nod32... do i need to scan files before opening them?

[Mike Henley]

I turned everything on in nod32; its running as resident/realtime and
its scanning all extensions with deep/advanced heuristics etc. I
ticked scan files that are opened, executed and created.

Now, I see scanning a lot of files in real time. The question is, do I
need to click scan from the context menu for, say, an alien zip or an
exe file before I open it or is that a redundant waste of my time and
effort, meaning, I can I just go ahead and click it trusting that the
realtime scanner will take care of it anyhow?

 

[optikl]

I turned everything on in nod32; its running as resident/realtime and
its scanning all extensions with deep/advanced heuristics etc. I
ticked scan files that are opened, executed and created.

Now, I see scanning a lot of files in real time. The question is, do I
need to click scan from the context menu for, say, an alien zip or an
exe file before I open it or is that a redundant waste of my time and
effort, meaning, I can I just go ahead and click it trusting that the
realtime scanner will take care of it anyhow?

No. It's *not* a waste of time. In fact, scanning any file you download
prior to opening it is an excellent idea. Why risk opening something
that is malicious and hoping the on-access scanner is fast enough to
stop the execution before it can do damage?