How to enable Passive Mode in Avast Free Antivirus ( the source: article 43 by support.avast.com )
Using Passive Mode in Avast Antivirus
Applies to Avast Premium Security for Windows, Avast Free Antivirus for Windows
Passive Mode disables all active protection, such as Core Shields and Firewall, so you can use more than one antivirus program at a time without
interfering with the performance of your PC or the reliability of antivirus detections.
Question for help:
Hi,
If I enable Passive Mode in Avast Premium Security for Windows, does RANSOMWARE Protection still work?
Continue to protect Folders and Files from ransomware ?
Can I continue to use more than one antivirus program?
Sandboxes 'may not work in real time, but from my screenshot that isn’t the case.
But to a degree it makes sense to definitively protect those files that you can’t replace and as you quoted
Passive Mode disables all active protection, such as Core Shields and Firewall, so you can use more than one antivirus program at a time without
interfering with the performance of your PC or the reliability of antivirus detections.
For me that means that the Passive Mode would impact the Ransomware Shield no matter what what you choose to set it up, in Passive Mode it wouldn’t be running.
I think selection of what folders to protect is a bit of a red herring, if you were to disable Avast that makes no difference if it were all or selection only. I can only assume that the Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool is also active protection, so disable that disable the protection.
You aren’t forced to use the Avast Anti-Ransomware component, I don’t have it installed.
The questions I shared with you are the result of the following reasoning:
usually the various anti-ransomware modules of other antivirus programs do not ask you to select Directories, Folders or Files to protect, because they perform a real-time analysis of vulnerabilities responsible for a successful ransomware attack (e.g. the Windows Remote Registry service, if it is active on the PC).
Conversely, Avast Free asks you to select Directories, Folders, or Files to protect, so it appears to act as a Security Sandbox.
But any Sandboxe, to me, does not appear to work with a continuous real-time scan of its contents but is simply a box that locks its contents as in an impenetrable safe.
On the other hand, an example of anti-ransomware that works in real time without requiring the selection of objects to be protected ( but which, in this way, consumes a lot of CPU and RAM … ) is the free Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Home module.
My educated guess is that it would not, because Ransomware Shield still requires real time protection in order to actively monitor those folders. My understanding of Passive mode is that it essentially just stays dormant in the background to be used as a “second opinion” on-demand scanner, similar to the free version of Malwarebytes. I’m pretty sure the only active thing it’ll do in the background is update virus definitions, but even that I can’t say for sure.
That being said, I don’t know for sure as I haven’t used Passive mode that extensively. I put it on for a few minutes last year out of curiosity, and the only thing I remember is the icon turning grey and the four core shields being disabled and unable to be turned on. I didn’t check to see if the Ransomware Shield was also disabled.
I only use Avast Antivirus free version, so I can’t speak from personal experience.
However with what you have quoted, I would be inclined to say No, it won’t continue to protect Folders and Files from ransomware.
This is based on the quoted text “Passive Mode disables all active protection, such as Core Shields and Firewall, so you can use more than one antivirus program at a time without interfering with the performance of your PC or the reliability of antivirus detections.”
The anti Ransomware shield I would say has to be active to prevent files being modified, deleted or encrypted. See attached screenshot from my Avast User Interface, click to expand.