I really would like to get Avast working.
When I do a scan I get 458 files that it is unable to scan. I try to delete the files but it is unable to delete them. Although it does delete some. If I select 10 it deletes all 10. If I select 10 more, it can’t delete any of them.
I have an extra drive and it also finds files on there that it is unable to scan. Most of the files say:
D:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\ …\update.exe. The only thing on this extra drive is Windows and why there would be that many corrupted files when I don’t use that drive, I can’t figure out.
Never delete ! investigate, avast gives reasons why they can’t be scanned if that reason is legit there is no problem.
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).
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.
Thanks David!
I wonder why other antivirus software never mentioned files that couldn’t be scanned. I know you can’t answer that, but it does make me wonder.
We can answer that.
Antivirus with poor support don’t want to explain this to the users.
The lack of information is the way the ‘show’ the antivirus is working ‘better’ than the others.
Seems rude? I think this is the point.
I suspect that they don’t report the files that can’t be scanned because it might look like they aren’t doing the job. There is also the thought that what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you.