I’m an advanced geek, but new to Avast. Had some false positives this week. Evidently the default was wrong, I couldn’t turn it off, and I had some minor damage. I also just found out it threw 3 of my system files into the chest last month.
How would I tell Avast to ask me before deleting a file to the virus chest? I’ve already indicated not to scan the 2 program folders it messed up this week, but in general I want the choice.
They were not deleted from your system but copied to the chest as back-ups but, at the current circumstances, they are quote obsolete.
It’s been long since I configured them and my memories are mixed up with the configuration of Avast! 5 Beta. However, considering your knowledge, I think searching the boards and reading help files would suffice.
I will use it until they pull it out of my cold, dead hands.
My only problem was that I didn’t realize the many virus reports I was getting were false positives.
That will never happen again.
Hey Tipton:
Can i come over and burn down your house?
I’m sure you have insurance. If not, you have no reason to complain.
@ RNfromTN, I miss him too.
I really didn’t suffer too badly - my favourite media player was crippled but a reinstall solved that problem. However I have uninstalled Avast (I was running the beta of Avast 5), and I won’t go back to it until I get some reassurance that in future I will be offered the choice to instruct the program to ignore anything I think is a false positive - it was incredibly frustrating to watch it quarantine files without having any way of stopping it.
It could - of course - be that there is buried in the program somewhere an option to enable just that kind of choice and I’m simply too thick to find it, in which case I’d be very grateful if someone would tell me where it is.
Thank you!
i just want to remove avast it has messed up my pc thanks very much avast
Hello kirkfard,
we can help you fix your system. you just need to stay calm and do as we say.
thanks
nmb
i would like to thank avast for giving me a free anti-virus program for many years,only 1 false positive a few months ago that was resolved with help here,fortunately I had no warnings with that “bad” virus update,feels sorry for all that have had problems though,but I will stick with avast 
OMG. >:( So THAT was why I got no ignore on ver 5 beta 3 that updated to ver 3 at same time I got the fatal virus definitions? Good heavens. :o I LOVE the beta GUI and had planned to use Avast but no way will I use an antivirus that gives me NO IGNORE button. I’m a beta tester for Avira and one reason I am trying Avast 5 is because of the bad GUI and other things in Avira 10 beta that appall me. There is no ignore button there either but it is very early, first build beta and we are all complaining so I don’t expect Avira 10 to ship without an ignore button but it has on access scan totally messed up and I won’t use it if it stays that way. Avast was a great alternative with ver 5 until I read this.
I worked around the no ignore button by using the X in the upper right corner of the alert window. That acted like an ignore button and nothing was deleted or sent to the Chest. But I sure will not use an AV where I have to do that on a permanent basis.
I had the scanners set to ASK and then secondary No Action. I made the obviously “stupid” assumption that Avast was not just for children and ignorant users. I assumed it was for more advanced users also. Obviously not since “Ignore” has been removed as option. That is ridiculous.
The option is there on avast5. You can configure automated actions with easy.
Ignore is the same action as “No action”. The option was NOT removed.
@ Mele20: no no I realized I was wrong just after posting about it:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=51718.msg437641#msg437641
… setting real time shields to “no action” just blocks the files. You’ll never get a panel of options with “no action” like with manual scan, then “do nothing”. There’s no way to ignore an FP with the file system shield in avast 5 currently. VLK suggested they might add an “add to exclusion list” in a future build…
So currently the best solution in V5 is to send to Chest and restore if that’s an FP (after submission if you want). The ignore option may be available in V4 though.
Yes, I just tested the setting to take no action and Avast blocked access to the file.
I will not use an Antivirus program with NO configuration available! I must have “ignore” as an option. I have always detested ver 4 GUI…tried to like it several different times …no go. I love ver 5 GUI and highly commend Avast on such a great looking GUI that is also easy to use and easy to read.
However, I am uninstalling it now. I refuse to use an antivirus that considers me to be an idiot. I have to go correct my post in the marathon thread about all this at dslreports security forum as I posted and told everyone to set the scanners in Ver 5 to take no action and that is of no help.
I am stunned actually. There is NO reason to remove the ability for a user to make their own decision about what to do. Plus, what is this that I cannot configure the on demand scanner differently that the on access one? That also indicates that Avast considers me an idiot when it comes to computers. Fine. If Avast wants to be used only by computer idiots ok…but let’s get the word out before others who are not computer idiots waste their time trying it. Damn shame. You could have Expert mode and regular mode like Avira does.
Someone is confused here…
“Ignore” is there, it’s just called “No action” or “Block”.
Why couldn’t you configure on-demand scanner differently than on-access one? Sure you can…
Apparently not. See the responses to your post. Personally I don’t see how blocking the file can possibly be equivalent to ignoring it.
OK, I’ll put it this way - it works exactly the same as it did for years in avast! 4.x.
“No action” / “Ignore” / “Block” means “No action” for the corresponding file (i.e. it’s not deleted, moved anyway, modified anyhow). However, the access is denied.
Igor, I believe what most are referring to is a detection override as done by Prevx and others, or an exclusion from further alerting without doing anything to the item-let it continue to be executed and deal with it later by watching it to make sure it is an FP, and sending it to the AV vendor for further investigation. Vlk suggested elsewhere this might be an advanced option item, but I suggest that Prevx users as a class are probably not a lot smarter than Avast! users and their override capability seems to work well for them.
OK, thanks, but doesn’t this mean that any program that relies on the file for its operation won’t work? Sorry, but I’m confused.
Why is the change of the name, may I ask, then? In Avira’s case, it is simply refereed as “Deny Access.”
avast v.4 got a “No action” button whenever it detected a virus in your computer… it’s the same as Ignore…
you can configure v.5’s action regarding the virus…