"No Cleaning" but no Alert Windows ever show up

I've got ESET Smart Security 4 configured so that it never cleans stuff automatically. It is supposed to ask me what to do. I consider myself a good enough computer user (programmer and so on) that I know when something is a virus or not, and don't like it when an app does something automatically for me.

Thing is, I've noticed this recently, it never ever asks me for an action. I've had a couple files that ESET saw as a threat (some kind of Java temporary files), and scanned them multiple times. It always said something like:
"Number of threats detected: 4
Number of threats cleaned: 0"
It NEVER asked me what to do with the threats, it beeped during scanning when it found them tough. Other than that, they only showed up in the Scan logs as "cleaning postponed until after scan completion".

I had to set the cleaning level as "Strict Cleaning" for it to actually clean those threats since then it doesn't have to ask me, and it did.
I have double-checked and all cleaning levels in the whole application are set to "No Cleaning", yet it never asks me.

This means that even if an on-demand scan finds 40 threats (even tough most of them aren't really threats), it "postpones" all of them until after the scanning ends, and then just ends the scan and never asks me what to do with them... I did the scan BECAUSE I wanted to clean any real threats it found (yet still let ME choose which threats are actually threats).

I've also noticed that on a couple files I've downloaded that are detected as threats due to being Packed (for example a mod for Age of Empires 2), it always shows me one of those "information" windows (like the "updated" ones - but in red) telling me that it wasn't able to clean the file. It NEVER even asked me if I actually wanted to clean it or not. Even in that case, it should have been just able to clean the file since even just an "User" account (not UACed) would have had enough permissions to delete it...

I've got Windows 7 Ultimate x64 fully updated with the latest version of ESET Smart Security 4 (4.2.67.10) installed. If you need more information about my computer, feel free to ask. I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me figure this out, since I have looked around and wasn't able to find anything.

Thank you all in advance!


Installed Modules:

 

Hello,

I know you said you changed it everywhere but to clarify, you are talking about setting the ThreatSense setting of, Strict Cleaning to No Cleaning, correct? Can you tell me exactly which branch of the configuration file you were in?

For example, from the advanced setup tree:

• Antivirus and antispyware, then the Setup button under ThreatSense engine parameter setup.

• Antivirus and antispyware>>Real-time file system protection. Then the Setup button under ThreatSense engine parameter setup.

There are a couple of ways to perform an on demand computer scan in a way that will not clean anything without your permission.

For example, from the advanced setup tree:

• Navigate to Antivirus and antispyware>>On-demand scan. Select the scanning profile you are using for your scan from the drop down. Then click the Setup button under the ThreatSense engine parameter setup. Bring the slider under cleaning over to no cleaning. Finally, go to the Computer scan section of the ESET NOD32 window and select custom scan. In the custom scan section select the scan profile you modified and proceed to scan.

• Another way to accomplish your goal would be to go directly to the Computer scan section of the ESET NOD32 window and select custom scan. In the custom scan section select the scan profile you modified and proceed to scan. Go to the Computer scan section of the ESET NOD32 window. Click on custom scan. In the custom scan section select the Setup button in the bottom left hand corner of the window. This will bring up the ThreatSense window for this scan. Under cleaning, bring the slider over to no cleaning. Hit OK select your targets and either save the scan profile or perform a onetime custom scan.

As for the game crack that is being detected, those types of files behave in a malicious manner and therefore are detected as such. Most likely the reason that the scan is not offering to clean the files is that the whole file is considered malicious. There is nothing to clean hence why there is only the option to delete. In this instance the two would have the same result. Cleaning a file that behaves in a 100% malicious manner would result in a 100% cleaning or deletion. Your best bet if you intend to run those type of files is to add exclusions for the files from the real-time monitor as well as exclude them from any On-demand scans. That way when you do the On-demand scan only new threats will be detected and the files you want to keep will not even be in the log.


Cheers,
-Tom

 

Thanks for the answer! What you requested is here:

That's exactly correct.

I have set everything to "No Cleaning":
• Antivirus and antispyware -> Threatsense parameter setup
• Antivirus and antispyware -> Real-time file system protection -> Threatsense parameter setup
• Antivirus and antispyware -> E-mail Client Protection -> Threatsense parameter setup
• Antivirus and antispyware -> Web-access Protection -> Threatsense parameter setup
• All profiles under Antivirus and antispyware -> On-demand Computer Scan -> Threatsense parameter setup (In-depth scan, Context-menu Scan and Smart Scan)

I have done so. All profiles are set to "No Cleaning" and even the custom scan setup is set to "No Cleaning". Neither type of scan asks me what I want to do with any threat it finds and instead just ignores it once the scan ends.
The scanning log tells me that "Cleaning the threat has been postponed until after the scan ends" but it never asks me and just reports there were X threats detected and 0 threats cleaned.

It's not a crack, but it's a windowed mod (Age of Empires 2 VEG mod). Still, I know this perfectly well and it being detected is not what I found weird. What I found weird is that, even tough it's set to no cleaning, it didn't ask me what I wanted to do with it (a detected threat) and automatically attempts to delete it (and then for some reason, fails).


Thanks for the help so far, I'd appreciate any further help. If you need more information about my configuration feel free to ask.

 

I'd suggest that you contact customer care and supply them with the following:
- the file you used for testing
- ESS configuration exported to an xml file
- step by step instructions how to reproduce the problem