I’m glad I found this cool antivir program since I really really like it I used kaspersky trial before, but avast is much more tiny and simpler to use!!!
But now, I have 3 questions:
VRDB:
I searched the forum and I think I understood the concept of VRDB but I did not find anything about the space consumption of it, so here’s the question: How much space is needed for VRDB. I know that it depends on how big my harddisks are, let’s assume I have a full 300GB harddisk …
Why there are two different exception-lists??? When I tell the onAccess Scanner to exclude certain paths and/or files from scanning, they are recognized by the default full-system scanner of avast. Would it be possible to have only one exception list to be maintained and if you want to make differences for onAccess and full-system scanner, that better integrate two new columns where you can check a box for which scan-engine it should be an exception. this would be much more easy
It would be very nice to be able to make a “silent” scan: I mean a full system scan but if there’s a virus/malware/trojan found, I don’t want to get promped for an action like deleting/renaming/etc (because than, the scan is being stopped until I clicked an action or I click on “continue”), rather everything should be logged and at the end of the scan, I want to be able to see the logs and decide what to do with the files/folders. It’s very annoying when I want to go away from computer and have it scanned by avast, but when I return,´the scan has stopped and some low percentage just because I was away and could now answer the action-prompt.
I hope, you understood, what I meant!! Please answer by using the correct question-numbers to keep the overview
the VRDB doesn’t keep full copies of the file information it has in its database (it isn’t a backup function). It contains certain information on the file to help restore it to its original state.
It only covers exe files, I don’t know if that includes, .com and .dll files, the main thing is it isn’t doing that for all files as it is mainly exe files that are infected by true virus infection (e.g. injection of code into those files).
It retains three copies of the data gathered by the VRDB generations, this gives a better chance of being able to get back to an uninfected version of the file. However, the VRDB was designed some time ago and I believe there is a move afoot to replace this in future versions of avast possibly from version 5.0.
The file containing this date is C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\integ\avast.int so you can check its size. Mine is 5.9MB relatively small but this is a new system and I have kept it clear of much of the accumulated applications on my old system.
There must certainly be a good reason for Alwil to do it, though I can’t recall ever having seen it mentioned. However, the on-demand exclusions will over ride the standard shield on-access scan and this could leave you less well protected.
For example there is the ability to use wildcards, the asterisk * (multiple characters) and the question mark ? (single character). This can exclude whole file types, folders, partitions or even drives, so you have to exercise caution in using wildcards.
If you check the Standard Shield (on-access) exclusions you will see that there are some file types excluded that don’t appear in the Program Settings, Exclusions list, *.ini, *.txt, *.log and possibly some system locations. Now there is a very good reason for not scanning these on-access as they are normally files that are of a low risk of infection, yet you wouldn’t want to exclude them from the on-demand scan which you might want to be more thorough.
So if you don’t have this dual list you don’t have this flexibility, well those are my thoughts and probably not too well explained.
These automated options are only available in the Pro version. This is a limitation of the Home (free) version that it has interactive input requirement, there have to be differences in the Home/Pro version and this is one of them, the programmers have to eat ;D
In the Home version you can check the option “Don’t show this window again” when the first virus warning appears, select the “No action” button. This way, no action will be taken and you will given the results at the end of the scan (and you can perform actions from there). Over time this will become less of an issue, as the resident, on-access scanners are designed to intercept infection before it gets into your system. - There was one suggestion to place something like the eicar test virus at the start of the first drive to be scanned in a file like ~a-eicar.com that should soon be detected and you can do the option “Don’t show this window again” when the first virus warning appears, select the “No action” button. So you should have a list of files waiting your action.
I selected "eicar.com 68 Bytes.com and place it onto C:. Now I resumend avast, started the resident scanner and with folder selection “C:*, J:* and X:*” started to scan. I see that the scanner started with C:\ because I see that the actual files being scanned are “C:\Documents and settings.…”, but I was not promped for a virus alert (eicar.com). Why???
When I double click it to open, it gets detected. Perhaps avast first scans the folders and after that, the files in C:\ so I cannot click “continue” at the beginning of the scan directly …
Edit: copied it to “C:\documents and settings …” because I saw in the resident scanner as actual file at the beginning something with “C:\documents and settings”, but it simply doesn’t get detected …
Edit2: I think I’ll just download some sort of keygen that get’s detected as a trojan by the program and place it on c:.
One more question:
I always want the vrdb generation icon and the avast icon to be one icon but when vrdb is created next time, it splits again to a seperate icon. how to keep it as one icon forever??? thanks!!
If you want an unattended scanning you can buy the Pro version or use avast at boot time choosing to send infected files to Chest (I suggest you keep being alerted by infected system files instead an automatic answer).
I wouldn’t do so…
It’s divided only while VRDB is being generated… it will be joined (merged) after that.
why? there’s no other possibility if the eicar.com file does not get detected upon scanning-start and often, virus-free files like keygens are detected as a virus (and aren’t any, tested by virus-total.com)
so this is not possible to avoid (icon while vrdb is generated)?
I used kaspersky trial before, but avast is much more tiny and simpler to use!!!