Defining the types of objects to be scanned

When specifying the types of files to be scanned, you establish what file formats, sizes, and what drives will be scanned for viruses when opened, executed, or saved.

To make configuration easier, all files are divided into two groups: simple and compound. Simple files do not contain any objects. Compound objects can include several objects, each of which may also have several nesting levels. There are many examples: archives, files containing macros, tables, e-mails with attachments, etc.

The types of file to be scanned are defined in the

File types section. Select one of the three options:

All. With this option selected, all file system objects that are opened, started, or saved will be subject to analysis without exceptions.

Programs and documents (by contents). If you select this group of files, File Anti-Virus will scan only potentially infected files - files that a virus could imbed itself in.


Note: There are files in which viruses cannot insert themselves, since the code of such files does not contain any "snags" for the virus. An example of such a file would be .txt format files.

Before searching for viruses in a file, its internal header is analyzed for the file format (txt, doc, exe, etc.). If the results of the analysis show that the file format is type that cannot be infected, it is not scanned for viruses and is immediately restored for use. If the file format makes it possible for the file to be infected, the file is scanned for viruses.

Programs and documents (by extension). In this case, File Anti-Virus will only scan potentially infected files, but the file format will be determined by extension. Using the extension link, you can review a list of file extensions that are scanned in this case.

Tip: Do not forget that someone could send a virus to your computer with the extension .txt, although in reality it could be an executable file renamed as a .txt file.
If you select the Scan Programs and documents (by extension) option, this file would be skipped by the scan. If the Scan Programs and documents (by contents) is selected, File Anti-Virus will analyze file headers, which will uncover that the file is an .exe file. Such a file would be thoroughly scanned for viruses.

In the Productivity section, you can specify that only new files and those that have been modified since the previous scan or new files should be scanned for viruses. This mode of operation noticeably cuts down on scan time and increases the program's performance speed. To do so, you must check Scan new and changed files only. This mode extends to simple and compound files.

In the Compound files section, specify which compound files must be analyzed for viruses:

Scan All/Only New archives - scan .zip, .cab, .rar, and .arj archives, including password-protected archives.

Scan All/Only New installation packages - analyze self-extracting archives for viruses.

Scan All/Only New embedded OLE objects - scan objects imbedded in files (for example, Excel spreadsheets or a macro imbedded in an MS Word file, e-mail attachments, etc.).

For each type of compound file, you can select and scan all files or only new ones. To do so, use the link next to the name of the object. It changes its value when you left-click it. If the Optimization section has been set up only to scan new and changed files, you will not be able to select the type of compound files to be scanned.

To specify what compound files should not be scanned for viruses, use the following settings:

Extract archives in background if larger than ... MB. If the size of a compound object exceeds this restriction, the program will scan it as a single object (by analyze the header) and will return it to the user. The objects that it contains will be scanned later. If the box is not checked, access to files larger than the size indicated will be blocked until they have been scanned.

Do not process archives larger than.. MB. In this case, files larger than the size specified will be skipped by the scan.