PCTAV newbie here... some questions regarding program settings

[jjmac10]

I am using the Registered version but the same options are on the free version too.

In the Settings Dialogue>Scan Settings>Scan Method.

The options are:
1. FAST
2. Detailed
3. Full

Okay, What is the difference?

I can't find ANY reference to this in any of the help, either on or off line.

[solcroft]

Hi all,

A longtime unbeliever of the necessity of antivirus software here, but I was finally forced to find a package when my sister inadvertantly infected our home network with viruses from her college (the limit of my parents' computer knowledge were how to turn the machines on to check their email, so by default it became my job to eliminate the infection...). I stumbled across PCTAV a few days ago and liked it a lot, but I do have several questions thanks to the rather sparse user documentation included...

1. Is PCTAV capable of removing a virus from a file? As far as I can see, the options PCTAV offers to deal with an infected file are Remove and Quarantine, with Remove - at least as far as I can tell - simply deleting the whole file without attempting to disinfect it.

2. What do Fast, Detailed and Full in the Scan Settings page mean, and what's the difference between them? I initially thought it tells PCTAV to scan files based on extension or simply do a dumb scan of all files, but closer inspection debunked this assumption.

3. Where can we report false positives? During my scans I've had PCTAV identify several files as infected, but this was not verified by 4 other antivirus software I ran on the machines later. Incidentally, an antivirus software called VirusBuster produces exactly the same false positives as PCTAV does (as reported by www.virustotal.com), so perhaps the two software packages use the same underlying scanning engines - just a note I thought some here might be interested in.

4. And lastly... when can we expect the developers to fix the connection access bug with Internet Guard? Even turning off OnGuard didn't help - I could connect to the internet at times, and couldn't at other times, seemingly depending on what mood PCTAV was in at that moment, figuratively speaking. I had to uninstall PCTAV and install AVG on my home network for now (sorry guys!) because, as much as I like the program, the loss of internet access is a concession I'm neither willing nor able to make, but I'd like to know when the programmers will fix it so I can come back and try PCTAV again as soon as they do.

Thanks all. Peace.

[AChen]

Hi All,

1. PCTAV can disinfect some viruses. For those that PCTAV cannot disinfect, PCTAV will remove the files which includes the virus in order to protect the users computer. The user is able to select 'Quarantine' or 'Remove' before the scan.

2. Fast, Detailed and Full Scan options determines the different scan speeds by the internal scan engine logic. We recommend that you perform a full scan option at least once a week to ensure your PC is fully protected. As Fast and Detailed scans, scan different areas, but not all areas.

3. If you come across any false positives, you can post them in this forum. I will then pass this on to the PCTAV developers and they can analyze this and implement a fix or you can visit: http://www.pctools.com/mrc/submit/ to submit any FP's.

4. Lastly, this issue is a known issue and a fix is currently being worked on. Once I receive more info, I will pass this on.

[solcroft]

Originally Posted by AChen

2. Fast, Detailed and Full Scan options determines the different scan speeds by the internal scan engine logic. We recommend that you perform a full scan option at least once a week to ensure your PC is fully protected. As Fast and Detailed scans, scan different areas, but not all areas.

Could we possibly have more details about which options scan what? It'd be nice to have more technical details about what the software is doing with the settings we assign it.

Originally Posted by AChen

3. If you come across any false positives, you can post them in this forum. I will then pass this on to the PCTAV developers and they can analyze this and implement a fix.

I have attached the file in question as a password-protected archive. The password is 'password'. PCTAV detected it as 'JS.Trojan.DL.A'. Hope this helps.

[AChen]

• Fast:
Scans only those parts of the file, which are most likely to contain a virus and does not detect viruses which can only be detected by using a major amount of system resources (e.g. Excel FORMULA viruses).

• Detailed:
Optimized scanning method, which detects all viruses registered in the virus database and scans those parts of the file, which are most likely to contain a virus.

• Full:
Detects all viruses registered in the virus database and scans the whole file, even those parts, where viruses are not likely to be found.

Will get back to you regarding 'JS.Trojan.DL.A'.