Is Avast Antivirus Safe For Mac

Avira automatically detect and remove all these unwanted files and make your pc more safe. Avast Antivirus. For your personal computer protection avast is also best software. But at the level of profession Avast have limits but it provide best security from small unwanted files and viruses. Avast have been doing their thing for 20 years now. It has been a bumpy ride for the Czech company but now they are dominating. Just recently, Avast bought antivirus giant AVG for $1.3 BILLION dollars, granting them a huge market share. Avast are quick to boast about how good their services are.

Although we have used Avast Free Antivirus 2018 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.
Best free antivirus for Mac: Avast Free Mac Security Many antivirus suites provide a decent level of protection, but a few rise above all others by providing the very best in performance.

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

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‘.

Is Avast Antivirus Safe

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.

Avast Free Antivirus is one of the best free antivirus software programs you can download. It's a complete tool that protects against threats from the internet, email, your local files, P2P connections, instant messages, and much more. In fact, the 2019 version outdoes its competitors to a pretty significant extent.

With all of these features, you might wonder what you'll have to fork over to pay for it. Fortunately, Avast is completely free!

What We Like

On-access protection from viruses and other malware.
Includes a 'heuristics engine.'
Silent mode feature to hide alerts.
Long history of excellent virus protection.
Runs on Windows and Mac.

What We Don't Like

No commercial use (home/personal only).
Tries to install unrelated software.
Requires periodic registration (but it's free).
Shows ads within the program.

Avast Description: Important Features

Avast Free Antivirus includes fully functional antivirus, antispyware, and heuristics engines. There's also real-time protection of files, email, web surfing, P2P transfers, instant messages, and even suspicious behavior. It scans browser plugins, too, to find installs that have a poor reputation and may be malicious.

Wi-Fi Inspector scans your network to find vulnerabilities, such as identifying routers that are using default passwords and checking if your network is accessible from the internet.

A feature called Do Not Disturb Mode is included in Avast Free Antivirus which will block pop-ups while any program is in fullscreen mode, or while gaming or watching movies. This is great so that you don't see update or virus alerts while presenting something or playing a live game.

The Behavior Shield feature built-in to Avast keeps a constant eye on your applications to make sure they don't start to act differently, which could be a sign of a virus attempting to manipulate the software.

Windows 10, 8, and 7 (except Starter and RT editions) are all supported operating systems for Avast Free Antivirus. You can get Avast for Mac, too, and it's also free.

Yearly registration is required to continue use, but Avast Free Antivirus regularly updates malware definitions and the program itself to stay current against new threats.

Installation Issues: Pay Attention While Installing Avast

You'll be asked to install Avast's web browser or some other program or tool during installation. These additions are not required; just uncheck the boxes if you're not interested.

You're required to register Avast to use it for more than 30 days, but registration is free and pretty simple. You'll also have to re-register once each year, but again, this is free.

Don't Believe the Rumors: Avast Is Free

Some users have stated that Avast Free Antivirus is not free or that it's not a truly complete antivirus program. That's simply not true. Avast Free Antivirus is a complete anti-malware tool.

Some of the additional benefits you get from purchasing the Internet Security, Premier, or Ultimate versions of Avast are the firewall, VPN, privacy, and spam protections, but you can get those features free from other programs if you want them.

Is Avast Antivirus Safe For Mac

So yes, Avast Free Antivirus provides constant virus protection, also called on-access or resident protection, for free. This means that Avast Free Antivirus can completely replace antivirus software from companies like McAfee and Norton that charge for their software and for yearly access to updates.

Our Thoughts on Avast Free Antivirus

Avast Pro Antivirus Download

Avast Free Antivirus has been around a long time and is, overall, an excellent free antivirus program. It includes just about everything you'd ever want from an antivirus program, free or otherwise. Avast Free Antivirus is the only anti-malware tool you'll need on your Windows computer.

You can see how Avast's software compares with antivirus programs from other companies — in protection, performance, and security — from AV-TEST.