Avast is shooting itself in the foot

[bob3160]

Perhaps a setting buried in Avast! GUI to permanently turn on the ability to exclude for the scenarios mentioned above would do for geeks (of course disabled by default).

I do agree with the reasoning of the current loops required for users by Avast to exclude files for such cases. However, I believe the approach I suggest would be a good compromise as if the user actually manages to find the hidden setting which I mentioned, nothing is going to stop the user from excluding the files he requires. The current situation of inconvenience would only making him extremely irritated.

That said, it is definitely preferable to submit false positives when one has the opportunity to do so.

As soon as you make such an option available, it will be used and cause infected computers.
Nothing wrong with the current policy of having to submit the program to Avast.
The process is painless and has saved many a computer from winding up in the repair shop.
For the "experts" who seem to have a problem with this policy, you have alternatives.

[RejZoR]

You can still exclude it by hand through settings. You don't encounter 10 false positives every day, i've only had like 3 in 10 years of being with avast!. So, doing it through settings is not really an issue. Essentially, you want to get the FP solved properly and permanently anyway...

[DavidR]

If they happened to allow the avast default action on detection, Send to Chest - then they can open the chest and elect to Restore and add to exclusions.

A copy remains in the chest (in case there is a problem with restore) you can use that to send to the virus labs as an FP if that is what you think.

[REDACTED]

In the past couple of weeks I have been getting the "Win32: Evo:gen [Susp]" reports just way too much. It's ridiculous, and HAS MADE MY COMPUTER DIFFICULT TO USE. I am a power user, avast isn't necessary for myself but this is a shared computer where I don't trust the other users not to mess up, and avast has been great for this and I've been recommending avast to family and friends since the avast 4.7 days.

I have the heuristics set to LOW. I can't imagine what it's like for people with it at Normal, let alone HIGH.

It is ridiculous that you can't add a little checkbox akin to the "dummy mode" for "power-user mode", which allows for things such as "Add to exceptions" "Ignore" etc. to the action dropdown box when something is detected. I understand the reason for the current default of NOT having that in said dropdown box, and it's sensible, however there needs to be some choice for users who DO understand the risk of something like that to be able to have it.

Let me give you a list of what's been going on here:
After updating my AMD GPU drivers, multiple DLLs for Catalyst Control Center were being detected as a "virus omg oh no" (suspicious, nothing actually detected), making it incapable of running and not even allowing for the GPU to be functioning properly. Video games have been out of the question. Each time I've just had to hit "Block" and "Report File (or whatever that's called)".

"Well just add stuff to exceptions!" <-- No, the UI has become uninhabitable for me and to add an exception you have to add an entire folder which includes all its sub-folders. For some of my things I'd have to except just about the entire drive. THAT isn't secure and defeats the entire purpose (AND MORE!) of not having an "Ignore" option!

After about A WEEK, those DLLs were finally quiet and everything for them worked alright.
Now, I'm getting Nightly (nightly builds of Firefox, 64-bit, hey I'm a power-user) detected as "virus omg oh no" (suspicious, nothing actually detected) all the time too, and since it updates every day the problem just isn't getting fixed. I was forced to whitelist my internet browser and anything in its folder. Great. That's yet another security problem. Heuristics is just completely broken here once again.


At this point I'm going to have to stop recommending avast and try to find something else. There goes about a hundred avast customers, maybe more.

[bob3160]

I could never understand why someone thinks that threats will make someone yield
to something that only needs changing in the eyes of a very few.

[falcongrey]

You can still exclude it by hand through settings. You don't encounter 10 false positives every day, i've only had like 3 in 10 years of being with avast!. So, doing it through settings is not really an issue. Essentially, you want to get the FP solved properly and permanently anyway...

I have maybe 1 in a months time. I usually submit it to the labs for testing and also let the developers of what is hitting the false know about the false positive as well.

I could never understand why someone thinks that threats will make someone yield
to something that only needs changing in the eyes of a very few.

I agree and don't even try to figure it out.