AVG Antivirus
Viruses are currently being created at the rate of around one per day and the lifecycle (or deathcycle!) of a virus goes something like
- It is created
- Someone finds and reports it
- Antivirus software suppliers develop an antivirus measure
- You download that measure onto your computer
Even if you’ve got an antivirus product installed, between steps 1 and 4 you have a machine which could get infected by the virus!
What is AVG?
AVG is a free version of a very reliable anti-virus program produced by Grisoft (free.grisoft.com). It sits in the background and prevents viruses getting onto your machine by email, infected files or any other means, however, in order that it can provide proper protection, it must be kept up to date.
Anti virus programs work mostly by having a database or dictionary af virus definitions. This instructs the program how to recognise all the viruses and how to deal with them It is this database which needs to be kept up to date.
You can tell the database age if you double click on the AVG icon at the bottom right of your screen to launch the AVG Control Center and click on the Anti-Virus component then look at the details shown on the screen.
How do I update it?
This is done manually by running the AVG control centre (double click on its icon at the bottom right of your screen. This is a square of small yellow, black, green and red squares) and select the Update Manager component.
While you are connected to the internet, press the Update button. If there is anything new to download, it will update your system for you, however, if you've not been keeping up to date, you could already have been infected by any new viruses and so you should do a complete system scan as soon as possible.
To do this, right click on the AVG icon and select Launch AVG Test Centre. The screen which appears has a button marked Scan Computer which you simply press and wait. It could take quite a while; many minutes or even over an hour, depending on the size of your disk and age (slowness!) of your machine.
How often should I update it?
Constantly! Look at it this way. If a new virus is found, do you want to be protected against it? Since new viruses are being found on almost a daily basis it follows that you ought to check for updates as often as you use the internet. If there’s nothing to update then the process should return quite quickly, having nothing to do. If an update exists, then you want it!
Fortunately AVG has a built in facility which tries to keep your machine up to date for you. If you run the Control Centre and select the button marked Scheduler you'll see another button marked Scheduled Tasks. Press this and you'll see that by default, AVG has set up a scheduled task to update your definitions. It also sets up a similar task to scan your computer regularly. You can change the times when these are set to happen but even if your machine is not on when it's supposed to do an update, it will try to do it at the next opportunity. If it asks to be allowed to do so then you should allow it unless there is a reason why not, in which case it's a good idea to do a manual update as soon as possible.
What if it finds a virus?
If a virus is found in a file, its action depends on the type of virus. Many files can be cleaned (disinfected) without damage to the file, that is the virus code can be removed, leaving the file intact.
For some viruses this is not possible and the file will be moved to the Virus Vault. This is like the recycle bin except that it is safe; the virus can’t do any harm but it does mean that in extreme circumstances you could get the file back (complete with virus).
