Does the Avast message "no malware found" also mean "no viruses found"?

[attorney2]

I just did a complete scan of my computer with Avast premium, which took several hours. At the end the message said “no malware found.” Does Avast only look for malware or is it also antivirus? Does “no malware found” also mean “no viruses found”? Or do I need separate virus protection? Thx.

[Asyn]

@attorney2 post:1

Does “no malware found” also mean “no viruses found”?

Yes.

[Thomas963]

Malware is a shortened name for “MALicious softWARE” – viruses fall under the classification of malicious software, so yes.

[basicforge]

This is wrong. The original poster’s question makes sense. People expect malware to mean an application, or a browser plugin, or something similar, not a virus. I immediately reacted the same way when Avast presented me with “No malware found.” It made me feel very unsure of what the scan did. I strongly recommend that it be revised to say something more like “No malware or viruses found.”

[schmidthouse]

@basicforge post:4

This is wrong. The original poster’s question makes sense. People expect malware to mean an application, or a browser plugin, or something similar, not a virus. I immediately reacted the same way when Avast presented me with “No malware found.” It made me feel very unsure of what the scan did. I strongly recommend that it be revised to say something more like “No malware or viruses found.”

The fact is a ‘virus’ is Malware!

[DavidR]

Much has changed over the years and this is just one of those things.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+is+malware

Viruses are a very small sub-set of what is malware ‘malicious software’ has the lions share of detections these days. Would you consider it right if AntiVirus software only detected Viruses or Malware Software only detected Malware and NOT Viruses.