Exclude from boot scan ?

[Andyonline]

Hi, is it possible to exclude a file from a boot scan. The reason I ask is that the last time I did one, it came up with a false positive and I just want to avoid the same thing happening again.

Thanks

Andy

[DavidR]

The avastUI, Settings, Exclusions, is for all on-demand scans and as far as I'm aware includes the boot-time scan as it has to be run on-demand and not automatically.

That said - Exclusion isn't the answer, what is, is correcting the FP. That assumes it really is an FP, so we need more information on the detection, file name, location, malware name (including any suffix [PUP], etc.) ?

You could also check the offending/suspect file at: VirusTotal - Multi engine on-line virus scanner and report the findings here, post the URL in the Address bar of the VT results page.

[Andyonline]

Hi DavidR and thanks for your reply

The following link refers to the thread I created when I done the boot scan. I checked it online with one of the virus confirmation websites and it came back as negative. So I restored the file and deleted from the virus CHEST

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=101050.msg808244#msg808244

[DavidR]

Well Pondus's reply hits the nail on the head PUPs essentially aren't false positives. When you consider what that does, 'key logger,' it can be used for good or evil and an antivirus can't determine intent.

So the user has to determine intent, e.g. did they install the program and are they aware of the purpose of the program and why it might be considered a PUP.

If you aren't planning on doing a boot-time scan frequently, then it isn't an issue as PUPs aren't scanned for by default on on-demand scans. The exception being the boot-time scan, which does scan for them and also scans archive files.

You can change the default settings in the boot-time scan when you schedule it (Settings, see image), so it doesn't scan for PUPs or scan Archives (which will greatly reduce the scan duration); there are other changes that you can make to the scan to suit your needs. Or you can apply the exclusion in the avastUI, Settings, Exclusions, section as I mentioned (copy and paste the full path and file name into it).