Creating scan reports in Avast Antivirus

You can set Avast Antivirus to generate scan report files after you run scans. Scan reports can be useful to identify a false positive or locate malware, and you may be requested to provide a report file when troubleshooting issues with Avast Support representatives. These reports will be included when you create a support file. The report file needs to be enabled for each scan individually.

To create a scan report, follow the steps in each section below.

Access scan settings

Open the Avast user interface to access scan settings:

• For Smart scan, go to Settings ▸ General. Click the downward facing arrow next to Smart Scan to expand the panel, then click Customize.
• For Full Virus Scan, go to Protection ▸ Antivirus and click the gear icon on the Run Full Virus Scan tile to open the scan settings.
• For all other manual scans:
  1. Go to Protection ▸ Antivirus and click the Other scans tile.
  2. Click the gear icon on the scan tile you want to generate a scan report for.
  The boot-time scan always creates a full report automatically after it is run.

Configure reported items

1. In the scan settings window, click the Report file tab.
2. Tick the box next to Generate report file to create a report of the scan results.
3. Manage the following settings:
   • File name: provide a name for the report file.
   • File type: select the format of the report file - plain text ANSI, plain text Unicode, or XML.
   • If file exists: select Append if you want new results to be added to the end of the previous report, or Overwrite if you want new results to replace the previous report.
   
4. Define the contents of the report:
   • Infected items: files and areas of the scanned environment which are identified as containing malware. This option is ticked by default.
   • Hard errors: unexpected errors which require further investigation. This option is ticked by default.
   • Soft errors: minor errors such as a file being unable to be scanned because it was in use.
   • OK items: files and areas which were identified as being clean. Ticking this option results in very long reports.
   • Skipped items: files and areas which the scan did not check because of the scan settings.
   
5. Click OK.

Run a scan

After enabling the Generate report file option with report contents and managing the scan settings, run the scan to generate a report file:

1. For Smart scan, use the instructions in the following article:
   • Running Smart Scan in Avast Antivirus
2. For Full Virus Scan, go to Protection ▸ Antivirus and click the Run Full Virus Scan tile. For more details, refer to the following article.
   • Scanning your PC for viruses with Avast Antivirus
3. For all other manual scans, go to Protection ▸ Antivirus ▸ Other scans, and click your preferred scan tile. For more details, refer to the following article.
   • Scanning your PC for viruses with Avast Antivirus

Locate a report file

Locate the report file in the following locations:

• Windows 10, Windows 8 / 8.1, Windows 7, or Windows Vista:
  C:\ProgramData\Avast Software\Avast\report
• Windows XP:
  C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avast Software\Avast\report

Submit a support file

When you have created the report, it will be included in the diagnostic support file which is created using the Avast Support Tool.

For detailed instructions, refer to the following article:

• Submitting a support file using the Avast Support Tool