Avast nuisance

I have for years used a DOS bat to move (move) photo files from my
camera to my computer. A one-tap move.

Now Avast is blocking this as an attack on a protected file (the file
in my camera. I have found no way to turn Avast off of this.

So I must copy, then delete at the camera. Nuisance.

Any ideas?

(This plus Avast's sales agressiveness is making me
look for a nicer protector.)

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

masonc wrote:
I have for years used a DOS bat to move (move) photo files from my
camera to my computer. A one-tap move.

Now Avast is blocking this as an attack on a protected file (the file
in my camera. I have found no way to turn Avast off of this.

So I must copy, then delete at the camera. Nuisance.

Any ideas?

Turn off Avast?
It's spamming all your posts, too.

(This plus Avast's sales agressiveness is making me
look for a nicer protector.)

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avart antivirus software.
https://www.avart.com/antivirus

masonc wrote:

I have for years used a DOS bat to move (move) photo files from my
camera to my computer. A one-tap move.

"To my computer" doesn't say to WHERE you are copying the files. What
is the destination? Could be a protected folder.

You don't say HOW you run the .bat file. Do you load a command shell
(cmd.exe) and call the .bat file from there? Did you define a shortcut
whose target points to the .bat file to run it? In either case, you may
need to run the .bat file under admin privileges. For the command
shell, you need to load it with admin privileges so its child processes
inherit those admin privileges. For a shortcut, modify its advanced
config to have it run under admin privs.

No information on how you configured Windows Update. Even if you run it
manually, not all updates will tell you that a reboot is required to
complete their installation, like replacing inuse files. Critical
functionality may still work in Windows but the mixed set of files
between old and new may not be fully compatible. Reboot Windows after
any one, or more, Windows updates. The pending lingering updates get
finished during the bootup to replace the inuse files (which won't yet
be inuse so they can be replaced).

Now Avast is blocking this as an attack on a protected file (the file
in my camera. I have found no way to turn Avast off of this.

Avast should show a popup with a message as to why it blocked the
operation (unless, as noted below, you set Avast to its silent mode).

You sure it is Avast that blocks the move or might it be UAC? What
happens when you attempt to do the move? Is there a popup? If so, what
does it say?

If you use a shortcut to the .bat file, the command shell loaded for it
will close when the .bat script terminates. That is, the DOS window
will appear momentarily and then close. That means you won't see any
error messages from the commands ran by the batch file. You need to
load a command shell and run the .bat file inside of it or you need to
add a pause command to suspend the batch script so you can review the
results of the commands that it ran.

So I must copy, then delete at the camera. Nuisance.

Move, copy, and delete ... using what? Windows Explorer? Some file
transfer software that came with the Bluetooth device? A video player
program?

What happens when you disable all Avast shields (use its tray icon) for,
say, 10 minutes, and then run your .bat file? Does the move operation
complete successfully with Avast disabled?

Is the phone configured to use PTP or MTP to transfer files? PTP often
results in problems as it was not designed to be a file transfer
protocol. Make sure the phone is configured as an MTP device (it's a
USB setting in the phone). When the phone is connected via USB to the
computer, you may see a notification icon. Wipe down the notification
panel and long-tap on the USB entry. That should take you to USB
settings if they aren't under the Settings menu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_Transfer_Protocol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol

Are the files protected by DRM? You did not say what type of files you
are trying to copy. Are they movies (videos) that you downloaded? What
is the filetype (extension) of the files? Some extensions are
considered suspect and will get blocked, by default. Could be the
unidentified files are considered PUPs (Probably Unwanted Programs).
Those are programs that have legit purpose but are sometime employed by
script kiddies in their malware or may produce unwanted effects. You
never identified WHAT are those files you are trying to move. How is
Avast configured to handle PUPs? I would think Avast would alert on
PUPs whether you used a move (copy then delete) or a copy (and then
follow with a delete) but timing could be an issue.

If Avast is popping up a warning, why not select to ignore to let the
copy complete okay? Under the File Shield's actions, what do you have
selected for the 3 possible actions? I don't remember what are the
defaults since I changed them to Ask, Fix Automatically, and then Move
to Chest (quarantine).

I've heard some users report that their cameras do not permit sequential
copy-then-delete (aka move) operations. It's a problem with the camera.
You never identified how you know the move operation got blocked.

You could modify your batch script to first do a copy followed by the
delete. Moves can cause problems, like when moving many files and one
fails which results in all subsequent pending moves getting aborted
(same happens if you queue up a bunch of copies). You didn't mention
your move or copy command's syntax. Instead of trying to doo all files
in one queued operation, you use a 'for' statement to create a list of
matching files, do the 'copy', check if the errorlevel of the 'copy' was
not zero (and if so then show an error) and put the 'move' into the
'else' clause of the 'if'. That's off the top of my head. I'd have to
write it up and test it to see what the batch script should be.

Alternatively, use software that provides verification of the target
copy before committing a delete and has recovery if there is an error on
any one copy operation, like TeraCopy. If you do this a lot, you could
use something like SyncBack Free or FreeFileSynce to define a job to do
the copy. It will do the copy, verify integrity of the target copy, and
then delete the source file, plus it has logs you can review.

You might find you like 'robocopy' better than 'copy' or 'move'. It's
bundled in Windows. Run "robocopy /?" to get help. Even 'xcopy'
included in Windows is a more robust copier than the default copy
algorithm employed by Windows Explorer. You can use those within batch
scripts. They are command-mode programs so you can call them via
command line in a .bat file.

(This plus Avast's sales agressiveness is making me
look for a nicer protector.)

I use Avast Free which they use as an adware platform. I've tried
BitDefender Free and Avira Free but ended up coming back to Avast. To
get rid of their ad nuisance because some joker in their marketing
department decides to spew out some lures, I run Avast Free in its
silent mode. That gets rid of those spam popups; however, it also gets
rid of other popups, like when it notifies you that it blocked a
malicious or suspect web site (but then the error message within the web
browser tells me that the connection was refused).

---

Not a valid signature delimiter line. Avast knows that. They want you
to volunter as a spam affiliate to advertize their product. Many NNTP
clients will strip or hide signature blocks in Usenet articles which
means less netizens will see their spam you let Avast append to your
messages (and in both e-mail and newsgroups).

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
h**ps:// www. avast. c*m/ antivirus
(Spam link disabled in fake signature.)

Is there a reason you choose to spam your choice of anti-virus software
despite your dislike of it? Either configure its Mail Shield to remove
the fake signature which spamifies your post or remove the superfluous
Mail Shield module as it affords no more protection than the on-demand
(real-time) scanner. No one is going to believe your messages are
virus-free just because you say so.

Bank alarm going off, masked man running away with money bags in hand.
Police: "Halt. Put your hands up. What's in the bank-labelled bags?"
Robber: "It's my laundry. I reused these bags from a prior withdrawl."
Police: "Okay, since you say so then it must be so. You can go."

State Farm commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DZbSlkFoSU
Gal: I thought State Farm didn't have all those apps.
Guy: Where'd you hear that?
Gal: The Internet.
Guy: And you believed it?
Gal: Yeah, they can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true.
Guy: Where'd you hear that?
Gal & Guy: The Internet.

On 23 Feb 2018, masonc wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I have for years used a DOS bat to move (move) photo files from my
camera to my computer. A one-tap move.

Now Avast is blocking this as an attack on a protected file (the file
in my camera. I have found no way to turn Avast off of this.

So I must copy, then delete at the camera. Nuisance.

Any ideas?

Here's my recent Avast story... I have a batch file that does a few
things to log my external and internal IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to a
file. It's scheduled with Task Scheduler to run once a day.It had been
working fine for months, until after an Avast update a couple of weeks
ago. I didn't notice for a few days that my log was no longer being
updated, and on further investigation I discovered that the batch file
itself was gone *AND* the task was no longer in Task Scheduler. I
restored the batch file from a backup and re-scheduled it. You might
guess the next part: a couple days later I found that the batch file
and task had once again disappeared.

I suspected that it might be Avast's doing, but there was nothing in
its logs and nothing in its Quarantine. Nevertheless, I excluded the
batch file directory from Avast. Since then, everything has continued
to work as expected.

I'm not sure what the moral of the story is except that you might
exclude from Avast the batch file and the directories you're copying to
and from.

On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 20:41:48 -0600, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:



(This plus Avast's sales agressiveness is making me
look for a nicer protector.)

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avart antivirus software.
https://www.avart.com/antivirus

There are a couple of things with your depiction of the "Avart"
message.

1. The delimiter should not be 3 dashes; it should be 2 dashes and a
space

2. The spelling should be 'Avast' NOT 'Avart'

The message added by Avast can be turned off by going to "Settings"
then the General tab. Half way down the page you can remove the tick
in the option "Enable Avast email signature".

In message , masonc
writes:
I have for years used a DOS bat to move (move) photo files from my
camera to my computer. A one-tap move.

After you've found the lead, connected it to the camera and computer,
ensured the camera battery has some charge in it, and possibly turned
the camera on. (And I assume it's a one-tap move because you have made a
short-cut to it; also that it always puts the files in the same place on
the computer.)

If it's a ,bat, that's plain text (or at least text that could be pasted
into a news posting): it'd be interesting to see what's in it.

Is it something you wrote yourself, or did it come with the camera?

Now Avast is blocking this as an attack on a protected file (the file
in my camera. I have found no way to turn Avast off of this.

Running the batch as administrator _might_ do it. (See VanguardLH's
otherwise rather long response for comments about seeing any error
messages from the batch file.)

So I must copy, then delete at the camera. Nuisance.

Any ideas?

I long ago gave up using any transfer software that came with a camera -
I just take the memory card out of the camera, and put it into the PC.
This gives me complete control of the files, and where I _move_ them to,
and doesn't run down the camera battery. Of course, especially if a
desktop, you might not have a card reader (or one of suitable type) in
the computer - though if it's a desktop or laptop, do have a good look:
I've known people not know they had one! (Sometimes under the keyboard,
sort of on the "chin" as it were; sometimes there's also a keeper [or
fluffguard] piece of plastic in it which makes it less obvious.)

(This plus Avast's sales agressiveness is making me
look for a nicer protector.)

Yes, it _is_ irritating, isn't it ...

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

.... as that proves (-:. [Tray icon, WAIT FOR IT, menu, settings,
general, untick AVG signature.]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"Dook, that was great but I think the line needs
awe. Can you do it again, giving it just a little awe?"

"Sure, George," said Wayne and looking up at the cross said:
"Aw, truly this man is the son of God."
(recounted in Radio Times, 30 March-5 April 2013.)

On 02/23/2018 08:41 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:

[snip]

Any ideas?

Turn off Avast?
It's spamming all your posts, too.

and I suppose the erroneous delimiter is intentional, so they trick more
people into spamming for them (in replies).

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -- Sir Winston
Churchill, British Prime Minister, 1940s, 1874-1965

On 02/24/2018 09:50 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

[snip]

... as that proves (-:. [Tray icon, WAIT FOR IT, menu, settings,
general, untick AVG signature.]

And they KNOW most people leave things at the defaults.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -- Sir Winston
Churchill, British Prime Minister, 1940s, 1874-1965

On Sat, 24 Feb 2018 10:43:12 -0600, Mark Lloyd
wrote:

On 02/23/2018 08:41 PM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:

[snip]

Any ideas?

Turn off Avast?
It's spamming all your posts, too.

and I suppose the erroneous delimiter is intentional, so they trick more
people into spamming for them (in replies).


There's no way I can be sure that you're right, of course, but I've
long thought that that was the case.

On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 21:21:03 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

masonc wrote:

I have for years used a DOS bat to move (move) photo files from my
camera to my computer. A one-tap move.

"To my computer" doesn't say to WHERE you are copying the files. What
is the destination? Could be a protected folder.

You don't say HOW you run the .bat file. Do you load a command shell
(cmd.exe)
YES (SAYS AVAST)
and call the .bat file from there? Did you define a shortcut
whose target points to the .bat file to run it?
YES BUT I TRIED RUNNING DIRECTLY \ NO LUCK
In either case, you may
need to run the .bat file under admin privileges. For the command
shell, you need to load it with admin privileges so its child processes
inherit those admin privileges. For a shortcut, modify its advanced
config to have it run under admin privs.

Here is modified bat ("copy" instead of "move")
Avast blocks it although no file would be damaged by it.
I tried "Run as Admin" from WinExplorer, rather than shortcut. No
luck. Avast thinks the camera files are protected

Avast regards the .bat file as an alien enemy.
Manipulating the camera files with WinExplorer or Dos (!) is ok.
(the .bat runs in DOS !)

CAMpanasonicCOPY.bat:

copy H:\dcim\109_PANA\*.jpg S:\panasonic\new\
copy H:\dcim\109_PANA\*.mov S:\panasonic\new\movies\

copy J:\dcim\109_PANA\*.jpg S:\panasonic\new\
copy J:\dcim\109_PANA\*.mov S:\panasonic\new\movies\
echo off
echo This COPIED/DELETED From the camera H: or J:
echo ----------------------------------
echo PRESS ANY KEY TO KILL THIS THING !
echo ----------------------------------
pause

No information on how you configured Windows Update. Even if you run it
manually, not all updates will tell you that a reboot is required to
complete their installation, like replacing inuse files. Critical
functionality may still work in Windows but the mixed set of files
between old and new may not be fully compatible. Reboot Windows after
any one, or more, Windows updates. The pending lingering updates get
finished during the bootup to replace the inuse files (which won't yet
be inuse so they can be replaced).

Now Avast is blocking this as an attack on a protected file (the file
in my camera. I have found no way to turn Avast off of this.

Avast should show a popup with a message as to why it blocked the
operation (unless, as noted below, you set Avast to its silent mode).

You sure it is Avast that blocks the move or might it be UAC? What
happens when you attempt to do the move? Is there a popup? If so, what
does it say?

/Avast says "We've just protected your file
cmd.exe is trying to change of delete the file P1234566.jpg in your
protected PANASONIC folder"

If you use a shortcut to the .bat file, the command shell loaded for it
will close when the .bat script terminates. That is, the DOS window
will appear momentarily and then close. That means you won't see any
error messages from the commands ran by the batch file. You need to
load a command shell and run the .bat file inside of it or you need to
add a pause command
(I ALWAYS DID)
to suspend the batch script so you can review the
results of the commands that it ran.

So I must copy, then delete at the camera. Nuisance.

Move, copy, and delete ... using what? Windows Explorer? Some file
transfer software that came with the Bluetooth device? A video player
program?
( DOS OR WIN EXPLORER )

What happens when you disable all Avast shields (use its tray icon) for,
say, 10 minutes, and then run your .bat file? Does the move operation
complete successfully with Avast disabled?


TURNING "OFF" ALL SHIELDS IS SUCCESSFULL. BUT NOT PRACTICAL (EVEN IF
I FIND WHICH ONE IS CRITICAL).

THE CAMERA FILES ON ITS CARD ARE NOT PROTECTED AS FAR AS I KNOW.

Is the phone configured to use PTP or MTP to transfer files? PTP often
results in problems as it was not designed to be a file transfer
protocol. Make sure the phone is configured as an MTP device (it's a
USB setting in the phone). When the phone is connected via USB to the
computer, you may see a notification icon. Wipe down the notification
panel and long-tap on the USB entry. That should take you to USB
settings if they aren't under the Settings menu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_Transfer_Protocol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol

Are the files protected by DRM? You did not say what type of files you
are trying to copy. Are they movies (videos) that you downloaded? What
is the filetype (extension) of the files? Some extensions are
considered suspect and will get blocked, by default. Could be the
unidentified files are considered PUPs (Probably Unwanted Programs).
Those are programs that have legit purpose but are sometime employed by
script kiddies in their malware or may produce unwanted effects. You
never identified WHAT are those files you are trying to move. How is
Avast configured to handle PUPs? I would think Avast would alert on
PUPs whether you used a move (copy then delete) or a copy (and then
follow with a delete) but timing could be an issue.

If Avast is popping up a warning, why not select to ignore to let the
copy complete okay?
NO, IT PERSISTS IN BLOCKING Under the File Shield's actions, what do
you have
selected for the 3 possible actions? I don't remember what are the
defaults since I changed them to Ask, Fix Automatically, and then Move
to Chest (quarantine).

I've heard some users report that their cameras do not permit sequential
copy-then-delete (aka move) operations. It's a problem with the camera.
You never identified how you know the move operation got blocked.
NO MOVE OCCURRED

You could modify your batch script to first do a copy followed by the
delete.
NOPE, DOESN'T WORK Moves can cause problems, like when moving many
files and one
fails which results in all subsequent pending moves getting aborted
(same happens if you queue up a bunch of copies). You didn't mention
your move or copy command's syntax. Instead of trying to doo all files
in one queued operation, you use a 'for' statement to create a list of
matching files, do the 'copy', check if the errorlevel of the 'copy' was
not zero (and if so then show an error) and put the 'move' into the
'else' clause of the 'if'. That's off the top of my head. I'd have to
write it up and test it to see what the batch script should be.

Alternatively, use software that provides verification of the target
copy before committing a delete and has recovery if there is an error on
any one copy operation, like TeraCopy. If you do this a lot, you could
use something like SyncBack Free or FreeFileSynce to define a job to do
the copy. It will do the copy, verify integrity of the target copy, and
then delete the source file, plus it has logs you can review.

You might find you like 'robocopy' better than 'copy' or 'move'. It's
bundled in Windows. Run "robocopy /?" to get help. Even 'xcopy'
included in Windows is a more robust copier than the default copy
algorithm employed by Windows Explorer. You can use those within batch
scripts. They are command-mode programs so you can call them via
command line in a .bat file.

(This plus Avast's sales agressiveness is making me
look for a nicer protector.)

I use Avast Free which they use as an adware platform. I've tried
BitDefender Free and Avira Free but ended up coming back to Avast. To
get rid of their ad nuisance because some joker in their marketing
department decides to spew out some lures, I run Avast Free in its
silent mode. That gets rid of those spam popups; however, it also gets
rid of other popups, like when it notifies you that it blocked a
malicious or suspect web site (but then the error message within the web
browser tells me that the connection was refused).

---

Not a valid signature delimiter line. Avast knows that. They want you
to volunter as a spam affiliate to advertize their product. Many NNTP
clients will strip or hide signature blocks in Usenet articles which
means less netizens will see their spam you let Avast append to your
messages (and in both e-mail and newsgroups).

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
h**ps:// www. avast. c*m/ antivirus
(Spam link disabled in fake signature.)

Is there a reason you choose to spam your choice of anti-virus software
despite your dislike of it? Either configure its Mail Shield to remove
the fake signature which spamifies your post or remove the superfluous
Mail Shield module as it affords no more protection than the on-demand
(real-time) scanner. No one is going to believe your messages are
virus-free just because you say so.

Bank alarm going off, masked man running away with money bags in hand.
Police: "Halt. Put your hands up. What's in the bank-labelled bags?"
Robber: "It's my laundry. I reused these bags from a prior withdrawl."
Police: "Okay, since you say so then it must be so. You can go."

State Farm commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DZbSlkFoSU
Gal: I thought State Farm didn't have all those apps.
Guy: Where'd you hear that?
Gal: The Internet.
Guy: And you believed it?
Gal: Yeah, they can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true.
Guy: Where'd you hear that?
Gal & Guy: The Internet.

masonc wrote:

/Avast says "We've just protected your file
cmd.exe is trying to change of delete the file P1234566.jpg in your
protected PANASONIC folder"

There's your clue: protected folder. Why is the target folder
protected?

Without info, I have to assume the H: drive is the driver letter
assigned to your camera (because of the \DCIM folder) and S:\Panasonic
(or its 'new' subfolder) is the target folder that is protected.

See below on Avast's new Ransomware Shield which might be causing this
prompt and blocking.

TURNING "OFF" ALL SHIELDS IS SUCCESSFULL. BUT NOT PRACTICAL (EVEN IF
I FIND WHICH ONE IS CRITICAL).

If would be Avast's File Shield blocking the operation; however, you
need to determine why the target folder is protected.

THE CAMERA FILES ON ITS CARD ARE NOT PROTECTED AS FAR AS I KNOW.

Nope, it's the *target* folder that is protected. The read operation
from the camera is not getting blocked. It's the write operation that
is blocked to the protected folder.

When you are using Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) or command shell
commands (cmd.exe - there is no DOS in NT-based versions of Windows),
Avast is not interferring because the parent process is known. Batch
files can be distributed by malware to do nasty stuff.

Again, how is the PUPs option configured in Avast? How is CyberCapture
(was called Deepscreen) configured? That halts or pends an unknown
files to send them to Avast's server for cloud analysis to determine if
they are okay or not. I have it enabled but instead of using its Block
option, I set it to "allow me to decide". Do NOT use Avast's Hardened
mode. It makes Avast harder to use to determine and correct what is
happening. Aggressive level for Hardened mode won't allow any files to
execute unless they are whitelisted; however, even Moderate level makes
Avast harder to troubleshoot.

When Avast pops up its alert on the batch file, you could select to
ignore the warning and let the batch script execute. You also get a
choice to remember that choice so it won't appear again. This will add
that .bat file to its exclusion list, or you could add it directly in
Avast's File Shield config. If you are not getting a popup from Avast
when it blocks an action, you have Avast configured for silent mode,
disabled popups (or made them overly short), or you set all File Shield
actions to "No Action" (or "No Action" is listed before the other
actions).

Excluding certain files or websites from scanning in Avast Antivirus
https://support.avast.com/en-in/article/168/

Are you using Avast Free or Avast payware? The payware version has more
features, especially more modules (although some are lureware).

Compare Avast editions
https://www.avast.com/en-us/compare-antivirus

I only use the freeware version since I don't need or want the extra
features in the payware version. For example, the payware version
includes a firewall which also has application rules. While you have
drive letters for the source (H: for the camera) and target (S: for
where you want to copy the camera's files), maybe S: is a mapped drive
on a network shared host. Is S: on "my computer" on the local computer
to which the camera is attached via USB cable? If local, is S: a
partition on an internal drive or on an external drive (i.e., USB
attached)?

Another feature of Avast payware (available separately for free but only
in a beta version with which I encountered problems, including slowing
system response, so I removed it) is the Ransomware module. The prompt
you noted above mentioned a protected folder. That is one of the
features in their Ransomware Shield product bundled in their payware
version of Avast.

Ransomware Shield
https://help.avast.com/en/av_free/17...ansomware.html

Ransomware Shield - FAQs
https://support.avast.com/en-au/article/50

Instead of disabling all of Avast (to test if Avast was getting in the
way or not), just disable their Ransomware Shield. This works similar
to a new feature added to Defender in a recent update to Windows 10
which has caused problems with users due to "protected folders". Since
I only use the freeware version of Avast, you'll have to research if it
is the Ransomware Shield that is causing the "protected folder" problem.
For further help on using and configuring the Ransomware Shield program,
ask in Avast's user forums.

Are you using the latest version of Avast or some ancient version?

Is Avast the *only* security software installed on your computer?


Side note:
If the target drive (S is USB attached, is it and the camera on
separate USB controller? Ports are paired (two per controller) so you
want the camera on a port to a controller different than the one for the
USB port to the USB attached drive.


Rest of my quoted post (with no further inline replies) has been
snipped. Please trim your replies.