User Guide

A V G 9 A nti-V irus © 20 10 C opyright A V G Tec hnologies C Z, s.r.o. A ll rights reserved. 35
8. AVG Components
8.1. Anti-Virus
8.1.1. Anti-Virus Principles
The antivirus software's scanning engine scans all files and file activity (opening/
closing files, etc.) for known viruses. Any detected virus will be blocked from taking
any action and will then be cleaned or quarantined. Most antivirus software also uses
heuristic scanning, where files are scanned for typical virus characteristics, so called
viral signatures. This means that the antivirus scanner can detect a new, unknown
virus, if the new virus contains some typical characteristics of existing viruses.
The important feature of antivirus protection is that no known virus can run on
the computer!
Where just a single technology might fall short of detecting or identifying a virus, Anti-
Virus combines several technologies to ensure that your computer is protected from
viruses:
· Scanning - searching for character strings that are characteristic of a given
virus
· Heuristic analysis - dynamic emulation of the scanned object’s instructions in a
virtual computer environment
· Generic detection - detection of instructions characteristic of the given virus/
group of viruses
AVG is also able to analyze and detect executable applications or DLL libraries that
could be potentially unwanted within the system. We call such threats Potentially
Unwanted Programs (various kinds of spyware, adware etc.). Furthermore, AVG scans
your system registry for suspicious entries, temporary Internet files and tracking
cookies, and allows you to treat all potentially harmful items in the same way as any
other infection.