User manual

www.grisoft.com
Copyright (c) 1992-2006 GRISOFT, s.r.o. All rights reserved.
AVG Anti-Virus Free
12
6. AVG Virus Vault
The AVG Virus Vault application is a safe environment for management of suspect
or infected objects detected during AVG Free scanning.
Once an infected object is detected during scanning, and AVG Free is not able to
heal it automatically, you are asked to decide what to do with the suspect object.
The recommended solution is to move the object to the AVG Virus Vault for
further treatment.
Viruses can be detected by any of various AVG Free components, such as
Resident Shield and E-mail Scanner. Viruses can also be found when running a
test from the AVG Test Interface or even when using Windows Explorer.
6.1. What should I do when a virus is detected?
Whenever AVG Free detects a virus, we recommend that you try to heal the
infected object as the first option. When AVG Free is unable to heal the virus (this
may occur for any of many reasons, including the distortion of the original file by
the virus) use the next alternative – move it to the Virus Vault. The last option is
to delete the infected object (which is often the virus itself).
6.2. Why can’t every virus be healed?
In order for a file to be healed, it must be returned to exactly its original form!
Because of this, not all files can be healed. The reason for this is that some viruses
do not infect the original file but rewrite it, or they create copies of themselves. As
such, it would not be possible to re-acquire the original form of the file (it would not
be complete or would not exist at all once the virus is removed) or to ensure that
the functionality of such a "healed" object was as intended in the original (e.g. in an
executable program). In these cases, the only possibility to ensure that your data is
protected is to remove the infected files from the (hard) disk and, when possible,
restore the original file from your back-up.
6.3. What should I do with an unknown virus?
When AVG Free has designated a file as being suspicious or as being infected by an
unknown virus, you can e-mail the file to Grisoft (
[e-mail]). You can do so
directly from the Virus Vault. Use this e-mail address to send files that you suspect
of containing a virus, even when AVG Free has not detected any viruses. For
additional help concerning viruses, please consult the FAQ section on the Grisoft
Website at
www.grisoft.com.
6.4. AVG Virus Vault Environment
Every detected infected object should be moved to the Virus Vault. Within the
Virus Vault you can explore the object, delete it, or heal and restore the object if
the cure has been implemented already. Also, you can send the object to the AVG
Free vendor for in-depth analysis. The Virus Vault offers a review of objects that
have been detected as suspicious or infected, and provides this information about
them: object status (infected / cured), object type (object / back-up), virus name,
object’s original location, date and time of the object’s detection, file name, and file
size.