can't add exception

Avast is blockinng a game from launching but i can’t add an exception because the path is a URL location, what can i do?

Report a false positive (select file or website)
https://www.avast.com/false-positive-file-form.php

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=14433.msg1289438#msg1289438

https://support.avast.com/en-eu/article/Antivirus-scan-exclusions

You don’t say what avast version you are using ?
Where were you trying to add it ?

AvastUI > Menu > Settings > General > Exceptions - Add Exception.
I just added one for google.com (with full URL) just as a test and the entry was added. I copied and pasted the URL into the Exception.

I’m using Avast 19.5.2378 (Avast Internet Security) and for exceptions there is just ‘Add Exception’ box, and it only accepts file locations.

That is the same version as mine (although that is Avast Free) and the one I captured the image from.

Is your interface the same as mine, e.g. check boxes for File/Folder and for Website ?

This is my interface.

And this is what i need to add.

Given the error that it isn’t a valid path or URL, it should accept a URL, but I guess that it doesn’t see steam:// as a valid URL or can’t deal with that protocol. It looks like it is only excepting website in the sense you would be using http/https protocols.

I guess the reason why I can see the Filter by options File/Folder and Website is that I already have Exceptions in both areas.

Unfortunately as an Avast User I can’t go any further than this. I will try and draw some attention to this topic.

You say that avast is blocking the game from launching, what form is this taking, e.g. are you getting an avast error displayed ?

I just wonder if you could try Excluding a process (e.g. the games executable), but to reach that area you would have to go into the UI > Menu > Settings > Troubleshooting - scroll to the bottom and select Open Old Settings. Components > Web Shield > Customise > Exclusions > Processes to exclude. However it may not be the games executable that is launching the connection being blocked.

There are problems like this with AV blocking Steam game IDs which have been reported both here in the past and the Steam forums.

The crude solution which is said to work is to add the whole Steam installation as an exception.

Sounds risky to me.

I have the same suspicion as DavidR about this ie. that the steam://rungameid/71270 path is not being recognised by AVAST as a valid URL or process path and that is why it was not working. But if it is that you’d expect there to be more reports about it and a better solution.

Only solution for me was to go back to Avast Free, there is no problem with that version.

I don’t know why it would be OK with Avast Free, essentially I would have thought it would be OK for all versions. I would have to guess it may be something Avast Firewall related. Not using the avast firewall or one of the components not in Avast Free I can’t say for sure.

Having got it to work by excluding the whole steam folder, I would have certainly have to pin it down so as not to have a big hole, by adding just the main process exe and the game launcher exe. Not being a gamer, I dare say it might not be as simple as that.

ds123,

I’m sorry to hear about the issues you were experiencing trying to launch Football Manager 2012. We have been unable to replicate the issue.

Can I ask if Avast showed any notifications or dialog boxes at all when the game originally failed to launch? How did you originally identify it was an issue with Avast (before reverting to back to Avast Free)?

I suspect that the downgrade from Internet Security to Free is a ‘red herring’, as there is not a component included in Internet Security that should have this effect. I believe that the issue will not repeat if you reinstall Internet Security. To confirm this, can I please ask you to reinstall Avast Internet Security? To do this, please open the Avast Free application > click “Menu” in the top right corner > click “My Licenses” > click “Enter a valid activation code” > enter your activation code for Internet Security. The application will install the additional components and convert into Internet Security without you needing to re-download the application application or reinstall it from scratch.

Thank you in advance.

I don’t know the game but, could this be a firewall issue ???

It started blocking again in Avast Free, by the way it is Windows 7 so might try it with Windows 10 and see if it is the same. I’ve used Avast over a number of years so i don’t know why it started doing this.

Hi ds123,

As it’s now being blocked again in Avast Free, we can rule out the paid components as the cause of the issue. The culprit is therefore likely to be one of the Core Shields, specifically Behavior Shield.

Can I ask you to upload the FM12 executable file to VirusTotal, so that we can investigate this further? Once uploaded, please wait for the scan to finish, and then please post the URL for the VirusTotal page here after the scan has finished.

You can find the file in either the C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Football Manager 2012 folder or the [b]C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Football Manager 2012[/b] folder depending on your system.

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/bb6bc3d940da0531dbf520d977102b89719d680f32d77823558cbaf14ce91eca/detection[url=http://]]][/url]https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/bb6bc3d940da0531dbf520d977102b89719d680f32d77823558cbaf14ce91eca/detection

Hi ds123,

Thank you for uploading the file to VirusTotal. Our Virus specialists have cleared the file’s reputation on our database now for you, which should prevent any of the Core Shields from interfering with the game. This change may take several hours to be implemented in your installation of Avast Antivirus. Please let us know if you continue to experience issues launching the game after this evening.