Anti-Virus Scan Auto Deletes - File NOT in Quarantine

Today, a Virus scan detected a threat and deleted the file automatically. There are no files in the Quarantine folder. How do I get it to ask me what I want to do with the detected file, or at least automatically send it to Quarantine so I can examine the file?

Thanks in advance to any responders...

Ed McCauley said:

Today, a Virus scan detected a threat and deleted the file automatically. There are no files in the Quarantine folder. How do I get it to ask me what I want to do with the detected file, or at least automatically send it to Quarantine so I can examine the file?

Thanks in advance to any responders...

Click to expand...

Which antivirus program are we talking about?

... and what was complete filename and path deleted? Please reproduce the summary report of that AV scan in question and attach it to your next reply.

If need be, can you recover the deleted file from your most recent backup?

Have you asked the AV provider for support?

Ghot said:

Which antivirus program are we talking about?

Click to expand...

The Windows 11 built-in.

1PW said:

... and what was complete filename and path deleted? Please reproduce the summary report of that AV scan in question and attach it to your next reply.

If need be, can you recover the deleted file from your most recent backup?

Have you asked the AV provider for support?

Click to expand...

How do I find the Summary Report?

I have no idea which Virus was detected, nor which file was "infected." The pop-up reported the file, and deleted it. My Recycle Bin is empty, as is my Quarantine older.

If you select Virus & threat protection - Protection history does it not show what was deleted?

Ed McCauley said:

How do I find the Summary Report?

I have no idea which Virus was detected, nor which file was "infected." The pop-up reported the file, and deleted it. My Recycle Bin is empty, as is my Quarantine older.

Click to expand...

Antiviruses work on the principle of "better safe than sorry", or "shoot first and ask questions later".
All antiviruses generate a report of what they do.

You can use that to Google the filename and see what it is and if it's bad.
If you decide, it's just the AV over-reacting (aka a false positive), you can tell the AV to ignore that file in the future.
That's called "making an exception".

So let's say you download a program that is safe, but the AV rips out a hunk of it... a false positive.
Just make an exception for that file, then redownload the program again. Now your AV should ignore that file.