When a scan of the hard drive finds a file it doesn’t like an option to add it to the Exclude list would be greatly appreciated. And as an Acttion on the Results page.
I have several files that I have had for years and wish to keep and don’t want avast! stopping each time it encounters them. I can manually exclude them, and will, it just would be easier with the additional Option/Action.
There is a Wishlist Topic which you could ad this, I’m not sure if it already hasn’t been suggested in the past as the topic is very large now.
The ‘wishlist’: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=12640.0
I don’t think it’s a good idea. Adding a file into the list of exclusions should be a rare event (something that 99% of the users will never need) - so adding a new button into the (already rather complex, and possibly confusing) virus dialog would be an overkill.
Yes, it is a little bit crowed ;D
How about not displaying the “virus has been found” form while the scan is still running, rather have a list of all the files that where detected as infected and let the user take action from there ??
Thanks
Al968
This is a Professional version feature… They won’t add it in the Home (free) one…
Really ??
How do you do it, I have the Profesional version I I have never seen it ;D
Al968
That is your opinion, the 99% part. The new Option/Action would certainly not add any more confusion than the current lists already have thus there is no compelling reason not to make the change. Remember if you build it they will come. 
In that the list is 4 years old I doubt it’s relevant. And my suggestion doesn’t have to wait for a major release to be included and useful. 
Edited: I’ve forgot the concept of Session posted by Igor a little bit ahead.
Thank You Tech,
I had been looking for that setting for a long time and now I have found it.
Thanks
Al968
Well, yes, that it my opinion… and also the intention of the developers, I dare say.
Any additional control brings more confusion (to average users) - many people would click it by accident, many people would click it intentionally, but without a good reason. Besides the additional control, the option is somehow “dangerous”.
The thread is occasionally read and browsed for interesting ideas, no matter how old it is (and not only for major releases, as the first post might suggest).
In the Professional version, you can go to the “Virus” page of the correponding task (where you configure the automatic actions) and clear the box completely (i.e. leave it empty). This way, avast! won’t do anything about the infected files it might find. Then, after the scan is finished, you can simply open the session results in the Enhanced User Interface (provided you configured the “infected” results to be stored, of course), select the files you want, rightclick the selection and choose the action to be performed.
It is, in my view, always an irresponsible idea to make it easy for users to ignore a problem. The whole ethos of an anti-virus program it to alert users to the existence of a problem. The next best step is for the program to “fix” the problem. One of the very worst things it can do it make it easy for the user to just hide the problem.
All to often in this forum we see the “I just want the alert to go away” attitude and it is one I experienced frequently in running worldwide systems for a major company.
If someone has a lot of files on their system generating alerts then they probably need attention. If someone wants to keep a lot of infected files on their system then a solution for that incredibly tiny majority that represents a source of danger for the vast majority is most unwise.
So the option of closing the scan window is going to be removed? No more X in the upper right corner? Afraid of a technical user being able to choose an intelligent option?
By not providing for the enhancement suggested guess what option I had to use. Hardly a “fix” imo. Yet the No action option is provided for all to use. Is the “new release” going to eliminate that “fix”? I highly doubt it.
I agree. I’m not trying to hide a problem, I simply want to be able to conveniently fix false problems. DOS 6.22’s MSAV.EXE is not a virus or a trojan. PC-cillin never flagged it in all the years I’ve had it on my hd. Now avast! comes along and struggles with it. None of the Available actions are the fix. The fix is to exclude it from avast!'s scans until such time avast.com fixes their scan patterns. Else every scan will flag it and the end user will learn to disregard av scans. Is that really the attitude you want to give the new user?
(And yes, I have zipped and password protected the zip and forwarded it to avast.com.)
I know you’re not looking for sympathy so I won’t give you any. ;D Being new here I don’t know how many of the postings you see are related to false positives like I’ve experienced but for those that are, making the alert go away is the valid attitude.
I don’t classify 6, or was it 5, as a “lot”.
I will take that to imply you work for avast.com. And probably not management or marketing or sales.
a. I doubt any more people would click on it than the ones that currently click on the X in the upper right corner when an annoying false position pops up. b. The option is no more dangerous than the X or the No action button. c. You attract users by making a product that is accurate and useful not by annoying them needlessly.
Thank you. I rest my case.
Ed_P,
Since you are new here you will not have seen my posts in the past that have been critical of fostering an attitude of users getting used to false positives.
The only errors ever detected on my system by avast have been false positives. I have had the happy experience of avast dealing quickly with the false positives I have reported - and no I did not have the evangelist stars next to my id the last time it happened.
Given my number of posts, lowly though it is compared to some, you may well guess that I read this forum with great frequency. I am very well aware of the false positives, the false positives that turn out to be real, the complaints of real viruses that are not caught and the frequency with which they occur.
I persist in thinking that your best cause it to ask avast to remedy the false positives you encounter. There are features readily available to take care temporarily of your 5 or 6 files and they are frequently discussed in the forum.
Most new users want as I do for myself and those users of avast I support a clean scan every time - no problems swept under the carpet to remember. Fortunately we have that - it does not take too much effort to deal with the rare false positives and keep it that way.
Later afterthought:
I sometimes wish that there were some way of having a user interface that was graded to the technical experience of the user. I can only think of azureus (the P2P client) as being one that had it when I tested it to look into some issues reported in this forum. If we could have such an interface then I would certainly be more supportive of your suggestion. However, as noted above I read every post in this forum. I think of my many years of experience dealing with “the average user” and my view always goes (as my development teams over the years could attest) to “how will this work for the average user?”.
'nuf said by me … it’s your thread.
I like that idea but if everybody is as closed minded about adding the suggested simple enhancement I put forth imagine the reception the PTB would have to that. ;D
Nice talking with you.
Yes. Yes.
And yes, I have an idea of what the management would think about such a feature… and I don’t think you’d want to hear that
Sure the option is more dangerous. For an on-demand scan, closing the virus dialog (or selecting “No action”, “Continue” or what’s currently there) means “don’t do anything with the file right now”. This new option would mean “don’t do anything about the file, and don’t ever scan it again”.
Now, for Standard Shield, closing the virus dialog means “keep the file, but don’t let it be started”. This new option would, I assume, allow the (probably) infected file be executed! That’s certainly very dangerous.
I understand that for you, and possibly for other experienced users, it would be a good thing. But for the rest of the users (which is the vast majority, unfortunatelly) it would bring more confusion and more risk for very little added value. After all, the feature (the list of exclusions) is already there - only a few more clicks away than simply in the virus dialog.
Sorry, but you are considering only your particular problem, and your particular point of view. I don’t think we are closed minded - we considered the idea (actually, long before you came up with it), but came to the conclusion that it’s not as good as it might seem at first.
Making my mind different from the first post. I think you’re right, that feature won’t be good as a security ‘hole’…
Well… we can’t see closed minds when there is open discussion 8)
Ok a button labeled Exclude might get misinterpeted or misused so how about the button being labeled Menu and clicking on it opens the avast! Settings… menu. And then if a tech clicks on the Exclusions option and then the Add button the scanned file causing the error gets pasted into the exclusions window instead of “”?
That should meet with everyone’s concerns, including mine. ;D
BTW I sent some of the problem files to avast.com last week. Should I expect some kind of response as to when they will be included in the new patterns? Without feedback the files will forever be in the Exclude list.
No, usually you don’t get any answers.