Actions

On this screen, you can specify the action that should be taken automatically whenever a virus, potentially unwanted program (PUP), or suspicious file is detected.

To see the available options, you first need to check the box “Automatically apply actions during scan…”

The default action is “No action” and if this is left unchanged, any suspicious files will be reported at the end of the scan and you will have the opportunity then to deal with them individually – e.g. to delete them, move them to the virus chest, or to do nothing.

Alternatively, you can select an action which avast! will attempt to carry out automatically – Repair, Move to Chest, or Delete.

If any action is selected, you can then specify an alternative action to be taken if the first action fails.

Options:

  • If necessary, perform the selected action at the next system restart. If this box is checked and the action could not be completed, avast! will attempt to carry out the action again the next time the computer is restarted. This could happen, for example where a file was in use and could not be deleted or moved.

Finally there are additional options for dealing with infected archives:

By default, if an infected file is discovered in an archive file, avast! will attempt to remove it.

You can further specify that if the infected file cannot be removed, avast! should remove the archive (the parent archive) within which the infected file is located.

Alternatively, you can specify that whenever an infected file is detected inside an archive, the entire archive should always be removed.

Actions