Question About .rar Files

I've downloaded and am running BitDefender Internet Security 2008 Trial. So far I like the way it works with a simplistic interface and it's not a resource hog.

My question is regarding *.rar files. When downloading anything from the internet, I check it for a virus before opening. After downloading and manually scanning a .rar file with BitDefender, I want to know if it looks inside the file for a virus? I notice after running a full scan, the report shows that x number of files are archived with a password and could not be scanned (or something like that). When I look at the files that were not scanned, I see they are .rar files. These files may be something I have in storage or it may be a .rar file that is created during some kind of back-up procedure (for example SpyBot S&D creates undo .rar files).

Thanks for any help.

jshe28

I believe the password protected files cannot be scanned by anything due to encryption (though I could be wrong). If it makes you feel better McAfee's did the same thing. This is just my observation and I am no expert at this stuff so you may wish to wait for someone who has been around the block.

The password-protected situation has been discussed here: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...sword-protected