Scan History

[DavidR]

Hi guys, Smart-Scan doesn't show up in Scan History, that's normal.
All other on demand scans should be listed there, though. Cheers

That is what I suspected, given the multiple different scans, which aren't necessarily infection related.

It just shows how often I do on-demand scans (almost never), much depreciated in a resident on-access antivirus.

[Asyn]

It just shows how often I do on-demand scans (almost never), much depreciated in a resident on-access antivirus.

Same here, I only run them for testing purposes.

[Wittmann]

I carried out a full virus scan. It took quite some time but gave an all clear result.
It was logged in scan history.

Conclusion -
Avast do not log in scan history any Smart Scans that are negative,
but do log other scans which are negative.
Whether they log Smart Scans that are positive, I do not know.

IMO all scans should be logged in scan history.

Thank you all for your comments and help.

[DavidR]

Well I told you that a negative Smart Scan doesn't get recorded, so I also ran a smart scan testing for a positive detection, see below.

In all honesty on-demand scans are very much depreciated in on-access scanners these days, in all AVs not just Avast.

For the most part it is dormant/inert files are being scanned, the other active files are going to be scanned by the resident shields when they are activated.  Yes there is a difference in the so called Smart Scan as it is also scanning for non-virus activity/weakness.  But why would you need to record smart scans that don't detect anything is beyond me. 

I have said/suggested that the multiple scans run by the smart scan don't really fit well with the layout of other on-demand scan.  Yes there is a possibility Avast could just record the antivirus element of the smart scan.

Test for Positive detection o Smart Scan:
I have also found that the Smart Scan isn't that smart, I salted my C and D drives with the file that was detected previously in my Full Scan, but it wasn't detected in either C or D drives.  Why I haven't the slightest idea.

[Wittmann]

@ DavidR

Thank you for that reply David and also the effort you have put into this matter, it sums it all up to perfection.

I am totally happy now with the Avast scan history situation.
👍 👍

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

[Wittmann]

I would add now that this matter has been explained, that I have had Avast Free now for many years, probably around 7
and combined with Sandboxie I have had no problems. Avast certainly is a good AV.