online_scanner glitch pending restart??

simmerskool

I have F-Secure Total, and slowly integrating it into the few computers I use from home. So far, I find F-Secure products excellent! I want to use Online Scanner on a win10 computer that is using a different anti-virus until its license expires, but I'm having issues. Win10 21H2, in SUA and running onlinescanner.exe from Run as Administrator. Scanner opens, but very quickly I get a popup notice that

"pending scan with restart request was found. please restart your computer to continue"

I cannot tell if online scanner has quickly run, and it is requesting the reboot, or if it fails to run because it sees some issue related to the popup, related to online scanner, ie, forcing a reboot to complete its scan, or to some other win10 issue. Windows reports that all windows updates are current. I am not aware of any app or update requiring a pending reboot. When I do reboot, online scanner does not pickup where it left off in its scanning process. The popup comes within a few seconds of starting the online scanner, so I don't get a chance to see what else, if anything, the online scanner is doing. Preliminary research indicates that this could be a windows registry issue that can be hard to track down, and I do not like making changes to registry without very specific instructions. Also if the reboot is not part of online scan, why would F-Secure online scanner care whether some other app or update failed in the past? Please advise.

Ukko

Hello,

Thanks for your replies, attitude and response! It's good that things have moved on a bit!!

Articles here mention scanner quarantines detections it finds, but scanner did not give me a link or reference to where its quarantine folder is. (but I have not searched yet either).

Perhaps, Quarantine folder in the system should not show it to you anyway (normally).

If I remember correctly (didn't use it for a long time) - quarantined item should/can be shown before scanning (for example, the next one) or at the end. I also admit the possibility that this option is hidden under the (?) logo (where additional information or help is) or something like that before launch. An option\line about quarantine may also be displayed if something is there. Due to some "bugs" - this may not happen. For example, I've always had difficulty with this.

Something like, you run Online Scanner again.. and there should be a "View quarantine" option, which in my experience. could not be used. Maybe, like in discussion there: Online scanner "View quarantine" option does nothing — F-Secure Community

Where suggestion was to use F-Secure Quarantine Dumper tool (How do I collect quarantined files? - F-Secure Community) or manually (Collecting quarantined files manually when the Quarantine Dumper tool fails - F-Secure Community)

Thanks!

Ukko

Hello,

So, you may have checked the points from the article: Known issues and limitations for F-Secure Online Scanner - F-Secure Community

And I will try to think something else..

When I do reboot, online scanner does not pickup where it left off in its scanning process. The popup comes within a few seconds of starting the online scanner, so I don't get a chance to see what else, if anything, the online scanner is doing.

Is it endless loop? Every time after the restart (on request) - does this pop up appear at the beginning of the continuation of the scan or relaunch of the scanner? Well, maybe this reflects some incompatibility with other AV software in your system.

Otherwise, you could try to run F-Secure Uninstallation Tool on that system (available here: Support tools | F-Secure). To choose "custom" (instead of all products) and see if something is listed. Then, you can try to use it as you like - maybe it will clean up something from first Online Scanner (failure) run. Or some other 'previous' runs or reasons for stuck on F-Secure side.

// Sorry for my reply. I am also only an F-Secure user.

Thanks!

simmerskool

Thanks for the link to the article. I'll read asap tonight or tomorrow.

Re the loop... when I reboot online scanner does not automatically engage, so then I open it again, (run as administrator) and it starts and within a few seconds I get the "pending reboot" notice.

I will look at the uninstallation tool, and proceed with caution as I do NOT want to mess with Freedome. I understood that Online Scanner does not install on the system, but I'll read more.

I have license with ESET for a few more months, and I'm happy with it. Right now, ESET & F-Secure are my favorite antivirus. New version of ESET v16 may have something to do with it, but guessing probably not.

Thanks for your reply.

simmerskool

Update: I read the articles re Online Scanner (I should have done that first) On my win10 it seems the online scanner wants or needs to be run from admin user account rather than a SUA_run_as_admin. I logged out of SUA and logged into my admin user and the Online scanner window opened all by itself and said "continue" so I did and it completed the scan! All making sense now.

It found one (1) "harmful item" which it "removed." But not sure, that could have been a false-positive. Articles here mention scanner quarantines detections it finds, but scanner did not give me a link or reference to where its quarantine folder is. (but I have not searched yet either). win10 seems to be running fine with that "harmful item removed." 🤗