chest is a safe place where files cannot be accessed and run.
As for the files, there is no rush to delete them from the chest. Keep them for a couple of weeks, to ensure that there are no adverse effects of the removal. Scan them and if the are still detected a few weeks later, and your system has suffered no problems they can be deleted.
Scan them again inside the Chest. If they are infected? then what? My computer has been running fine since the removal of those files into the Virus Chest. Should I delete them or let them rot in the Chest?
Edit: And what do you mean by investigating? how would I investigate the file and what should I be looking for?
Really, it’s your choice. I personally don’t really bother with the ‘keeping the chest tidy’ routine and just leave everything found there…
But it is down to personal preference…
The investigation refers to reporting them here, accertaining whether they are false positives etc.
Just plug the file name into Google and see what you can find out. There’s a huge database on the Web of known and suspected malware. You can also usually find out if it’s one you want to keep.
One reason for wanting to hang on to files instead of deleting them outright is in case there are any false positives. This can happen with all security programs, and although isn’t that common, is worth checking. As stated above, Google can be quite the friend, to get a general idea.
An online scanning service like www.virustotal.org is a good way to check individual files for likely infection. What you would do is copy the infected file from the chest into a purpose-created folder, named “suspicious”, and then upload the file from there.
Another way is to submit the file to Avast from the chest, or via email. If it’s the real deal (and usually it is) and is already detected by Avast, you would not expect an answer. If it was a false positive, and submitted as such, it would be removed from the database, and then at some point in the future, not be detected any more when scanned in the chest.
If you know for certain the file is malware, and your computer and all its programs are working well, no reason to keep it. (On the other hand, no hurry to delete it, either. I am not concerned about malware in the chest. It can’t get out, unless the user restores it.)