I just installed Avast, thinking of replacing Nod32 with it. However it is about to be uninstalled again if I can’t get this issue resolved. I use Eusing’s app Taskbar Hide, an app that hides any running application in both the window and the taskbar. I understand that there are some viruses that share the file name taskbar.exe but this is not one. I have added the folder to both the standard exclusion and the realtime exclusion lists, but it still displays the warning and blocks the application from running.
Please tell me how to all ow this program to run without disabling the realtime protection, so I can continue my evaluation.
This is a design flaw that I cannot allow the program to run if I know it is a false positive. It should be an option on the warning page, it could be password protected to prevent non-technical users from allowing access to real threats. But even if this will not be done, the exclusion should definitely allow the program to work. This is definitely a deal-breaker for me if I can’t resolve it.
For the Standard Shield provider (on-access scanning):
Left click the ‘a’ blue icon, click on the provider icon at left and then Customize.
Go to Advanced tab and click on Add button…
For the other providers (on-demand scanning such as the screen-saver or the Simple User Interface):
Right click the ‘a’ blue icon, click Program Settings.
Go to Exclusions tab and click on Add button…
You can use wildcards like * and ?.
But be careful, you should ‘exclude’ that many files that let your system in danger.
Thanks for the replies. I was putting the folder rather than the file in the exclusion list. I was putting C:\Program Files (x86)\Taskbar Hide*. The path to the executable only would be C:\Program Files (x86)\Taskbar Hide\taskbar.exe. I did add the folder exclusion to both the Standard Shield list and the Exclusions list in Program Settings.
I also emailed the authors of the application asking about this (because virustotal.com flagged it as suspicious in several entries). They uploaded a copy one of a higher revision than mine to virustotal and only a few flagged it, nothing for Avast. So, I installed this version and Avast does not alarm now. (I had ver 1.28, now have Ver 1.5.2)
I still think it was a false positive (or maybe not?), but either way the exclusion is now irrelevant as the program is running without interference from Avast. However I’m still a little hesitant that I may run into other FPs that I won’t be able to exclude, so I would still like to know what I did wrong. Would putting in the folder rather than the .exe cause the exclusion to be ignored?
Why, if you do run into another FP do you think that you wouldn’t be able to exclude it. The process should work as it now does, though I’m a little surprised the folder one didn’t work.
I have a folder that has my samples, tools and suspect files in that I exclude and that works fine but there is no way I would exclude an active working folder as it is just too much. This is an example of that folder *\AVAST-EXCLUDE* it has three sub-folders and that exclusion covers them all and their files. The first *\ covers me as I have this folder in my back-ups so it saved creating two entries for the different drives.