Avast does not return to previous state after temporary disabling of shields.

[Rundvleeskroket]

Hi.

In the Windows system tray, when I right-click on the Avast tray icon, I can go to shields control and temporarily disable all shields. For instance for 10 minutes.

When I then re-enable all shields, it enables shields I had already previously set to disabled. How do I just re-enable those shields that were active before the temporary disabling?



To be more precise: I have set the anti-rootkit shield and the anti-exploit shield to disabled.

I have 3 shields active; File shield. Web shield. Mail shield. Behaviour shield is not installed.

If I then look in the system tray at shields control, it tells me 2 shields are disabled. I can activate them and the result is that anti-rootkit and anti-exploit are set to active.

With just the 3 shields mentioned above active, when I temporarily disable all shields, and then re-enable all shields, it says 5 shields will be re-enabled. Without any other choice.

This means I can't disable shields and then only re-enable those shields that were active before. All shields get activated, even those that I explicitly want to keep disabled.

This makes the function to quickly disable shields for a moment useless, as it DOES NOT return to its previous state. To me this behaviour is most illogical.

How do I get Avast to quickly just turn off and back on again those shields previously enabled? And not those already previously disabled?

Edit: latest version of Avast Free on Windows 7 64-bit.

[r@vast]

Hi,

If you go via the tray icon, you either disable or enable all.

[Rundvleeskroket]

Hi,

Yes I know. But when I need to temporarily disable shields, afterwards I want to only re-enable those shields I just disabled. Not ALL SHIELDS Avast has installed. There is also no way to uninstall anti-rootkit shield or anti-exploit shield so they aren't available.

The whole point of the tray icon disable option is to quickly pause shields for a moment. The main Avast GUI doesn't have a button or slider or whatever to do the same. Only via the tray icon.

So please tell me a better way to do want I want that isn't individually disabling and enabling shields through layers of menu's.

[waking]

There is also no way to uninstall anti-rootkit shield or anti-exploit shield so they aren't available.

You can disable them in the Additional behavior settings:

[waking]

The whole point of the tray icon disable option is to quickly pause shields for a moment. The main Avast GUI doesn't have a button or slider or whatever to do the same. Only via the tray icon.

See below from here:

https://support.avast.com/en-ca/article/antivirus-shield-settings/#pc

[Rundvleeskroket]

There is also no way to uninstall anti-rootkit shield or anti-exploit shield so they aren't available.

You can disable them in the Additional behavior settings:

That's not an uninstall. You're misunderstanding what I wrote.

There is no way to quickly and only disable all shields currently active, and then re-enable only those shields again. I have 3 shields active and two disabled. I can turn off those 3 shields, but only re-enable all 5 shields. Not just the 3 that I had running before. The 2 shields that were already off, and should stay off, also get re-enabled. And there is no other option.

[DavidR]

<snip quotes>
There is no way to quickly and only disable all shields currently active, and then re-enable only those shields again. I have 3 shields active and two disabled. I can turn off those 3 shields, but only re-enable all 5 shields. Not just the 3 that I had running before. The 2 shields that were already off, and should stay off, also get re-enabled. And there is no other option.

Part of that problem (as I see it) is that the anti-rootkit shield or anti-exploit shield aren't actually shields in their own right, but part of the overall protection of Avast anti-virus.  So your only option is to disable them within the Avast Settings.

Perhaps they shouldn't be called shields but anti-rootkit protection and anti-exploit protection.

[Rundvleeskroket]

The real problem is that the only option in the task bar is re-enable all shields. Regardless of what shields were active before. I'm sure that if behavior shield was installed but disabled, I would have had 3 active shield and 3 inactive shield, and the only option in the task bar menu would be to re-enable all 6 shields.

That's why an actual uninstall option for anti-rootkit shield and anti-exploit shield would make it so it behaves like behavior shield: not present, so not subject to disabling and re-enabling. That would be a dumb workaround of course, because Avast should just respect settings and no uninstalling would even be needed.

The option in task bar to re-enable all shields seems to be coming from an assumption that all shields were active before, or should be. When they aren't, and shouldn't, things go wrong.

Again; on a more fundamental level, anti-rootkit and anti-exploit should be able to stay enabled, but then they also have to respect exceptions, and not ignore them as the do (or have done). Disabling those shields was in the first place already a workaround to deal with the inconsistency in the way Avast handles exceptions.

[Rundvleeskroket]

Oh, and also: this issue arose because Avast keeps deleting mining software with anti-rootkit and anti-exploit enabled. Despite exceptions.

Now, mining software can be installed nefariously. Sure. But, and this is very important: it isn't itself malware. It isn't a rootkit and it isn't an exploit.

So the fact that these two shields even attack mining software is wrong. The shields are a misnomer and operate more broadly than their name suggests. This is Avast's mistake.

It might be wise to have a setting, maybe under troubleshooting, that explicitly allows for mining software. That said software is excluded from raising all kinds of alarms. Millions of people chose to run this software and an AV should accommodate for it. Make the main GUI display an alert about mining software being detected or something. Whatever. Just like it does when shields are down, or silent mode is active. So that it won't go unnoticed for long by unsuspecting users. That way Avast protects against the unwanted presence of mining software, but miners don't have to fight Avast every single day.