Hello everyone, I would like to report you very strange behavior of Avast Free Antivirus (latest version available 17.8.2318 with updated virus definitions).
As you know, the "Webcam Shield" (in the "Privacy" section) can not be activated for the Free version of Avast Antivirus.
Despite this, several programs that use my webcam are "blocked" by the antivirus; that is, when they start, Avast shows the following screen on top:
An app is trying to control the webcam. Allow [program name] to use the webcam? If you do not trust the app, block it. -BLOCK- -ALLOW-.
If I choose -BLOCK-, the program is blocked every time I try to start it (the screen is no longer shown), until the computer is turned off or restarted.
If I choose -ALLOW-, the program works correctly every time I start it (the screen is no longer shown), until the computer is turned off or restarted.
After restarting the computer, however, we go back to the starting point, with the warning screen repeating for each program.
There is no way to allow or block the program permanently, even if you insert the program in all the exclusions of each section of Avast, the screen reappears after every reboot.
In addition, and even worse, even by totally (and temporarily) disabling Avast, right-click on the tray icon --> Avast Protection Control --> Disable [....], the screen is still displayed, even if all the Avast protections are disabled at that time.
A "trick" not to display the screen is to enable the "Silence Mode" in "General Settings", but in this way each program is allowed by default, while perhaps it should be blocked by default (in my opinion).
Personally I think this behavior is a bug of the Free version, as users with Paid versions can access to the settings and especially to the exclusions of the "Webcam Shield".
So I'm asking, how can I insert a program in the "Webcam Shield" exclusions? (it's silly and annoying to explicitly allow or block them every time you turn on the computer)
Is it possible to disable the "Webcam Shield" in the Free version? (in theory it's already disabled but actually it is not).
The problem occurs on my 3 computers, Windows 7 SP1.
For those who want to replicate the problem, nothing simpler and faster. Just download "ffmpeg" and use it to control the webcam, for example:
ffmpeg -f dshow -i video="webcam name" -frames 1 frame.jpg
Thank you
