Current KIS is extremely intrusive

[lostn]

Every time an app runs, KIS asks for my permission at least 20 times for the same app, and there’s no way for it to remember this for the next time, especially if I use VPN. This is absolutely ridiculous and I can’t find any way to turn this off. So I end up disabling KIS altogether.

 

Another annoying thing is, every time you insert a USB drive, it will automatically start scanning it and a window will popup. You have no option to disable this, and the window doesn’t know how to close itself, so after a while you have about 10 windows of scans that you have to manually close.

 

This is absolutely ridiculous and I have a year left on my sub, but I want to switch now because the current KIS is unuseable. It’s ok if you give options to disable these annoyances but you keep taking options away.

 

Downgrading back to 2019 build (called 2020) does not make these problems go away.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @lostn,

Welcome!

• 🅰

The USB issue is known to Kaspersky, @Igor Kurzin, is advising Kaspersky subscribers “ if (they) submit a ticket to technical support, please let me know the number, we will add to the corresponding suggestion?”, reference topic raised by @RRisk - Annoying popup every time I put in a removable usb media. How to DISABLE the popup?

@Igor Kurzin - the known USB issue is clearly a bug, it should not be regarded as Feedback - Suggestion. Kaspersky needs to fix it rather than making their customers do so much extra work. 

• 🅱

1. Is Perform recommended actions automatically checked? 
2. Is the VPN, Kaspersky or another? 
3. In KIS, does the VPN have a Trusted application status? 
4. Does “Every time an app runs, KIS asks for my permission at least 20 times for the same app” issue happen with every installed app? 
5. Have you reset KIS to default, powered the device off, on & rechecked? 
6. Have you reinstalled/clean installed KIS 21.2.16.590(b)? 
7. May we have an image of the “KIS asks for my permission” issue? 

Please post back?

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳 +🐋

[lostn]

Is Perform recommended actions automatically checked? 

No. And I also have Web AV and File AV set to Low, which still doesn’t reduce the annoyances.

Another annoyance is that every time you approve an action, or change a setting, a pop up asks me to confirm this selection, and how long should I wait before needing you to confirm an action again? The maximum is 30 minutes. So after 30 mins, if I want to approve an action or change a setting, I will need to confirm it again as if I’m some moron who doesn’t know what they’re doing. How about a setting for Forever? Don’t ask me to confirm an action again.

 

Previous years of KIS were fine. I have used KIS since 2012. It’s only a few months ago that they jumped the shark.

 

Is the VPN, Kaspersky or another? 

Another. Every time I turn on or off the VPN, or change server, I have to go through the entire rigamarole again. And I do this daily, sometimes many times a day.

 

In KIS, does the VPN have a Trusted application status? 

No. But the problem isn’t the VPN itself. The problem is that KIS thinks I’m in a different country now, and everything needs permission again because it doesn’t believe I’m on the same computer. Even if I “go back to” the previous country I was at (i.e. VPN off). Also, I shouldn’t have to be manually adding trusted applications. I shouldn’t be doing it at all, but at the very least it should give me an option to say “trust this application forever and don’t ask me again”.

 

Does “Every time an app runs, KIS asks for my permission at least 20 times for the same app” issue happen with every installed app? 

Yes, the same app. An app typically performs a lot of actions, and KIS wants me to approve every single action. It even happens to apps that are purely offline. But no, not every app. I’d be spending my whole life approving applications if that were the case.

Does this not happen to you?

 

Have you reset KIS to default, powered the device off, on & rechecked? 

No. I can’t see how this would help. But after a clean install which would be set to default, it already started doing this. I had to turn every slider to Low, and it doesn’t make a difference. BTW, disabling KIS does not stop the USB scanning, which means it’s not actually disabled.

 

Have you reinstalled KIS 21.2.16.590(b)? 

That is the current build I’m on, but I didn’t reinstall it. Strange that this is the build.

I actually tried going backwards to previous years thinking this was introduced in the 21 build and that didn’t fix it either. Looking at KIS tutorials for similar problems, they showed screenshots of settings on how to disable annoyances and I have found that they took away these options in later builds.

For example, with “Action on Threat Detection” my options are

• Ask
• Block Download
• Notify

How about an option for Ignore?

 

And for File AV, the same “Action on Threat Detection” my options are:

• Ask User
• Disinfect: Delete if disinfection fails
• Dinsinfect: Block if disinfection fails
• Block

So again, no Ignore option?

 

May we have an image of the “KIS asks for my permission” issue? 

I have KIS disabled right now, but I will check back with you the next time I enable it and will take a ton of screenshots. Most days I have protection paused until restart, meaning I’m not even using what I paid for.

 

I can’t in all honesty understand how the coders of this program thought that these are the kind of changes that users want to see and would not get annoyed with the constant badgering for permissions. A default setting should be as invisible as possible. Only a genuine threat should require your attention.

 

Thanks for your response, but I think by the end of this year you’re going to see a massive wave of unsubscriptions. I won’t be using it as it stands, and all my family who I recommended KIS to I will also be recommending something else for. You guys dropped the ball in the 21 build. You have to be tone deaf to think that this is what users want. For 8 years I used this product without complaints and loved it enough to switch all of my family members to KIS, but build 21 was a boneheaded move.

 

BTW, the link to the USB scanning thread didn’t provide a solution. Disabling “check for removable devices” does not stop that pop-up.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @lostn, 

Thank you for posting back👌

You’re most welcome☺ !

1. The Community is made up of users of Kaspersky software (like you) , all volunteer their time, to help other Community members (like you). There's a small team of Kaspersky employees - all of whom are clearly identifiable, bc, their profile shows "Kaspersky Lab Employee". We have no association with Kaspersky, whatsoever. 
2. We agree with you, (ioo), v21 has way too many problems, is poorly designed, has not been thoroughly tested and should not have been commercially released so Kaspersky subscribers end up doing all the testing, that should have been done by Kaspersky & whomever does their beta testing. 
3. Correct, Ignore is required, not the first time having Ignore added to various components of Kaspersky applications, has been raised. 
4. Correct → times available for Confirm this selection, also needs work. 
5. The USB link was as FYI, not solution: to share with you the USB issue is known to Kaspersky, there’s more than one topic that’s been raised on the subject. It needs to be fixed. 
6. So, with Removable drive scan toggled OFF, you’re still getting the pop-up? Is that correct? 

    

7. With Perform recommended actions automatically unchecked, you’re telling the application, you will manage everything manually: 

If the check box is cleared, the main application components work in interactive mode. This means KIS asks you to decide which action to take on detected objects and threats - if the Ask user option is selected in the settings of File Anti-Virus, Web Anti-Virus, Mail Anti-Virus, System Watcher, and Application Control. If the check box is selected, KIS automatically chooses the action based on rules defined by Kaspersky experts.

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳 +🐋

[lostn]

This is what I have to do each time I run League of Legends. Many of these messages are exactly the same, but I have to do it multiple times. It’s just unuseable.

 

Every time an app updates itself (some of them auto update), again it is recognized as a new app and I have to give about 10 approvals.

 

Telling it to “remember my choice for this application” does not do anything. It will still continue asking.

 

The last time a firewall asked me to approve anything or grant an app access to the internet would have been the early 2000s. Firewall/AV coders realized more than a decade ago that this behavior is annoying, unwelcome, and unwanted by the users. I don’t know why you would go back to this in late 2020.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @lostn, 

You’re most welcome!

1. What information is available when Additional actions is selected? 
2. Why is it Low restricted?
3. Do the alerts persist if  Perform recommended actions automatically is checked? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳 +🐋

[lostn]

The Community is made up of users of Kaspersky software (like you) , all volunteer their time, to help other Community members (like you). There's a small team of Kaspersky employees - all of whom are clearly identifiable, bc, their profile shows "Kaspersky Lab Employee". We have no association with Kaspersky, whatsoever. 

I see.. so they even outsource their product support to paying customers? Nice.

 

So, with Removable drive scan toggled OFF, you’re still getting the pop-up? Is that correct? 

I’m using an older version of the front-end so it looks different than your screenshot (they change the settings every year). I have a screenshot below of my version of the settings.

 

I can’t use the latest front-end. When I installed that, it blocked a lot of sites they deemed “naughty” but aren’t. This was also when I noticed the annoyances described in the initial post, so I went back to the v20 front-end, thinking it would undo all the newly introduced changes. It did stop KIS from blocking those sites and at first the USB scanning problem did not return, but eventually when the client updated itself those v21 issues were introduced to my v20 client. But at least it’s not blocking those sites. I’m staying on this build, but in all likelyhood will uninstall KIS for a different product.

 

With Perform recommended actions automatically unchecked, you’re telling the application, you will manage everything manually: 

That sounds good in theory, but the options given to you for managing it are very limited. I had tried every and all combinations of settings and it doesn’t help.

 

You think the build was rushed out before being tested extensively? Maybe, but I don’t know if that explains everything. They introduced new changes that weren’t there before, and that has to be a conscious decision, not a matter of we didn’t have enough time to get it working. The removal of the Ignore option when it detects false positives was a conscious decision. They took the nuclear option when it comes to protecting us without regard to what the user prefers.  For computer illiterate users this might protect them best. But if someone knows what they’re doing, and knows an app is safe and trusted despite what Kaspersky thinks, they should be given an option to allow it and not be asked again.

 

In the 7 screenshots posted above, a lot of them required me to approve the exact same action from the exact same app multiple times which is baffling.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @lostn, 

Thank you for replying. 

Log a case with Kaspersky Technical Support. 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳 +🐋

[lostn]

An app I used just auto updated itself. I had to approve what it was doing 12 times. Unbelievable. Here’s the screenshots.

 

If you read what these screenshots say, the reason I have to approve it is because even though the app is trusted, it is “possible” that it could be being asked to perform this operation by a restricted app. So because something is “possible” I have to approve absolutely everything just in case. Who thought of this idea? This is excessive. Imagine if a kitchen supplies retailer required you to present a license every time you buy a knife because it’s possible that the chef’s knife can be used to stab someone. And now imagine the same with forks, because it’s possible you could poke someone with it.

 

Log a case with Kaspersky Technical Support. 

I don’t have much hope they will do anything. They’ll say it’s a problem on my end, ask extensive questions and be unable to locate the cause of the problem, not care, and it will end up being all for nothing.

 

I think I’m just going to switch to another antivirus.

 

P.S. I missed one of your posts. I will check on that soon. Thanks again.

[Berny]

The Community is made up ...

Additionally about the Community structure :

Within the valuable team of Kaspersky employees there are Community ADMINS as well as the Community Managers,

and beside - as volunteers - also the Moderator Team that is collaborating closely to assist all Community Members.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

To the Moderator team.
Hallelujah!
A peek into the inner sanctum. 

• For the purpose of providing information to the OP, we did not know we had to split hairs and also say: "Within the valuable team of Kaspersky employees there are Community Admins, as well as the Community Managers".
• How would any garden variety Kaspersky Community member (which we happen to be), know there's such a thing as Kaspersky employees, employed as Community Managers?
• Our statement covers the very valuable Kaspersky employees, performing the role of Community Admins. 
• Unless we’re sadly mistaken, our statement even covers the very valuable Kaspersky employees, performing the role of Community Managers. 
• The only way we even knew Moderators were volunteers, was, when a very kind Moderator shared the information with us; before we were “enlightened”, we were of the belief Kaspersky Community Moderators were Kaspersky employees!
• Our statement covers the very valuable Moderators. 
• Instead of expecting all of us so poorly informed Community members to know, why not amend the Community FAQ, it’s the perfect place, it makes no mention of the various roles performed by the very valuable Kaspersky employees:

qte
"Community help is provided by Kaspersky Lab employees and by other participants of the Community." 
unqte

Also, we did not say "The Community is made up", that implies the Community is fake. 

We actually said "The Community is made up of... etc... " 

✨Happy New Year✨ to Kaspersky employees, Community Admins, Community Managers, Community Moderators & the Kaspersky Community, we’re stoked it’s off to such a scintillating start. 

@lostn, 

Regarding: “ they even outsource their product support to paying customers? “ 

How you came to that conclusion, from our advice, we cannot fathom.

If by “they” you mean Kaspersky? No. 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳 +🐋

[lostn]

Berny,

 

Thanks and sorry that you didn’t get the recognition you are due. My message is more for the Kaspersky development team than the moderators and admins, but if the K dev team is unaware that the choices made in the most recent (v21) build of the client were bad choices, they have lost touch with reality. You can get small things wrong but the removal of vital settings is a conscious decision and not an oversight. That thought that any user should have to approve one application’s operation 12 times is lunacy and I hope whoever thought of that idea was just an intern.

I’ll be uninstalling KIS which I consider to be a form of malware in itself in the coming days. I hope you get your house in order some day. More viable security apps is better than less.