Is there any way to turn off "suspicious connection blocked" notifications
Answers
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For the moment there is no option to disable all popups.
If you mean there is no way in Bitdefender then that's obviously a problem with Bitdefender. If you mean there is no way in Windows, that is obviously not the case; most programs do not create notifications. Bitdefender should join their ranks and stop producing notifications. We do not need to be notified unless Bitdefender needs to be given immediate guidance (block or not block). If we want to see what Bitdefender is doing for (or to) us we can look in the Bitdefender GUI's "Notifications" tab. Those are the only notifications we need. No popups!
And slightly off-topic, the "Data breach" alert should (optionally, I guess) be sent in an email, not presented as a popup.
Bitdefender was not my first choice in security packages - my first choice is the Russian competitor, but I choose not to use Russian products at the moment. Bitdefender's treating users as children makes me think I made a wrong "second choice".
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I am going to chime in just because I believe the more people that complain about the notifications issue, the more likely Bitdefender will give the people what they want.
I want a way to disable all the annoying pop-up notifications that tell me Zoom used my mic or webcam, that a "suspicious connection" was blocked, and that tell me to use this or that product - I paid for this product and don't appreciate the ads. I work in IT security and if I need to know something, I know where to look. What I don't need are four million pop-up notifications that persist until I click them away. Like some of the others in this thread, I will not be renewing my license if I don't have a way to control ALL notifications.
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I am going to chime in just because I believe the more people that complain about the notifications issue, the more likely Bitdefender will give the people what they want.
That's the same reason I spoke up, but I suspect that if all of us complaining were to switch to another product Bitdefender would never notice, and if it noticed it wouldn't care. It probably loses more "subscribers" to death each year than it could lose from dissatisfied customers. Bitdefender will go its own way regardless of our complaints.
(BTW, I'm not known for my overly optimistic outlook.)
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Yeah, sorry, I mean that there's no option currently in BitDefender.
I know this is not exactly what you are looking for, but for disabling the specific microphone/webcam notification, you can do that in the interface - Privacy - Video & Audio Protection - Notify when ...
Again, sorry for the inconvenience regarding the popups. We are aware that it is not something the users like and we are trying to improve this system. Unfortunately, I cannot give an exact timeline for which this will be solved, but I am hopeful that we will make it work soon.
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Glad to read that improvements in this area are in the works.
I agree that BitDefender's notifications for blocked threats are the worst among many security apps I've tested. It reminds of the old web when popups were everywhere, and closing them again and again wasn't helping. It annoys me more than it makes me appreciate bitdefender or improve my habits.
When I hire a bodyguard to take care of my security, I don't want him to call me everytime he's doing his job.
However, I might be interested in scheduled recaps of the threats I'm encountering online, example:
A notification each X weeks (where X default is 1 but can be modified [up to 4]?) leading me to an informative panel with informations & advice like:
"We've identified a blocked X threats [nature of the threats] on [this website] over the past X week(s). We advise avoiding this site and find an alternative, or use it with extra caution."
"We've completely blocked [this website] X times because it's infamous for [nature of the threat]."
"We've removed X dangerous files from your computer. We advise being more cautious with the files you download or copy from external sources."
The icon in the windows task bar could indicate the number of threats blocked, like adblockers, or just a unique warning animation encouraging us to go check the notification panel when we feel like it.
Any of the suggestions in this thread would improve the QoL for BitDefender day-to-day use, really.
Looking forward to see the improvements for this system.
Happy new year!
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I recently visited what turned out to be a very sketchy web site that immediately tried to install an unwanted program over 60 times. Bitdefender blocked this activity but then proceeded present a notification popup for (I assume) each one of the occurrences. The popup would stay for 10-20 seconds; then the next once would appear. Each popup stole focus when it was presented. Clearing Bitdefenders Notification log did no good; the log was cleared but the popups continued. So I rebooted.
Bitdefender's behavior provided no information that a user could act upon and the repeated stealing of focus caused major disruption of ongoing user activity. I find it hard to believe that Bitdefender designers see this as anything other than an irritation. It certainly shows they live in a different universe than I do.
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The same issue, this is too damn annoying! I'm seriously starting to regret switching to BitDefender.
I can't understand why are they being so obtuse about it. Giving the user an OPTION to log that message, but disable the stupid popups seems like a no brainer to me.
I got so sick of this crap, that I disabled the whole encrypted scan feature. Good job BitDefender!!!! /S
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After literal years of frustrated users, this problem persists. I'm working from a Hilton right now and none of "solutions" put forward by Bitdefender work at all. Every approach is just a waste of time, particularly because gratuitous changes to the UI mean that you have to search all over just to find the same buttons, only to find that they do no good whatsoever. Bitdefender just constantly spams messages saying how wonderful it is for blocking suspicious connections.
These are not informative messages that can be acted on in any way. They don't say which connections are suspicious or in what way. They don't explain how the user could protect themselves. (Well, if you dig in there is a bogus suggestion to turn on Bitdefender's VPN, but that doesn't solve the problem, and neither does using a third party VPN.) They are nothing but useless self-promotion: "Look! Bitdefender is doing something great for you!"
Is Bitdefender actually doing something useful? Doubtful, but even if it were, it is making the computer unusable, so it might as well just turn off the network connection entirely because as long as you are connected, your computer cannot be used.
The one thing that actually worked for me was what was suggested by SamRNSA over a year ago:
Bitdefender, please fix this bug.
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Kindly check on below stated link by bitdefender support
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2471/
If issue persists,
Generate bitdefender BDsysLog: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1922/
Generate bitdefender support tool logs: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1733/
Generate bitdefender connectivity logs: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/9689/
Share the logs & your query with bitdefender support team by dropping them an email at bitsy@bitdefender.com
If the generated logs are larger in size, you can upload the logs to google drive or we.tl (7days link validity for free users) or ask the support team to provide you with the online link & password of bitdefender cloud where you can upload the logs and share the upload link with the support team.
The support team will reply back to your query within next 24-48 hours excluding weekends.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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Hi @Dean Hougen,
If the instructions from the article shared by @Flexx do not solve the issue, you can always get in touch with the Support engineers for advanced troubleshooting. Alternatively, you can temporarily disable the Encrypted web scan feature. Although it is not a recommended action, it will supress these notifications until their trigger is found.
I hope the information is helpful.
Regards
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Disabling the "Encrypted web scan" feature is not at all the same as disabling the notifications. While there are probably some users that need to disable the feature because of false positive actions, most of us are complaining about the context-stealing notification pop-ups. If Bitdefender can provide the option to turn on/off monitoring functions it could certainly provide an option to turn on/off notifications.
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Of course, this is just a temporary workaround and not a proper way to disable such notifications. I understand that some of them are stealing focus and for this reason, the product teams are reviewing the pop-up mechanisms to improve the way they are displayed.
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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The way "to improve the way they are displayed" is to give us the option to not have them displayed at all! We don't need to be reminded that Bitdefender is doing what we've paid for it to do. If we really want to know, we can look in the Bitdefender GUI's Notification display. We don't need any popups ... whether they steal focus or not. The only function they serve is to cause irritation and (speaking only for myself) prompt me to look for alternative products.
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I don't believe that we are almost in 2024 and Bitdefender still don't get that people want Antivirus to work in background without no one even noticing it there.
And as a programmer, I really can't see why in the world we still don't have a global option to just disable absolute ALL popups.
The most annoying part is that those popups take the windows focus. Not only the user focus but the actual application focus. Cause even more issues if you are running anything in Fullscreen.
Two of the most annoying ones, this one about connection blocked, especially now with Microsoft edge new annoyance with the expired certificate, that literally pops every 5minutes. And no, adding exceptions to make it stop is not acceptable, if one will add exceptions to stop notification, better off not installing any antivirus.
And the other one about updates where it has to disable the antivirus module, so its popup an "Important update in background, blablabla, restart computer".... wtf....
And no, don't say it is possible to disable, because it is not. I have all notifications disabled, silent mode enabled, all update notifications disabled and yet still, from time to time I get that an important update is in progress.
Complete agreed with pokeefe0001, it is so damm annoying that it make me consider any other product on the market right now.
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Hello @pwaksman,
I have replied to you on another thread:
If you are refering to the update notification, I will do my best to provide some clarification regarding this notification as well.
In newer versions of Windows, shut down or sleep is no longer equal to restart, due to performance considerations of the operating system. So unless the user explicitly restarts the system, he would no longer be able to replace the update files as he used to do before - that's about what was wrong with deferring service restarts until the machine is restarted the way they used to be. That's why this flow appeared, so that we can allow updates to be carried out when necessary and ensure the devices are restarted properly.
However, there are plans to improve this notification flow as much as possible and the developers have addressed some areas already, but I cannot say what will change and when, at the moment.
As the notification says, Bitdefender services will restart. This means that Windows will give the user a message that he is no longer protected in the few seconds that Bitdefender services stop and start. It is important, however, that the user sees this pop-up from Bitdefender before seeing the message from Windows, because otherwise it will seem like there is a problem with the antivirus, so that's why it was necessary to focus on this message.
Generally speaking, I think notifications are an important feature of most respectable antivirus vendors and you will find that they are present in most security solutions these days. It would be interesting to see how they compare, but as far as Bitdefender is concerned, operation or detection notifications are considered to be of utmost importance to the user.
Regards
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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+1 vote to turn of the annoying "suspicious connection blocked". These messages take the focus away from my current application and interrupt what I am doing. This is *very* annoying. Please stop it or I will look for a better, less annoying product.
Thank you.
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I totally get it why this the way it is right now, the issue is, it take the windows focus out, and the user should still be able to disable such behavior, even by giving a giant warning "by disabling this message you won't see this and that blablabla", but still give the user the ability to make it behaves as the user wants.
A even more simple approach, just add a simple symbol at the system try icon like Discord, Slack and any other app that works at systry level has.
Totally agree as those message being the set to enabled by default and all that, but let the user decides how the notification should shown up. Taking the system focus to a new windows is annoying and taking the user focus is also annoying.
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I have spent the better part of an hour trying to disable notifications a few times. It is really dumb that there isn't an option. When I am gaming it disconnects my controller then I have to use the mouse to click x and hopefully I do it quick enough to not cost my squad anything, or just die in general while I am trying to game. It's also very annoying that it pops up when I am watching something and I have to get to my mouse and click x when I am leaning back enjoying a movie or show. How can we not have an option by now to turn pop ups off?
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Hello @BlewideScorpio,
Bitdefender does provide options to customize your notifications preferences. Below I have included a detailed list of notification settings.
Open your Bitdefender program and go to:
- Settings -> General and disable "Special offers" and "Recommendation notifications".
- Protection -> Antivirus -> Settings -> Scan flash drives and select "Autoscan" or "Disabled", do not select "Ask every time" (for the "USB Immunizer Recommendation" notification).
- Privacy -> Safepay -> Settings and disable "Safepay notifications".
- Privacy -> Video & Audio Protection -> Settings and disable "Notify when allowed applications connect to the webcam", "Notify when an application tries to access the microphone" and "Notify when browsers access the microphone".
- Utilities -> Profiles -> Settings and disable "Activate profiles automatically" (for the Profile notification).
After doing that, in the future no pop-up notifications will be displayed in the lower right corner of your screen.
Keep in mind that, whenever a threat is detected, a pop-up notification will be displayed in the lower right corner of your screen and these notifications cannot be disabled in settings. To find out how to stop the 'suspicious connection blocked' notification, click on this article:
Also, if you are gaming, the Game profile is life-changing:
Let us know how it goes.
Regards,
Alex
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Regarding:
"Keep in mind that, whenever a threat is detected, a pop-up notification will be displayed in the lower right corner of your screen and these notifications cannot be disabled in settings."This is exactly what we - at least some of us - are asking to disable. We don't need nanny BitDefender telling us what a good job it's doing. We can look at the BitDefender Notifications tab if we're interested.
Stop making BitDefender irritatingly intrusive!
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I'm saying I want pop up notifications to stop entirely. It tells me every little thing 3-4 times per hour. Has nothing to do with my webcam or USB. I want an option that says pop up notifications on or off. And I want to press it off so hard. I will hit the notifications off option with a sledgehammer thats how bad I want notifications to go away. I have 55 days left on my paid service and then I will be moving on. People have been mentioning this for over a year. Just let us turn pop up notifications all the way off. we do not want to see them. we want an option to make them go away and we have been saying for over a year that we want an option to turn them off so that we do not see notifications pop up at all. A simple option. No notification pop ups. none. zero. we understand it is saying that it is doing something. we are saying we don't want to be notified
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Hello,
Whenever something relevant to the security of your system or data happens, such notifications play a key role in raising awareness of the events happening on the device and send assurances that the product is operating as expected. Options may be provided to take further action, if needed. Being a security product by design, it does not have a toggle to disable security-related notifications completely, as this would defy the whole purpose of having an interactive antivirus that provides feedback and alerts the user of any potential threats or attacks coming their way.
Furthermore, having such a feature could pose a risk for the more inexperienced users and may lead to unwanted security events or vulnerabilities. Taking all possible risks into consideration, but also technical implications involving the whole architecture of the solution that would require significant modifications, the security researchers and developers have decided that the antivirus will not have a kill-switch for security-related notifications.
If, however, there is an unexpected and unnatural behaviour in the way the notifications are being displayed (and by this I mean a threat that is successively triggering a particular notification several times in a row), this is entirely a different story. The solution is not to disable the notifications entirely, but to find the root cause and see what threats are triggering the notification, to what extend and frequence, establish if there are any imminent dangers and address them and of course fix the unwanted behavior of the notification in the process.
If you are trying to disable a security notification instead of finding and resolving the trigger, it's like hiding the dirt under the rug or putting a sticker on your engine management light whenever it comes on.
I hope my explanations bring more clarity and insight and I am thankful for your understanding.
Regards,
Alex
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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I understand. I still want the option. Maybe you guys can understand that an issue being brought up for 2 years should probably have a solution
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This is not considered to be an issue, because the alerts were designed to work this way and there isn't an option to silence them completely. But there are ways to suppress them, for example you can enable the profiles:
When using the Game profile, all Bitdefender alerts and pop-ups are disabled.
Please understand that although a silent feature has been frequently requested by users, it cannot be implemented due to security concerns and because the antivirus needs to communicate with the user in the event of a possible threat.
Thanks
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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I don't game but I'm in agreement that the pop-up notifications shouldn't take focus away from everything else. They are very disruptive and happen SO OFTEN that it's frustrating. Customers have been asking for a way to disable notifications for a very long time. It sounds like there is no intention of changing the product so I'll probably have to look for an alternative when my subscription ends. Life is too short to subject myself to the level of frustration the notifications cause all day, every single day.
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Know what's even more infuriating? After I uninstalled and did away with bitdefender because of this ongoing issue, no matter how many times i unsubscribe from this discussion it continues to email me every single reply 🤬
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well spacecoyote I'm done anyways. Maybe even 5 more years they will understand that people wanting an option is in fact an issue, and your emails will stop
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Alexandru_BD said:
Please understand that although a silent feature has been frequently requested by users, it cannot be implemented due to security concerns and because the antivirus needs to communicate with the user in the event of a possible threat.BitDefender chooses to treat users like children that need their hands held. Some other security packages don't feel such need. And, if I understand what was stated earlier, BitdDefender apparently feels that gamers can forego such obsessive-compulsive nagging but people doing real work cannot. This makes no sense.
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Yeah Pokeefe, I only brought up that it disconnects my controller while gaming because it is super anoying. Then I mentioned how it interrupts other things. He only focused on the gaming thing with his condescension. It is definitely a horrible feature. But there is obviously no solution being considered so I won't be renewing. I'm done here
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Yes, it would at least be informative if the notification said "Blocked Website xyz.com from attempted [brief indication of category of dodgy behaviour]." At the moment, as I recall, if you have several tabs open (or several browsers on the go!), and indeed several applications running, then the only way to find out is to open BD's main GUI and check the log there.
https://www.bitdefender.com/media/uploads/2017/07/suspicious-connection-blocked-bitdefender.png
If the notifications are going to be shown, then providing more pertinent information in the notifications would help the user quickly see whether to close a certain tab or to ignore/quickly dismiss the notification without bothering to waste even more time checking the log.
Technically there might be some complication if (say) application Firefox has loaded website xyz.com which in turn is running suspicious JavaScript hosted on abc.com. In that case, if possible, BD should preferably notify that the action is related to website xyz.com, because that will be most informative to most users. (Full details in the log.)
On the other hand, if (say) application AcmeTool has been compromised and is trying to connect to dodgy host abc.com, then it's probably more informative to most users to notify that the action is related to the AcmeTool application/executable. (Full details in the log.)
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I agree. If the notifications did not take operating-system focus, then it'd be easier for users to ignore. By contrast, I am thinking vaguely of notifications that emails have arrived: I think I've seen tooltip-like email notifications that fade after a few seconds (customisable), and also changes to the icon in the System Tray. Those types of more 'subtle' notification should be sufficient for many users if BD is doing its job well.
Personally, I think there should be a closer look at which notifications are likely to need user action. If a website tried to install malware and BD blocked it, then it doesn't really require user action. If BD is performing an update in the background, then that shouldn't require user action. By contrast, if BD finds an infected file and needs to ask the user whether to delete it or not, then it's fine to take focus to ask this. If the system needs to be rebooted to finalise an update, then it's probably OK to take focus to ask this (perhaps once every 24 hours?), because user action is required. Webcam use is, for me, a bit of a grey area: perhaps it needs explicit user approval, or perhaps(?) it could be skipped if the webcam usage is associated with a user-approved application.
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I notice some correspondents indicating confusion as to why gamers are given special dispensation, and mentioning that they aren't gamers themselves.
Maybe you could create a new profile (copy-and-paste of the Game profile), and call it, e.g., Power User profile or Focussed/Intensive Work profile. That might partly address some of the confusion and lack of adoption of the Game profile by people who aren't gaming.
Or change the name of the Game profile to Quiet profile, say?
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Hi @spacecoyote,
This happens due to the forum notification settings. Click on your profile in the upper right hand corner of your screen and go to Account & Privacy Settings. There, select Notification Preferences and disable the ones you no longer require, or disable them all. You can be notified by a pop-up or via email, depending on these preferences.
Let me know if you still get notifications after unchecking those boxes.
Regards,
Alex
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Hello @DIVERSE,
The Game Profile was just an example of a workaround for this. The Work Profile will do the same thing, it will silence alerts and pop-ups. It's a convenient way to suppress such notifications, but again, this will not make the root cause go away. Remember that this is a temporary solution and it's important to address the underlying cause of the notifications. Suspicious connection blocked notifications are triggered by the Online Threat Prevention module, more precisely by its Encrypted web scan component. Bitdefender’s Online Threat Prevention module may alert you when you try to visit a secured website (HTTPS) with an invalid security certificate. It tends to be websites with lots of ads, such as news websites, and analytics companies with an expired certificate trying to establish a connection. Turning the Encrypted web scan feature off will also disable the associated notification, but obviously this is not a recommended action.
Such notifications were the subject of a detailed review back in 2023 and this is still ongoing. The developers have already made some adjustments to streamline this pop-up mechanism, especially because the pop-up can steal focus if a dangerous connection attempt happens continuously. For example, whenever the browser constantly connects/redirects to a dubious website that has certificate issues either through allowed notifications or toolbars/extensions. If it's constantly pushing to connect to a page that's considered dangerous, the detection may return a pop-up for each attempt and this is what has been addressed so far.
It is essential to continue to log events for each incident, but limit the amount of pop-ups that get displayed, regardless of what's being blocked. The actual problem, as reported by many users, is that these notifications interrupt user activity and steal focus by being too frequent, since a pop up may be triggered for every dangerous connection attempt, which in some cases can happen continuously. To better explain the causes and provide fixes for this, the below guideline was made avaiable, so that users can address the issue and suppress this notification.
But if all we look for is an ON/OFF button to make the notification go away, this won't solve the actual problem...
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Hi @BlewideScorpio,
I'm sorry to hear you feel this way, it was not my intention to sound condescending, on the contrary. The purpose of my previous message was to provide a workaround, since this type of security alert cannot be disabled using a traditional method of configuring preferences. It's not only the Game profile that may prove useful, but also the Work profile. These were just workaround examples.
Apart from the proposed solution which I have shared with you because I wanted to help you, I have also provided more context in relation to this type of detection, highlighting the importance of addressing the notification trigger. Otherwise, even if you change your antivirus provider, you may end up in the same situation, only the pop-up window will have a different color. During my support years, I have discussed with users who were frustrated because of the notifications, changed their security provider only to find out that they were displaying notifications as well, because there was obviously a problem which they chose to ignore, hoping that switching to another software would solve it.
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Hi @pokeefe0001,
In my above comments I have indicated that both the Game and Work profiles may be useful in this scenario. A security software, especially an antivirus must be designed for both advanced users and less tech savvy users as well, to meet overall requirements.
Not communicating with the user whenever a possible threat is coming their way might put people at risk, and then what happens? They will perceive the antivirus didn't do its job properly, because it didn't notify them when needed.
I think we need to consider the bigger picture here. There are also less tech savvy users who rely on these notifications and can have peace of mind because they know their security solution will notify them when something's wrong. Not everyone can distinguish a fake website from a real one and not all of us are experts. Not communicating security alerts may also create the perception that the software isn't working properly, or that it isn't doing anything at all. So, then you will have the other category of users who wish to stay informed knocking on your door asking why isn't the antivirus alerting them. You see where I'm getting here?
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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I alluded to this previously, but to make it more explicit here: the default duration that the popups are on screen (and steal focus) is much too long.
I got these today
The upper box is quite large, and includes a button with progress-bar colouring. It felt as though it was on screen for 30 seconds. That could just as well be an eternity. Only from reading this thread did I realise that it eventually goes away automatically — usually I dismiss it after a second or two.
30 seconds is much too long as a default for such trivial, routine (repeated) messages that don't require any use action. The default for such messages could reasonably be cut to five seconds. (For users who want to see them at all.)
I would argue that the above shouldn't need such an aggressive notification method at all. (It could be handled by a slight adjustment to the icon shown in the System Tray — superimpose an hourglass, say.) Imposition of such notifications should be reserved for problems that actually need the user's attention & action. E.g. "Your BitDefender databases are 1 week old: your computer's security could be at risk until updating is complete." (The user can reflect on why the update didn't occur for the past week, and perhaps avoid visiting certain websites until the updating is done.)
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Hi @Alexandru_BD, I think you are just repeating some PR reply in this thread and not answering the question properly.
If you say
I have indicated that both the Game and Work profiles may be useful in this scenario, tell people how to enable that profile 24 7.There are also less tech savvy users who rely on these notifications and can have peace of mind because they know their security solution will notify them when something's wrong
People in this forum post aren't necessary "less tech savvy users", isn't it? We are 100% okay with that notification being on by default so "less tech savvy users can have peace of mind". But WHY not give an option for the "more tech savvy users" to have a toggle deep into the menus to turn some of the less important notification off. The "less tech savvy users" will probably not care about googling the option to turn notification off and that option will then be designed for the "more tech savvy users".
Don't tell me the designer cannot design a toggle that is very hard for "less tech savvy users" to find/toggle.
This issue has been ongoing for years since the update and personally, I have ditched bitdefender basically because of the notification issue. The only reason I see the bitdefender team not adding the toggle isn't because of security but stubbornness/laziness of design team.
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@jasonycw -I absolutely agree! Anyone "tech savvy" enough to set an option to disable these popups would also know enough to look in BitDefenders notification log if they are unable to access intended web sites. (If it is only unintended web sites that are blocked then nobody needs to be notified.)
All these notification do for the tech savvy is provide irritation. If that is BitDefender's goal then they have been successful. If I live past Putin's reign in Russia I will definitely go back to using one of the Kaspersky products.
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