Open Your Avast and go to Scan Overview. Open your Avast from the Windows tray or the program menu. Go to section ‘Protection‘ and select ‘Antivirus‘. From the tiles select the middle one saying ‘Run Full Virus Scan‘ and click on the clock icon as shown on the screenshot below.
In very rare cases, Avast may detect and block some programsor website pages as a virus, although you know for sure it’s safe. These wrong detections are called false positives. If such false-positive detection prevails after the virus definitions update, you may want to exclude the detected software or website from the Avast scan.
This is a perfect fix when Avast is blocking one of your favorite programs, but you still want to run/allow it. In the past, Avast was blocking some of the most popular software (Steam for example) for a short period of time. To be fair false-positive detection happens basically to every antivirus on the market, it’s not just Avast.
Anyway, we strongly recommend scanning the file/webpage also through some other virus engines to make sure it’s really clean. For this, you can use a free online scanner VirusTotal. Sometimes you may think the file/URL are safe but they are actually infected and it’s not just Avast which is detecting them.
Quick Summary
- Make sure the blocked file or webpage is not malicious by testing it at www.virustotal.com
- Add it as an exception by going to Settings » General » Exclusions
- Confirm by clicking OK
Read more detailed steps and other options including screenshots below.
In this guide, you will learn how, but we strongly suggest using exclusions only when you’re an advanced user. There are three basic types of exclusions/exceptions in the Avast Antivirus 2019:
- Global exclusion list of the folder/file/program/application from being scanned at all
- Global exclusion list of the website/URL from being scanned at all
- Exclusions in the specific shield (File System Shield, Mail Shield, or Web Shield)
Global Whitelist – Exclude Specific Folder/File/Program/Application from All Avast Scans
If you want to add the exception for the specific website, domain, or URL from being scanned by Avast, follow these steps. This is so-called Global Whitelist or Exclusion List.
- Open the Avast user interface and go to ‘Settings‘ » ‘General‘
- Find the tab ‘Exclusions‘ and add specific programs to the ‘File paths‘ tab
- Added applications and/or paths will now be excluded from any Avast scanning
Adding File/Folder/Program Exception into Avast 2019
Avast For Mac Where Is The Detailed Report Template
On the screenshot above you can see that application ‘FileZilla FTP Client‘ and ‘DAEMON Tools Lite‘ are excluded. Such exceptions also apply to all sub-folders on these folders as we have used ‘/*’ in the path.
Global Whitelist – Exclude Specific Website/URL from All Avast Scans
If you want to add the exception for the specific Avast shield, follow these steps.
- Open the Avast user interface and go to ‘Settings‘ » ‘General‘
- Find the tab ‘Exclusions‘ and add specific websites or URLs in the ‘Urls‘ tab. Please note ‘http://’ will be added automatically, so if you want to exclude Yahoo, just type yahoo.com. Please note you need to differentiate between ‘http://’ and ‘https://’
- Added websites/URLs will now be excluded from any Avast scanning
Adding Website/Domain/URL Exception into Avast 2019
On the screenshot above you can see that URLs ‘https://www.gmail.com‘ and ‘http(s)://.gmail.com‘ are excluded. Such exception also applies to all pages on these domains as we have used ‘/*’ in the path.
Add Exception for Specific Avast Antivirus Shield (File System Shield, Mail Shield, or Web Shield)
If you want to add the exception for the specific Avast shield, follow the steps further.
- Open the Avast user interface and go to ‘Settings‘ » ‘Active Protection‘
- Select the shield (File System, Mail, or Web) for which you want to add the exception, and click on ‘Customize’ link
- Find the menu item ‘Exclusions‘ and add the item you want to exclude from scanning by the specific Avast shield. You can also specify when the exclusion applies (for reading, writing, or executing)
- Please note that global exclusions are always applied although they aren’t listed in the specific shield. Also please note a lot of items are listed there by default
Adding Specific Shield (File System, Mail, or Web) Exception into Avast 2019
On the screenshot above, you can see many items are excluded from the File System Shield scan by default. We haven’t added any of them.
[IMPORTANT] Restart All Avast Shields to Make Exclusion Work
After you successfully add the file or webpage to exclusions you need to actually restart all Avast shields to make it work. Otherwise, Avast will keep detecting and blocking it as a threat.
- Find Avast icon in the Windows system tray (click on the top arrow)
- Go to ‘Avast shields control‘ » ‘Disable for 10 minutes‘ » confirm
- Go again back to ‘Avast shields control‘ » ‘Enable all shields‘
Restarting All Avast Shields From the Windows System Tray
Now Avast should stop detecting the added files/URLs in the exclusions. You can also simply just restart your Windows.
Report a False Positive Detection to Avast
We also strongly suggest reporting the detection you believe is a false positive directly to Avast team. They will look into it and eventually confirm the reported file, software, or website is clean.
Link to report is included on every in-product pop-up displayed when the harmful webpage or file is blocked. Just click on ‘Report the file as a false positive‘.
Avast Web Shield Has Blocked a Harmful Webpage or File Pop-up
Then you need to fill-in following simple form. In the additional info, you can add a link from VirusTotal scan. Don’t forget to check the option ‘I know what I’m doing‘ and click on ‘Submit‘.
Avast In-product Form for Reporting False Positive Detection of Files or Websites
Alternatively, you can use the official web form for reporting false positive detection.
Official Avast Web Form for Reporting False Positive Detection of Files or Websites
Additional Notes
Although we have used Avast Free Antivirus 2019 screenshots in this article, these steps are also applicable for all Avast Antivirus solutions (i.e. also for Avast Pro Antivirus, Avast Internet Security, or Avast Premier) running the latest version available.
Steps are relevant for all Windows versions – Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 (including Anniversary Update).
Managing exceptions or turning off Avast protection may leave your computer at risk.
Today's best Avast Free Mac Security deals
Avast Free Mac Security doesn't break a lot of new ground. As is the case with most free software, it does an OK job and — like popular free-to-play games — aims to pull money from your pockets after it's installed.
The one major perk of Avast Free Mac Security is that it can identify attacks in your email inbox, a feature that we'd like to see in all Mac antivirus services. At the end of the day, though, Avast's Mac malware protection rate isn't quite as good as its competitors', which is the most important part of antivirus software.
Avast Free Mac Security costs and what's covered
Avast Free Mac Security is free. It supports Macs running any version of macOS, as long as they have 128MB of RAM and 750MB of available disk space.
Antivirus protection
Avast Free Mac Security keeps Macs free of malware using traditional signature-based detection by unpacking Mac-specific file formats and scanning them for malicious content. It also uses its artificial-intelligence system to apply lessons from its user base to train its software.
Avast also thwarts PC malware on Mac, to prevent it from spreading on networks, and scans unopened ZIP files. It performs system protection scanning in the background, permits both on-demand and scheduled scans, and can scan your router to protect you against DNS hijacking and other threats.
Antivirus detection
Avast Free Mac Security's on-demand malware-scanning engine has a mixed record in recent lab tests. It stopped 100% of malware in tests conducted by Austrian lab AV-Comparatives in July 2018 and June 2019.
Results from German lab AV-Test were less consistent: 100% of Mac malware was detected by Avast in June 2018 and June 2019, but Avast caught only 96.3% of malware in December 2018.
That means Avast tied with Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac and Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac on the AV-Comparatives test (both hit 100%). However, it failed to match Bitdefender, Kaspersky and Norton 360 Deluxe on the AV-Test study, in which all three earned 100% scores.
Of all the Mac antivirus programs we tested, Avast Free Mac Security was the only one that flagged items already on our system as threats. Specifically, it found three email messages in my old, inactive, Outlook database that contained links to phishing websites.
Security and privacy features
Avast Free Mac Security includes Avast's Online Security browser extension, which automatically installs itself in Chrome unless you opt out, while Firefox provides a confirmation prompt to make sure you approve the extension. The Avast extension appears as a button that is green when you're safe and red if a site is potentially harmful. Similar flags will appear next to search results.
If you're wary of sites that monitor your actions, the Avast browser extension also displays a counter badge that tallies the number of activity trackers found in a website and provides an additional option to block social network-based tracking.
Not only does Avast scan activity on your hard drive and web browsers, but it also monitors POP3 and IMAP email clients, including Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Postbox and Airmail, and scans email attachments as well as email messages.
Avast monitors your computer and its network connections in the background, scans new files upon installation and lets you schedule scans. However, Avast Free Mac Security doesn't have any of the extra features offered by paid competitors, such as parental controls, a VPN service, firewalls or webcam blockers.
Performance and system impact
Avast Free Mac Security had a moderate impact on system performance, which we assessed by running our custom Excel VLOOKUP benchmark test, which matches 60,000 names and addresses on a spreadsheet. Our test machine wasa 2017 MacBook Air with a 1.8-GHz Intel Core i5 CPU and approximately 54GB of data stored on a 128GB SSD.
With Avast Free Mac Security installed on our MacBook, but without any active scans running, the VLOOKUP test finished in an average of 3 minutes and 38 seconds, 1 second longer than without any antivirus software installed. That's a passive system hit of less than 1%, and not something you would likely perceive.
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Other antivirus products' passive system impacts ranged from 5% (Sophos Home Premium) to zero percent (Bitdefender). This is overall great news for Mac users: Most of the time, you'll never notice that you've got antivirus software running.
You would be more likely to notice the slowdowns created by Avast's active scans. During full-system scans, the VLOOKUP test finished in an average of 4 minutes and 59 seconds, resulting in a big performance dip of 37 percent. That's not as bad as McAfee AntiVirus Plus' 47% fall (the worst offender), although it wasn't as good as Sophos' 7% full-scan system hit.
Avast's full-scan completion time, which took an hour and 11 minutes on average, was on the longer end of scores but was not the longest we found — Sophos' 2-hour-and-56-minute time was the longest. Malwarebytes for Mac Premium's full scan took a miraculous 16 seconds, while Bitdefender closed its full scan in 4:25. Kaspersky (41:20) and Norton (25:49) fell in the middle of the pack.
Interface
Avast Free Mac Security may not be the prettiest antivirus app, but it provides a number of functions and options. Its main window shows users a Protected status, as scans are enabled by default. All other features, including on-demand scans, are located in a menu bar on the left.
Avast's main window presents users with their status — Protected or otherwise — and a 'Run scan' button that pushes you to Avast Cleanup Pro. You'll be confused by this abrupt switch of apps if you weren't paying attention to the fine print, and you'll soon realize that Cleanup Pro is a paid product that looks to tidy up your hard drive and costs between $2.99 or $3.99 per month.
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After you click that Run scan button once, it changes to an Upgrade button for Avast Security Pro, which features anti-ransomware protections and Wi-Fi and network scanning. To avoid further confusion, click on Scans in the left-hand menu, which opens that section as well as other sections of the app, such as Reports, Virus Chest, Shields and Preferences.
In Scan, you can select from a number of different types, such as scans of custom directories, scans of removable volumes and scans of your home network. Avast also includes scheduled scans, an increasingly rare option these days.
Clicking on New Scan presents a Start button for activating a Quick Scan and a Change Scan Type button to switch to a full-computer scan.
You'll find database updates and analyses of scans performed on your system in Avast's Reports. Avast places files it flags as malicious into the Virus Chest quarantine section, where you can delete or restore them (if you think Avast is mistaken).
Open the Shields section to see real-time analysis of scanned files. Annoyingly, if the file directory is especially long, Avast won't give you the full directory, so you can't go look up the offending file for yourself. You may not need to, but we'd prefer to have the option.
In the Preferences tab, you'll find options to change the frequency of notifications, system updates and scans. Here, you can also disable hard-drive, email and web protection, although Avast wisely makes you enter your system password first. Additionally, you can disable Avast's menu-bar icon from this window (it's under Miscellaneous).
If you create an account with Avast, you can check the status of any systems you've logged into in the Account tab as well as at my.avast.com. Avast's menu-bar button provides links to open the main interface window, see current activity and application information, and review previous notifications.
Installation and support
To install Avast Free Mac Security, you open Avast.com and click Download, which will place the installer DMG on your Mac. (Thankfully, you won't have to go through download.com anymore, an annoying part of the previous model.) After you click through the end-user-license agreements, the installer will download more files and install Avast.
No restart is required, and the whole process took about 2 minutes for me, which felt about normal. In the middle of the installation, you get the option to not install Avast's unlimited Password Manager and the company'sSecureLine VPN client. The Avast Online Security browser plug-in is free, but you get only a seven-day trial of SecureLine VPN service, which otherwise starts at $60 per year.
To get technical support, click Help in the menu bar, select Avast Technical Support and then select Contact Help to open Avast's Support site. Here, you can find a FAQ, ask for help in the forums and call a customer-support line that will provide free advice for installing, configuring, updating and removing Avast.
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If you need more help than that, Avast offers paid support starting at $79 for any call that isn't related to removing a virus or malware, or at $119 per call for virus-related calls. For more support, you can spend $199 for a year of unlimited service, or $10 per month plus a $99 setup fee.
Bottom line
Avast's email scanning gives it an edge over competing Mac antivirus products. It needs such an advantage when the rest of its package is such a mixed bag.
Not only does Avast's software continually push you to spend money on additional services (unlikely if you've already chosen to use free antivirus software), but its malware detection rates aren't great overall.
If you're going to pay, you should instead choose Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, which gives you excellent protection and a low system impact for $40 a year. If
Avast For Mac Where Is The Detailed Report
you'd rather not pay, then Avast is the best free option, but only because Sophos Home, which has a more full-featured free tier, has undetermined malware-protection abilities on Macs.