I’m a new user and not a computer expert and am generally very happy with Avast. However when I did a scan the scan report showed a message saying that it was “unable to scan” EVERYTHING on the C Drive. Is this something I should be really worried about? The message continued with a “D” but I didn’t know to expand the box so I’ve no idea what it went on to say. D’oh! I selected all hard drives and also selected the C drive from the “select specific files and folders” option when I started the scan. Could this be what’s causing it? Please help.
Can you post a screenshot of the final window (expanded as much as possible)?
Sorry I didn’t manage to do a screenshot. But I can report that the full message reads eg “C:\Documents and Settings Unable to Scan: The system cannot find the path specified”
Also, I unchecked all specific files and folders and just asked it to scan all drives. Can you offer any advice?
Hi…
And doing this gave the same message? ???
Out of curiosity, are there any other read/write issues that you are experiencing and is your C Drive, in fact, labeled “C”?
I’m wanting to get the obvious out of the way first… 
Best Regards…
Hi
Yes, it gave the same message.
I’ve no other read/write issues that I’m aware of. Is there anything I should look for?
Yes, my C Drive is labelled “C”.
Thanks for your help.
Hi again…
Okay. 
For the next step, please try performing a repair installation of avast. Go to “Add/Remove Programs” and select avast and click on “repair.” This may or may not work but I wanted to see.
Please post back with the results.
Best Regards…
Thanks. Will do it this eveing after work.
To post a screenshot (see how: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=8982.0).
You can use Gadwin PrintScreen to get a screenshot (http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/) or the free version of WinSnap 1.1.10 (http://www.filehippo.com/download_winsnap/?2173).
You can go to the program settings and turn on the creation of the report file (with “OK files” to be included as well in the report). You can check the report file created at \Data\Report\Simple User Interface.txt
I tried the “Repair” option in “Add/Remove programs” and still got the same message. This time there was a new folder at the top of the list - C:\Applications\DEM\DVD.iso\WIMFILES\VISTA.WIM Any further advice?
Please, post the report contents here (splitting into different posts if necessary).
Thanks again for your patience on this one. Apologies for the delay in attaching a screengrab. I hope you can see the message that appears on my computer. Am I missing the point here, or shouldn’t the software scan all these folders? Cheers.
What is the exact build of avast! you are using? (the latest one is 4.8.1201)
Hi…
In line with Igor’s question, try downloading a new copy of avast and uninstalling and reinstalling from scratch. I’ve seen this help in other threads, it might with this problem.
Is any of your other security programs having this issue in any way?
Also, we can look at the problem from a possible infection angle. Using Internet Explorer, go here…
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/
You may need to accept an ActiveX control for it to work. Please delete anything it finds, particularly anything marked with a red circle left of the entry. Please post back here with the results and a log, if any entries besides cookies are found.
Best Regards…
Hi. Yes I am using the latest version of Avast - v4.8.1201
I scanned using Ewido and all it found was 11 cookies which I have deleted.
Finally I uninstalled and then reinstalled from scratch but when I do a scan it shows exactly the same report as the screengrab previously sent.
Any other ideas?
I really appreciate your help with this.
Strange… are you logged on as an Administrator, or as a restricted user?
I’m logged on as user.
Maybe that’s the point… but I think that some of that folders you should have read access anyway…
Well… that’s Vista.
What you are seeing certainly are not all the folders on your C: drive. You see only the links (and maybe only some of them, actually).
You know, when you install Vista, it creates quite a strange system of NTFS links on the system drive. They are not real folders - they are only virtual objects, “pointing” to different folders (when you enter such a link (“folder”), you actually appear in a completely different place of the directory structure).
Some of the links are there for compatibility reasons I guess, but why create that crazy structure the Vista installer builts, that’s beyond me. I guess Microsoft programmers must have been pretty drunk when they made this. Oh yes, there are even circles in this structure.
Now, some of those links take you to a different folder (so you can access files from that folder) - but simultaneously, they restrict the access rights - so you are in a different folder, but you can’t see the content.
That’s what you see here I think. When avast! enters “C:\ProgramData\Desktop” folder (which is just a link) during the scan, it actually gets redirected into C:\Users\Public\Desktop (the real folder). But - it’s denied the rights to list the content of the folder - so it doesn’t scan anything there, and reports an error (at least when running under a restricted user account). It doesn’t really matter, however - when avast! arrives at C:\Users later, it scans its content normally (well, if you have the corresponding access rights, of course), so you won’t miss anything.
Now, I must say there’s one thing that’s rather strange here - the error itself. The error should be “Access denied” (I can reproduce the behavior here)… not “Path not found”… looks like something else might be going on there as well.
But the main thing is that no files are skipped because of some error - the reported folders are just links, and the real content is scanned elsewhere (throughout the scan).
If you’re willing to check something, I can build a special executable that you’d run and report the results back; if we’re lucky, it may tell us why the strange error type.
Why don’t you create a new error message for this Microsoft weird loop?
Hello Igor. Yes, I’m willing to try that. I’m going to be away for a while soon it’ll may heave to wait till I get back. Please let me know what you want me to do. I’m reassured by what you say about them not being “real” folders.