I am a totally blind user of your Avast! Free Edition program. I am using Avast! 7.0.1426. I also use JAWS for Windows 13.0.718. I am having a problem using Avast! with regards to the Self-Defence Module.
The problem I’m having is this. When the self-defence module is turned on I cannot gain access to the Avast! user interface with JAWS. The tab key does not work as expected as it did in Avast 6. However, when I disable the self-defence module Avast works great with jaws and I can gain access to the full user interface with the self-defence module turned off. Avast! will work if I turn on the self-defence module but when the computer is rebooted, JAWS will no longer function with Avast! and I have to disable this module in order to get jaws to work with the avast! program.
Can anybody help me with this issue? Could I keep the self-defence module turned off until a new Avast! program update comes out? It’s a real pain in the butt to have to keep turning off the Self-defence Module in order to get jaws and avast to work properly.
I’ve also tried excluding jaws from the Behavior Shield and the Auto Sandbox but jaws will not work with Avast! unless I disable the self-defence module.
Thanks DavidR for your reply. I think for the time being if I want to conduct a virus scan of my computer I’ll disable self-defence module and re-enable it again when scan is done. I now have self-defence module enabled just to be on the safe side.
Yes, this is a long-standing issue. The problem is that the self-defense prompts try to “invisible” from other apps running on the system (the idea is to prevent potential malware from dismissing the screens automatically). Unfortunately, this includes the various screen reader apps as well.
In those scenarios, my only recommendation is to disable the Self-defense module altogether (i.e. ask someone to do this for you, as a one-time action). This slightly decreases the protection but not to an extent of not keeping your machine clean.
Thanks for your nice response. I will ask my friend when he comes for a visit to disable self-defence for me. I’m relieved I can now interact with Avast with self-defence disabled and that I will never have to lose sleep over self-defence module ever again!
To all the other Forum members, thanks for making my day today!
On Friday I updated to Avast! 7.0.1451. Before updating I turned the self-defence Module on. I am happy to report that JAWS now works fine with the self-defence module turned on!
Thanks very much for fixing this issue. This is the reason I stay with Avast! Whenever issues come up you guys always work them out for me!