I downloaded ClamWin and scanned for the first time.. I am currently using 10% of my hard drive space;

ClamWin took over 12 hours to scan my files the first time, and did not scam 27 files because of "Permission Denied' messages.

This software is slow and does not scan every file. Is there a fix ???????
Thanks in advance,

Larry

larrye2001@juno.com

See the similar thread on December 6th.

Most likely the "permission denied" files are from programs in use during the scan--it might help to see a copy of your scan report. Some Windows system files are locked and can't be scanned, and antivirus software also can't scan a file in use at the time of the scan. Clamwin will perform a memory scan, however, if you have selected the Unload Infected Programs In Memory option in General Preferences.

Regards,

Thanks for the reply: I could not find the Dec.6 post. I did check the items in general.

1) Is it normal for ClamWin to take over 12 hours to scan all files?
a) is there a way to shorten the scan time?

2) I understand your reply about "Permission Denied" but is there a way to know that those "Permission Denied files" do not contain a virus.

a) Is there a way to open these files so ClamWin can scan them?

Larry

You didn't provide much information about size of hard drive, names of Permission Denied files, and what sort of files are on your hard drive, so there's not much to go on, but no - it's not normal for ClamWin to take 12 hours for a scan. The similar thread mentioned perviously is https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=1290 on the forum here. It might give you some ideas. My 160 GB hard drive takes about 70 minutes to scan with the filters I've set up. Without filters, it would take probably about three hours. You don't need to scan every file in every directory. There are only about 60 or so dangerous file types.

System files that ClamWin can't scan are probably okay. If you are running lots of programs at the time of the ClamWinscan, their related files are probably okay, although it sure sounds like you have a lot of them. You might could see a pattern there--maybe some intensive/heavy-duty programs--graphics, audio, etc. that you recognize. If you can recognize the file/program it belongs to, it's probably okay. You could try to upload any file you are concerned about to VirusTotal at https://www.virustotal.com/ on the Web for a free scan. Most malware writers would probably hide their stuff in some other manner than locking a file--they would disable the antivirus program. If you are real paranoid about what's running on your computer, you might get the free Autoruns program from Sysinternals (Microsoft) and learn to use it.

If you use the Web a lot and play games and audio, you should probably use a real-time, on-access scanner in addition to ClamWin, which only scans files on demand. A real-time scanner might provide you some extra reassurance. There are several decent free ones: AVG (Grisoft), Avast (Alwil), and AntiVir (Avira), and you shouldn't have any conflicts due to ClamWin being an on-demand file scanner. I'm using AVG right now without any problems.

Regards,