I have been intending to reply to the answers I got in this thread, but I got side-tracked and have since postponed it. You will probably have to re-read my first post to get the context of the topic. Sorry about that.
@Vlk
This sounds promising. I’ll settle with being cautiously optimistic for now. I’ll keep an eye out for the next version for sure.
@Igor
Thanks for your input and opinion. I will elaborate a bit on the use case, as well as present a new one.
The users in my specific case are my parents. Trust me when I say that they don’t know much about computers. They want their computer to be set up to work nicely and secure by default and not having to remember more than the most important things about administering the computer. Manually starting virus scans on a regular basis (or checking scan logs) should really be unnecessary. I believe it indeed is with most anti-virus products. You are correct that such users will not be fully capable of knowing what to do if the scan results window show up with detections. But a major reason for wishing they could get infection alerts after the scheduled scans is to raise their awareness about their actions that has lead to the alert. For example, those files downloaded last week from that specific location are flagged as malware. Ok, so they have to be careful with that type of downloads from now on. If they are in doubt about a file they think might be legit, they can easily phone me up and we will sort it out together. They will be informed that the computer is scanned automatically every now and then, and they will also be instructed that “Move to chest” is generally a safe action that can be reverted. You may say that the real time scanner will take care of my concerns in this regard (alerting about what is dangerous “internet behaviour”) and hopefully this will usually be the case. But as you know sometimes there is fresh malware that is not yet detected by the anti-virus. But in the scheduled scan a few days later it may be caught due to updated definitions! I should also mention that this type of setup has been working nicely for my users with a different anti-virus product in the past. Automated actions on the scheduled scans would be less than optimal in this use case as there is a risk that legit files will go mysteriously missing and they will not learn from their mistakes (downloads/surfing) either.
Now to the second use case. That user is myself. To be fair you already considered this, Igor, and I agree. I will often forget about the scan logs, and only check them every now and then, and then what’s the point? I want set-and-forget options in my anti-virus software. I don’t mind changing defaults to my liking, and I appreciate configurability. Only alert me if something fishy is detected, but then make sure I’m alerted in a manner that is impossible to miss! If I downloaded something last week that I shouldn’t have, I want to know about it right away. For a cautious user like me there will be months (or more) between each detection by the scheduled scanner (perhaps more frequent detections by the guard though). Then it is very easy to grow tired of checking those well-hidden scan logs regularly. The least that could be done by Avast is to alert in the Status screen (main UI screen) that a virus has been detected in a scheduled scan. Although that is not good enough either in my opinion. A windowed alert/results presented just after the scan has finished is what I feel is the only appropriate solution.
In fact, I can only think of one type of use case that would be a match for the status quo of scheduled scans and corresponding (lack of) alerts/UI in Avast. That is the user that is ceaselessly concerned about the security of his computer. This user usually has several different security products on his computer and is well on top of the “security solutions” market. There is always a new, untried security software out there that he feels could be interesting to try next. This type of user of course has no problem remembering to check his scan logs! Computer security is part of his lifestyle, or at least his “computing style”.
Oh, and if the computer is used a lot by children it might also be a good idea to choose automated actions (move to chest) instead of alert & ask when scheduled scans find viruses. So that would be another use case in my disfavour to be fair. But I’m only asking for an option of showing alerts, remember.
An important issue was also brought up by Igor regarding how the scheduled scans in Avast are carried out as part of a background service not really relating to the GUI. I can’t comment on the technical aspect of this, and I also see how running scheduled scans when no one is logged on (i.e. in the nighttime) can be useful. But from a user interface aspect I think this is a no-brainer – there has to be a proper alert about detections, also in scheduled scans. If detections are found when no user is logged on, the alert can be presented on the next log on, or -in the worst case- the detections would be alerted the next time the scan is performed and someone is logged on. If for technical reasons the scheduled scans have to move from service land to GUI land, so be it. I definitely think that is a trade off that is acceptable. Having scheduled scans “go GUI” also brings possible advantages, like the possibility of interacting with a scheduled scan (pausing, canceling, change cpu priority etc.) if the scan is happening at an inconvenient time.
A competing product, Avira Antivir, handles scheduled scans in a far better way than Avast. The scheduled scan will show up as a window when the scan starts, and can be interacted with by the user (see above). Antivir, interestingly, also has a mode that is similar to what Avast currently has, where scheduled scans can be set to “invisible” and no window shows up. In this mode there is no alert; the program will act according to an action that has been preset in the configuration. But the important part is that they give you an option! And I believe that windowed mode with alerts is the default one. I should mention though, this being the Avast forum, that Antivir has its own set of problems that has made me switch to Avast for the time being.
Ok, this post is getting long enough already, sorry. But I really feel that the way these scans are designed right now by the Avast developers is just dead wrong. A final note to the developers if they at all consider making some changes to their program – I noted this also in my initial post, but it’s worth repeating: Please don’t put detection alerts from the scheduled scans into the pop-up system that you use for info about automatic updates. I know it is probably the easy solution technically, esthetically, and for consistency, in short: very tempting to do. But all I have to do is to turn my head in another direction for 20 seconds and I will miss the alert. Or I’m on the toilet or eating or… you get the point. A detection is serious enough to be worthy of a proper and persisting alert! Thanks for reading!
