Active Protection usability issues (redesign required)
The active protection is a valuable feature, but it tends to get "in your face" at times, though I suppose a price that's a price you have to pay for added vigilance and increased security.
There's one thing that needs fixing ASAP. In the "Manage permissions list" dialog, at the bottom there can be lots of "suspicious processes" listed, I've had well over 100 such processes at times.
I'm really surprised that there's no quick and easy way to remove safe processes from this list. What's urgently needed is the ability, for each supposedly suspicious process in the list, to move that process to the "trusted" list. The best way would be by right-clicking on a process and selecting an option that designates it as a trusted process. Please add such a function iin the next update.
Another disappointing thing, from a usability perspective, is that you cannot resize the columns in the process list so as to view at a glance the full an application's details (the full path string).
In reply to The best way would be by… by truwrikodrorow…
I totally agree, Michael, dragging would be an easy and time-saving method to move a process to the "trusted" list.
In reply to I totally agree, Michael,… by truwrikodrorow…
A decent interface would offer both options. But Acronis is not alone among software houses in paying too little attention to the user interface.
Tony, please either submit Feedback directly to Acronis using the tool in the GUI for this, and/or open a Support Case with them for your suggestions for design changes.
See also KB 60193: Acronis True Image 2018: Active Protection blocks legitimate applications for how Acronis expects these issues to be handled in the current design.
In reply to Tony, please either submit… by truwrikodrorow…
Yes, I've seen and responded to a relatively small number of those "Ignore for one hour" situations, but got a little annoyed when one day there were well over 100 applications listed in the "Suspicious processes" list.
It was with all these processes (as I said, more than 100 of them on one day) that I longed for a simple way to whitelist them. I dod NOT want to have to go through the slow "Add" process for so many apps, so I hope that Acronis will make life easier by enabling a simple way to whitelist apps directly from the "Suspicious processes" list.
Sure, I should have gone down the Support ticket pathway to request the enhancement, but I also wanted to put my observations in the user forum to get feedback from other customers had the same experience as mine and get a feeling as to whether they agreed with me or not.
Hello Tony Austin , Michael Kenward,
Thank you for the suggestions! I have forwarded them to our lead designer. We will see how we can make the Acronis Active Protection Dashboard more user-friendly.
Tony & Michael...thanks for your suggestions & comments. I agree that the AAP Dashboard needs to be more user-friendly.
Renata...thanks for forwarding to the lead designer.
One question that I have is: What is the definition of "Suspicious process"? Is this a process that has not been "signed" or has the process performed an event or activity that is suspicious, such as reading the ATI data in the Windows Registry, or writing an encrypted file?
One Comment: There are certain activities that are prohibited, even if the process is "white listed"...for example, deleting a .tib file is always prohibited and will always generate the "allow for one hour" warning.
@Tony...100 suspicious processes seem extremely high. The most I have seen is 4.
Regards,
FtrPilot
In reply to Tony & Michael...thanks for… by truwrikodrorow…
I wonder if Tony is seeing another defect in the UI. It threw me.
My permission list shows 3 suspicious processes. But looking below that it says Show all 245 processes. As currently positioned, and worded, that could mean suspicious 245 processes
Making that read "Show all active 245 processes" might make it a bit clearer, at least for dullards like me.
I agree about the definition of suspicious processes. It might help if the UI told us a bit more.
Michael, I suspect that you may be correct here. If Tony really does have 100 processes listed as Suspicious that really would suggest a problem, but if he is looking at link shown below the Suspicious process list box, i.e. on mine "Show all 142 processes" then that is simply an indication of the activity in the computer at that time, and clicking on that link just opens the Windows Task Manager to show that system activity.
Perhaps a rewording as you suggested, or one of the little (?) icons at the end of the line to link to more information on what this is actually showing!
The "Show all xxx processes" brings up task manager...
In reply to The "Show all xxx processes"… by truwrikodrorow…
Only if you know what that means.Once again the UI could make life simpler:
Show all xxx active processes in task manager.
Not that difficult.