I have written a macro to connect to Outlook and send emails according to a
list in a worksheet. For about a day, some of the classes and modules kept
disappearing from the workbook when I saved it. I have now tracked this down
to Symantec Antivirus thinking my workbook had a virus and helpfully deleting
all my hard work!

What can I do to avoid this happening? I know this is an awkward question
because this is the way many viruses work. However, Outlook has an object
model that is accessible from Excel VBA and I have a legitimate need to do
this.

Is there anything I can do in the way I write the code? Or will code signing
help?

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Julian

Julian,

You need to set SAV's bloodhound feature to ignore your documents, or at least, the documents that
you put into a specific folder. If you have an IT department, they will be the ones who will be
able to do it. Otherwise, I think you can set the autoprotect options through the AV menu.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP


"Julian" wrote in message
...
I have written a macro to connect to Outlook and send emails according to a
list in a worksheet. For about a day, some of the classes and modules kept
disappearing from the workbook when I saved it. I have now tracked this down
to Symantec Antivirus thinking my workbook had a virus and helpfully deleting
all my hard work!

What can I do to avoid this happening? I know this is an awkward question
because this is the way many viruses work. However, Outlook has an object
model that is accessible from Excel VBA and I have a legitimate need to do
this.

Is there anything I can do in the way I write the code? Or will code signing
help?

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Julian

Thanks. I've done that but I'd rather be able to create my code in a way that
doesn't look like a virus, which it isn't. Macros and VBA start to lose their
appeal if you can't create them for someone else without finding a way to
exclude them from virus checking. Many corporates won't allow the user this
ability to config the AV.

Julian

"Bernie Deitrick" wrote:

Julian,

You need to set SAV's bloodhound feature to ignore your documents, or at least, the documents that
you put into a specific folder. If you have an IT department, they will be the ones who will be
able to do it. Otherwise, I think you can set the autoprotect options through the AV menu.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP


"Julian" wrote in message
...
I have written a macro to connect to Outlook and send emails according to a
list in a worksheet. For about a day, some of the classes and modules kept
disappearing from the workbook when I saved it. I have now tracked this down
to Symantec Antivirus thinking my workbook had a virus and helpfully deleting
all my hard work!

What can I do to avoid this happening? I know this is an awkward question
because this is the way many viruses work. However, Outlook has an object
model that is accessible from Excel VBA and I have a legitimate need to do
this.

Is there anything I can do in the way I write the code? Or will code signing
help?

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Julian

Unfortunately, connecting to Outlook and sending email is a signature feature of many macro
viruses - the first office virus did exactly that. So, if you don't want it to look like a virus,
don't use Outlook, and don't modify code in the VBProject using code. Since that is what you want
to do - you're out of luck, unless your store the file with the macro code in a place that isn't
scanned - good luck.
--
HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP


"Julian" wrote in message
...
Thanks. I've done that but I'd rather be able to create my code in a way that
doesn't look like a virus, which it isn't. Macros and VBA start to lose their
appeal if you can't create them for someone else without finding a way to
exclude them from virus checking. Many corporates won't allow the user this
ability to config the AV.

Julian

"Bernie Deitrick" wrote:

Julian,

You need to set SAV's bloodhound feature to ignore your documents, or at least, the documents
that
you put into a specific folder. If you have an IT department, they will be the ones who will be
able to do it. Otherwise, I think you can set the autoprotect options through the AV menu.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP


"Julian" wrote in message
...
I have written a macro to connect to Outlook and send emails according to a
list in a worksheet. For about a day, some of the classes and modules kept
disappearing from the workbook when I saved it. I have now tracked this down
to Symantec Antivirus thinking my workbook had a virus and helpfully deleting
all my hard work!

What can I do to avoid this happening? I know this is an awkward question
because this is the way many viruses work. However, Outlook has an object
model that is accessible from Excel VBA and I have a legitimate need to do
this.

Is there anything I can do in the way I write the code? Or will code signing
help?

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Julian

Code can be "restructured" to get around the Bloodhound heuristics. A while
ago I discovered a way to get around the virus detection while running code
from the Extensibility Library (code that manipulates code). If you're
interested email me privately. Email is on the website.


--
Tim Zych
www.higherdata.com
Compare data in worksheets and find differences with Workbook Compare
A free, powerful, flexible Excel utility


"Julian" wrote in message
...
I have written a macro to connect to Outlook and send emails according to a
list in a worksheet. For about a day, some of the classes and modules kept
disappearing from the workbook when I saved it. I have now tracked this
down
to Symantec Antivirus thinking my workbook had a virus and helpfully
deleting
all my hard work!

What can I do to avoid this happening? I know this is an awkward question
because this is the way many viruses work. However, Outlook has an object
model that is accessible from Excel VBA and I have a legitimate need to do
this.

Is there anything I can do in the way I write the code? Or will code
signing
help?

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Julian