I just installed Avast on XP Pro SP2. Under Standard Shield Provider Settings, I don’t have a Packers page or a Virus page. I went to Add/Remove programs and did a repair but that didn’t help.
I don’t see any way to stop the real time scanner from continuing to detect a False Positive. I will not allow it to go to quarantine as I want to be able to boot my VMWare Workstation virtual machine. I have only had Avast installed for about two hours and already the real time scanner has found an FP in VMWare’s files and tried to stop my virtual machine from booting! I’ve had VMWare Workstation 5.5 for OVER 5 YEARS and it is ridiculous for Avast to claim there is a worm in those files. What is worse, the log files run over the edge of the window even when maximized so I can’t tell the exact path to this supposed worm. Plus, how do I submit an FP anyway?
Is there a way to stop the animation on the detection window? I cannot tolerate any animation anywhere on the screen at any time. I have the Proxomitron set to stop all animation on websites and I was able to stop the animation of the Avast tray icon but how do I stop that disk from spinning constantly on the alert window? I have to get off that immediately or it could trigger a migraine. I think I saw a button about submitting an FP from that window but I can’t stay on that window so is there another way to submit? But I can’t see the path to the file so I guess I cannot submit at all. Which means I can’t use Avast.
One more thing…I can’t seem to exclude Process Guard’s config files from the real time scanner. It tries constantly to scan them and, of course, PG won’t allow that but in all these years I have never needed to exclude them from other AV scanners. Anyhow, I typed in the exclusion path and shut down and then restarted the real time scanner and it still tries to scan them constantly. I checked and I think there are no errors in what I typed but the method to exclude is obviously intended for young users with perfect eyesight as the font is extremely tiny so I may have a mistake there and just can’t see it. I have read about the new GUI in ver 5 at dslreports so maybe some of this is fixed in it.
I guess this comes across as all negative.I wish it didn’t because I really like Avast. I had it briefly on the XP virtual machine that the scanner was trying to stop from booting and I was quite impressed. This was earlier this year. Avast’s unpacking ability is superb and it has excellent detection…but it does have too many FP’s as does Avira (which is what I have switched from).
It is not this icon, but the spinning yellow and black alert icon.
Mele20,
I have tried to find out about the icon in question, I have found out that my suspicions were correct, and that it will not stand up to the integrity checks and the file would be ‘repaired’ back to the original setup, sorry
Thank you for your efforts. The rotating icon is a major issue. I have never had a virus, adware, etc in over 10 years of having a computer so ordinarily I would not be subjected to that detection window except very rarely. The problem is the high level of FP’s that both Avira and Avast are known for. Avira does not have animation on their detection window so I was able to deal with the vast number of FP’s without that problem, but I have read at AVComparatives that Avast has even more FP’s than does Avira. So, I feel that I would be dealing with that animated window quite frequently because of FPs and that is a show stopper for me and for anyone prone to migraine headaches or epileptic attacks.
Is the animation in the new GUI and it can’t be turned off? If so, that indicates to me that Avast is not interested in gaining users in the USA because this violates the Americans With Disabilities Act. It is fine to have animation as long as individuals who need to be able to turn it off can do so. BoClean used to have an animated tray icon that flickered and could trigger migraines, etc. When I asked Nancy about it she told me she knew BoClean was not in compliance with ADA but she hadn’t had time to fix it. She fixed it right away after I asked so that the animation could be turned off by the user. Perhaps, some day Avast will do the same and I can try it again.
I’d say that you have another antivirus (including Windows Defender) installed in the virtual machine - which contains virus signatures in an uncrypted form in memory.
So, I suggest to put the corresponding extension (e.g. *.vmdk) into the list of avast! exclusions. (Note that there are two of them - one for Standard Shield, one for the on-demand scans).
Btw, the path to the detected file is in the virus-warning window - and you can select the control and scroll it.
As for the Packers, Virus, … page for the Standard Shield provider - it’s available only in the Enhanced User Interface; is that what you used?
No. Avira both free ver 8 and 9 and beta 9 Suite have been installed on it in the recent past, but Avira has been removed. I use the machine for beta testing so it has had several different AV over the past several years but have never had Windows Defender on it.
I put a dish towel over the area of my screen where the spinning disk is on the alert window and then I started scanning individual files in C:\Documents and Settings\M\My Documents\My Virtual Machines\Windows XP Professional.
This machine has 16 snapshots saved and I started scanning on the current (16th) snapshot and Avast alerted. It did NOT alert on Snapshots #15 and #14. Then I scanned #13 and it alerted. Same for 12, 11, 10. I didn’t want to scan all of them so I went to #1 and it alerted on it also. I have no idea what is different about #14 and #15 that it did not alert on. It doesn’t alert on the snapshot itself rather it alerts on the VMEM file for the respective snapshots. So, there must be something in memory from the first snapshot on, with a few exceptions, that Avast thinks is Ricsi-831. I’ll try putting *.VMEM ext in the exceptions since the scanner doesn’t alert on other files. Thank you for this suggestion. Also, thank you for pointing out that the path is there on the Alert window and is scrollable. I could see that once I covered up the spinning icon with the towel.
I didn’t realize that the home free version only had a simple interface. I am surprised by this because I can’t believe so many security minded users at dslreports security forum use this version! We are the very hi tech users who would (or should) dislike a simple interface so it didn’t occur to me that I would be unable to properly configure Avast unless I want to spend $40 that I don’t have in this economy on the Professional version.
The unpackers list is contradictory too. Different list in two different areas of the help file. The help file is not clear about requiring Professional version to get those pages. I LOVE though, BTW, the network scanning ability. That is the one thing, besides an outstanding resident and on demand scanners, that I wanted and didn’t have with Avira. Even paid versions of Avira do not have this ability. But between the animated icon on the alert window that I cannot turn off and the lack of configuration ability in the free version I probably will not use it. Besides, why do I have to go to Start/Programs/Avast or even to Quick Start (if I put a short cut there) in order to start the simple interface? Why can’t that be started from the tray icon?
Sure, it could be an uninstalled AV as well. Remember that the virtual image is the “image of the whole computer” - so, even if you uninstall the product, the data may remain in the (now unused) sectors of the virtual disk.
Yes, the free version is limited in configurability somehow.
On the other hand, I can say that most changes users would like to do in Standard Shield packers configuration… are not a good idea.
Rightclick the tray icon and select “Start avast! Antivirus”.
Thank you both for the tip on how to start the simple interface from the tray icon. That’s much better.
I excluded *.VMEM in the real time scanner but I had my doubts that it would work because I had already excluded a ProcessGuard protected file that Avast tries 5 times every 60 seconds to scan and fails and keeps trying until I disable the real time scanner. Even after excluding the PG file, Avast continues to try to scan it over and over and over. After I excluded *.VMEM I didn’t reboot that machine right away to test if that stopped the detection. I just now shut down that machine and then booted it and Avast alerted again. So, for some reason exclusions are not working.
Between the problem with the spinning disk on the alert window and this exclusion problem I guess Avast currently is not a good AV for me. If the spinning disk can be turned off in ver 5 then I would be interested in trying that version when it is out or even putting the beta on my XP virtual machine.
The exclusions certainly are working; did you put the mask into the correct exclucion list? If it’s the resident protection that detects the file, it has to be the exclusion list on the last page of Standard Shield configuration.
