Avast exceptions from Program Files Directory

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi, does anyone have the following issue with file exceptions. I had a file exception in the Program Files folder and it was all fine. However, today the exception file alerted Avast. So when I checked, it seems that the file shield is now seeing the Program Files folder as PROGRA~1 instead. I had to change the exception to the PROGRA~1 path for the exception to work. This behavior changed today right after I did windows update and restarted. The windows update were security updates for windows and .netframework. And does anyone know how to set Avast file shield to see Program Files folder as “Program Files” again instead of “PROGRA~1”? Thanks.

Update: Apparently, it seems that another restart of the system returned Avast’s file shield back to normal. It now sees Program Files as “Program Files” instead of “PROGRA~1”.

2

The FileSystem Shield processes the requests as they are received and matches them to the exact masks.
So, it’s not really about avast! changing its behavior - but rather the requesting application (the one that was trying to start, or maybe write the file) used the short name (PROGRA~1) instead of the long one (Program Files) - which doesn’t match your exclusion mask. If it happens repeatedly, I can only suggest to put both variants into the list of exclusions