Help with AVG

Q: My programme is telling me that my AVG anti-virus is out of date. Do you need to come to look at it?

A: No, just launch AVG (double-click the AVG Free icon on your desktop) and then click on the great big 'Check for Updates' button and it will get any updates that you need automatically

Q: I am using AVG antivirus and it tells me I have seven viruses in my vault. Do I just leave them there or delete them? Scared to do anything in case they run rampant!!

A: Anything in the AVG virus vault cannot 'run rampant' and can be safely deleted. Launch AVG and then click on the button that says 'Virus Vault'. Right click any files in there and choose 'delete'.

Q: All may emails show that they have attachments, they have they paperclip alongside them. But they don't have attachments when you open them. I have run my toolkit but these paperclips are still appearing. Any help would be appreciated. I am using AVG AntiVirus.

A: The 'attachment' is just the notice from AVG saying that 'this email has been scanned by AVG and is virus free'. You can stop this from happening by changing the email configuration settings in AVG.
Launch AVG and go to the Control Centre; double-click the Email Scanner panel and click on 'configure' and remove the ticks from 'certify mail'. Click OK/apply and close AVG. Your incoming and outgoing email will still be checked for viruses, but you just won't get that annoying attachment!

Q: A balloon message comes up that says AVG antivirus database is out of date.already? You've only just installed it! What to do?

A: Update it! Antivirus software updates need to be done everyday, so if you didn't do it today already, then it is out of date
- Connect to your ISP
- click on AVG Free icon on your desktop
- click on the great big button that says ' check for updates'
If you don't update antivirus software everyday, then you're not protected... so, you need to do it every day.

Q: My computer has been slow to get going in the morning and has felt 'sluggish'. I finally 'worked out' why the red disk read light was on for an hour or two in the morning, it's the virus scanner. The virus scan has found 4 viruses, and I am ashamed to admit I don't know how to remove them. Does AVG remove the virus?

A: That's one of the great things about AVG - it just deals with them. If its found them, then its deleted them or healed them - all done, nothing else to do! You must be starting your pc up at around 8am? By default, AVG does a scheduled scan at 8am, and running a virus scan on your whole drive will definitely slow things down. You can change this to another time of day if that suits you better - go into the AVG control centre and change the settings in 'Scheduled Tasks'.

Q: AVG says it has found a virus in the System Volume Information folder and can't heal it. How can I remove this pest?

A: In the normal course of events, AVG will automatically sort out any viruses it finds. However,if the viruses are located in the System Restore folders, then it will have a problem removing them as this is a protected area of Windows and Windows won't let you do anything here. If so, then the thing to do is to disable System Restore. This clears out all the old restore points - and hence any viruses that may be lurking there. Once it has stopped, then re-enable the System Restore service again.
To do this, right-click My Computer and choose 'Properties'. Go to the 'System Restore' tab and untick the box and click 'Apply'. Wait - this takes a while - and when it has finished you can put the tick back in the box and re-enable System Restore. This should do the trick.

Q: When when I log on to my computer, a pop up box comes up stating that the AVG (or something similar??) scanner (i.e. the anti virus) has expired - I thought this had been set up?

A: It is a feature of Windows XP service pack 2 that you get these reminders. All antivirus software needs to be updated on a daily basis, so if it is not up to date, it will tell you! If you are online long enough, it will do it automatically. Otherwise you can connect to the internet and then double-click the AVG Free icon and within AVG, click on 'Check for Updates'. If you don't use your computer every day, then you are most likely going to have to do this manually. Antivirus software needs updating every day - otherwise there is no point in having it!!

Q: Do we need to install a firewall? If so would that be the combined AVG anti virus/firewall or is it not necessary?

A: If you are on dial-up, then there is no need for a firewall; if you have Windows XP, then this already has a firewall; and, mainly, as long as you have AVG, Ad-Aware and SpyBot and run scans with these regularly, then you will be picking up & removing the beasties that a firewall would alert you to. Firewalls only alert you to a problem on your pc - they don't remove them!
Have a look at: http://www.samspade.org/d/firewalls.html for some interesting information. If you really, really really think you need a firewall, then make sure you get a free one (eg ZoneAlarm) but, be warned, they are complex and complicated and you will spend many hours in frustration with them.... Not for the faint-hearted or the computing novice...

Q: I am having a problem updating the AVG. When I dial up it comes back after 2 attempts saying request time out, could not be completed, update server connection was interrupted. I have tried this a number of times over some days and it still wont connect, yet I can get emails and connect to Xtra etc using explorer. Any ideas

A: Sometimes the AVG server gets very busy. If too many people are downloading at once, you will have 'trouble connecting to the (AVG) server' (which is not Xtra). Just try again - maybe at a different time of day than you have been so far.

Q: I am having a problem with the virus protection on my computer: that red shield comes up and tells me that my computer is at risk because the virus protection is not up to date. But then when I go to the internet site to update, I am told that there are no new virus protections available, and my computer is up to date. However, the nasty scary red shield persists, with virus protection in the "off" position (and no way that I can see to turn it back on). Any ideas?

A: This is a feature of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 - it is rather overzealous in its security settings!
Click: Start> Settings > Control Panel
and double-click the 'Security' applet in the Control Panel.
When this launches, on the left hand side there are three sentences, one of which says something lilke 'Change the way Security Centre alerts me'. Click on that and in there, remove the tick next to the security alert for anti-virus software.
Then it won't bother you again!
(but ensure you keep your anti-virus software up to date!)

Q: What is a Virus?

A: A virus is a manmade program or piece of code that causes an unexpected, usually negative, event. Viruses are often disguised games or images with clever marketing titles such as "Me, nude."

Q: What is a Worm?

A: Computer Worms are viruses that reside in the active memory of a computer and duplicate themselves. They may send copies of themselves to other computers, such as through email or Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

Q: What is a Trojan Horse?

A: A Trojan horse program is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application; a Trojan horse program purposefully does something the user does not expect. Trojans are not viruses since they do not replicate, but Trojan horse programs can be just as destructive. Many people use the term to refer only to non-replicating malicious programs, thus making a distinction between Trojans and viruses.

Q: I have been using Norton Anti-Virus for many years and regularly update my virus definitions. However, I noticed that my computer was getting very slow and I was advised that removing Norton might help. It did!!! Worse yet, I then installed AVG anti-virus and ran a full scan with that - and it picked up 448 viruses on my computer that Norton had never found (mostly the W32.Bagle virus). I thought Norton was a good product - but now I'll never use it again.

A: You were given good advice! AVG anti-virus is a very good program indeed - and it has yet one major advantage over Norton. It is $130 cheaper, and there are never any demands for renewals of subscriptions at $60 a year. Its amazing that people would want to use Norton at all. Your virus infestation does not top this record though - I had a customer recently who had 863 viruses on his computer!!! Most of these were the Netsky Virus and its variants.

Q: I recently uninstalled Norton anti-virus from my computer because I got annoyed with the way it always ran a scan every time I opened a Word document on an Excel spreadsheet, always slowing down the opening of anything I was trying to work on. To my amazement, even after I had uninstalled it, Word was still 'requesting a virus scan' from Norton even though Norton is not there. I have tried uninstalling Word and re-installing it, but it has made no difference at all. How can Norton be affecting Word in this way when it is not even on the computer?

A: Clearly, it is still on your computer!!! This is another annoying thing about Norton Anti-Virus. When you uninstall it from Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel, it doesn't actually completely remove itself from your system! If you look in Windows Explorer at the Program Files, you will still see various folders there for Symantec and Norton Anti-Virus. Worse still, it has still left itself all over the Windows Registry and it is from here that it is affecting how Word operates. The only way to deal with this effectively is to go into the Registry and manually remove all mentions of Norton and Symantec. This is not a project for the feint-hearted and should not be attempted by anyone who is not familiar with the Windows Registry. Moreover, it should only be attempted by someone who has a great deal of patience - there are dozens and dozens of entries for Norton there and it takes about an hour to remove them all!!!!

Q: Our virus detector (AVG) has detected Trojan horse dialer virus on a file called c:\-restore\temp\a0011021.cpy .It was recommended to "move to virus vault" clicked on that and then it said file can not be removed. Then it says test finished and 1 virus is still on drive. What should I do now? I am using windows ME.

A: The virus AVG has found is in one of the system restore files - which are protected by Windows. To remove the virus, you have to disable System Restore, which deletes all the saved system restore points, and hence the virus. This is what you have to do:

- right-click on 'My Computer' and choose 'Properties'
- click on the 'Performance' tab and then on the button that says 'File System'
- on the next little screen, click on the tab that says 'Troubleshooting' and put a tick in the box which says 'disable system restore'
- click OK and close this box
- reboot the computer (as it asks you to do)
- once restarted, run a full scan using AVG antivirus
- when completed, reboot the computer
- right-click on 'My Computer' and choose 'Properties'
- click on the 'Performance' tab and then on the button that says 'File System'
- on the next little screen, click on the tab that says 'Troubleshooting' and Untick the box which says 'disable system restore'
- click on the 'System Restore' icon and create a new restore point (called 'Virus Free' or something) & click Close
(so that you have a new backup point - you deleted all the others!)

Q: I have got the same problem, but I am using Windows XP. What do I do?

A: Right-click on 'My Computer' and choose the 'System Restore' tab
- put a tick in the box which says 'turn off system restore'
- click OK and close this box & reboot the computer
- run a full scan using AVG antivirus
- when completed, reboot the computer, right-click on 'My Computer' and choose the 'System Restore' tab & undo the tick that disabled System Restore and click 'OK'
- click on the 'System Restore' icon and create a new restore point (called 'Virus Free' or something) & click Close

Q: I replaced Norton Anti-Virus with the free edition of AVG antivirus. It is scheduled to perform an automatic check daily at 2000 hrs. Currently it shows a list of checks and says "No viruses found". I then click on 'Detail Info' where it lists the files and under status it says " Cannot open - Not checked". Question:- does the computer have to be (a) switched on, and (b) on line for this daily check to be carried out ?

A: Yes, the computer has to be switched on - NO computer program can work if the computer is not on! No, it does not have to be on-line or connected to the internet for the scheduled scan to run. It only has to be online when it collects the latest virus definitions updates. By default, AVG runs a complete test of every file on every drive on your computer when it runs the scheduled scan. As long as your computer is on at the time the scan is scheduled to run, it will have done one every day since it was installed. If your log file lists less scans, then your computer most likely was not on at the time the scan was scheduled (by default this is 8pm). Either, leave your computer on at 8pm or change the time in the scheduler to a different time of day. If the Test Results say 'No Virus Found', then there are no viruses on your computer. There are some files that cannot be opened /scanned; I guess you have Windows XP and the files not scanned are things like ntuser.dat. This is perfectly normal, perfectly safe and absolutely nothing to worry about.

Q: AVG is running a scan every time I start my computer. How can I change this?

A: The setting that configures AVG to scan on start up is in the Scheduled tasks
- launch AVG
- go to AVG Control Centre
- click on the Scheduled Tasks box
- in there, double-click the Scheduled Scan and you will see that there is a tick next to 'scan at startup if scheduled scan has been missed'
Untick that and this will go away!