Tray icon

system · 2006-10-22T15:39:17.000Z

I had to reinstall Avast and I do not have it configured the same as before because There is an extra icon in the tray. When I mouse over it says something about Mail. I cannot access this icon, either left click or right click. Then after several minutes it goes away.

When I installed Avast there was something that asked me if I wanted to merge the “information icon” with the “main icon”. I said YES and this extra icon disappeared. Now it shows up once in a while as described above.

I never had this happen with my previous installation.

How do I get rid of it altogether?

Lisandro · 2006-10-22T15:43:09.000Z

rcktexas post:1:

I had to reinstall Avast and I do not have it configured the same as before because There is an extra icon in the tray. When I mouse over it says something about Mail. I cannot access this icon, either left click or right click. Then after several minutes it goes away.

Is it this one?
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19794.0;topicseen

rcktexas post:1:

When I installed Avast there was something that asked me if I wanted to merge the “information icon” with the “main icon”. I said YES and this extra icon disappeared. Now it shows up once in a while as described above. I never had this happen with my previous installation. How do I get rid of it altogether?

For the ‘i’ icon (VRDB): http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=14356.msg121337#msg121337

system · 2006-10-22T15:51:22.000Z

Is it this one? http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19794.0;topicseen

It appears to be the one, but it was so small I cannot be sure. It has the same general appearance. But as I said, the tooltip said something about mail.

For the 'i' icon (VRDB): http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=14356.msg121337#msg121337

It says that they are merged now. Yet that icon was present separately for a while.

I rebooted and it seems to be OK now. If it happens again I will gather more details now that I know what to look for.

Thanks.

Lisandro · 2006-10-22T21:53:44.000Z

rcktexas post:3:

It appears to be the one, but it was so small I cannot be sure. It has the same general appearance. But as I said, the tooltip said something about mail.

Right click the ‘a’ blue icon (and Details to expand the options).
Choose Internet Mail provider (or Outlook plugin if you use it) and the buttom Customize.
Go to Advanced tab and uncheck the option…

rcktexas post:3:

It says that they are merged now. Yet that icon was present separately for a while.

Yes, it’s ok. It’s shown while VRDB is being generated…

alanrf · 2006-10-22T22:47:11.000Z

When the mail icon was in the systray were you processing your email at the time?

If that icon shows up and you were not processing your email then it could indicate that your system has been taken over as a spam-bot. If that is the case, turning off the icon will not make the problem go way.

system · 2006-10-23T01:06:47.000Z

Tech post:4:

Go to Advanced tab and uncheck the option…

I should have mentioned that I am running Win2K, not XP. But I found the checkbox and unchecked it. Maybe now I won’t be distracted unnecessarily.

DavidR · 2006-10-23T12:42:36.000Z

I, as Alan did would advise against this (masking of potential symptoms), it doesn’t use any resources and is only present whilst avast is scanning email and there is no need to access it. If you ever see that email icon whilst you aren’t sending or receiving email it could provide an early warning that you have an undetected email spam bot, but it is your system to do with as you see fit.

system · 2006-10-23T12:58:15.000Z

DavidR post:7:

I, as Alan did would advise against this (masking of potential symptoms), it doesn’t use any resources and is only present whilst avast is scanning email and there is no need to access it. If you ever see that email icon whilst you aren’t sending or receiving email it could provide an early warning that you have an undetected email spam bot, but it is your system to do with as you see fit.

I now realize why it showed up seemingly at random. I am running MailWasher in the background every 15 minutes. It fetches mail headers and sorts them according to Bayesian rules into friendly and blacklisted.

The icon is a nuisance and I prefer not to have it popping up and down all the time. I had it turned off in the previous installation and I still managed to be warned when mail had suspect content. I do not need to be advised from the tray.

Now that is turned off I am no longer pestered all the time.

Thanks for your assistance.

DavidR · 2006-10-23T13:27:12.000Z

The easier option is to stop scanning mailwasher content as I do rather than switch off something that can provide early warning of an undetected spam bot trojan.

Edit the C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\avast4.ini file using a text editor add the line IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe to the [MailScanner] section and save the file. I feel there is little risk in doing this as what small part of the email that is used for analysis is viewed in text mode, nothing can be executed. If you already have an IgnoreProcess line then separate multiple values with a comma, e.g IgnoreProcess=ProcessOne.exe, MailWasher.exe

[MailScanner] IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe

system · 2006-10-23T13:37:56.000Z

DavidR post:9:

The easier option is to stop scanning mailwasher content as I do rather than switch off something that can provide early warning of an undetected spam bot trojan.

Edit the C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\avast4.ini file using a text editor add the line IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe to the [MailScanner] section and save the file. I feel there is little risk in doing this as what small part of the email that is used for analysis is viewed in text mode, nothing can be executed. If you already have an IgnoreProcess line then separate multiple values with a comma, e.g IgnoreProcess=ProcessOne.exe, MailWasher.exe

[MailScanner] IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe

I will give that a try. But not having implemented the mail icon before I am not familiar with what it does. Can you give me some simple examples. Thanks.

system · 2006-10-23T13:52:02.000Z

DavidR post:9:

Edit the C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\avast4.ini file

I installed as C:\Avast. I found the .ini in C:\avast\DATA.

I installed it and turned TrayIcon=1.

I suppose I have to reboot to get it to take effect.

DavidR · 2006-10-23T14:42:27.000Z

The mail icon just shows that the avast Internet Mail provider is scanning emails, either sent or received. So if you aren’t sending or receiving (or in the previous case using mailwasher), then you should be suspicious as something (not you) is sending emails.

The location I gave is the default avast location, if you changed that you would have to compensate for the different location to find avast4.ini, which it looks like you have. You shouldn’t have to reboot for it to take effect, but you could have used the same GUI to re-enable the mail icon.

Have you added the MailWasher.exe file to the IgnoreProcess line ?

system · 2006-10-23T14:53:33.000Z

DavidR post:12:

Have you added the MailWasher.exe file to the IgnoreProcess line ?

Yes, and it worked as you said it would.

Thanks for the heads up.

DavidR · 2006-10-23T14:59:24.000Z

Your welcome.

system · 2006-10-24T04:07:12.000Z

Rather than waste a new thread I thought I would ask this question here.

There is a hidden menu somewhere. For example I know you can set the frequency of updates but I can’t find it. Also how do you access the chest?

oldman960 · 2006-10-24T05:12:15.000Z

To set the frequencey of checking for up dates, right click the “a” icon/ program setting/ update (basic)/ details.

As for the chest, in the simple interface, click on the chest icon. In the enhanced interface it’s under folder structure.

You could create a shortcut
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=21706.0

system · 2006-10-24T05:22:27.000Z

oldman post:16:

As for the chest, in the simple interface

How do I access that?

You could create a shortcut http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=21706.0

That’s what I did . Thanks.

Lisandro · 2006-10-24T12:06:31.000Z

rcktexas post:15:

I know you can set the frequency of updates but I can’t find it.

See the picture.
Also, you can set the value UpdatePeriod in the [InetWD] section of the avast4.ini file.
See http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg10264#msg10264

rcktexas post:15:

Also how do you access the chest?

Run
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashChest.exe

system · 2006-10-24T12:21:21.000Z

Tech post:18:

rcktexas post:15:

I know you can set the frequency of updates but I can’t find it.

See the picture.

Yes, I found it. I set it to 360 minutes (6 hours).

oldman960 · 2006-10-25T05:00:33.000Z

rcktexas post:17:

oldman post:16:

As for the chest, in the simple interface

How do I access that?

If you have the home version
right click “a” icon, click start avast! antivirus

You could create a shortcut http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=21706.0
That’s what I did . Thanks.

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