Protect yourself from computer viruses for free using AVG - Tutorial 2 - Threat detected!

Last updated October 13, 2010 2:26 PM

Just like its more expensive competitors, AVG is able to detect computer viruses as soon as they enter your PC. When AVG detects a computer virus, spyware or other malware, you will see a window like the one below:-

The first thing to remember when you see this window is "don't panic!". If you see this window, you do NOT have a virus infection; AVG has protected you against one. Let's now have a look at this window in more detail.

Just above the options on the window, we can see some information about the virus. The top line tells you which file is infected, while the bottom line tells you the name of the virus. You do not need to be concerned with this information unless you are an advanced user or IT professional.

Below this information there are four options. From top to bottom these options are: "Move to Vault", "Add To Exceptions", "Go to file" and "Ignore".

Clicking on "Move to Vault" will move the virus into AVG's "Virus Vault". This is the option you should choose to remove the virus infection. The Virus Vault is often called the Quarantine in other anti-virus packages. Choosing this option will remove the virus and cause AVG to put the detected virus in a safe, isolated area on your computer. You can then inspect it without risking further infection to your system. This is useful for IT professionals who want to inspect or disassemble computer viruses, but, if like the majority of users you just want to keep computer viruses off your system, you can just ignore the viruses in the vault, they cannot do any harm to your system in there.

Clicking on "Add to Exceptions" will ignore the virus infection this time and every time the same infection is encountered. Please do NOT use this option unless you are an advanced user and know exactly what you are doing. Clicking this option will allow the malware to remain on your system and start to infect it.

Clicking on "Go to file" will open a Windows Explorer window at the location of the infected file. This can be useful for IT professionals who need more information about the infection and where it is on the computer.

Clicking on "Ignore" will ignore this virus infection for the time being. Please do NOT use this option unless you are an advanced user and know exactly what you are doing. Clicking this option will allow the malware to remain on your system and possibly start to cause further damage.

Sometimes multiple infected files will be discovered at the same time, in which case the following window will be displayed:-

At the bottom of the window, you now have four options, from left to right the options are: "?", "Remove selected", "Remove all unhealed" and "Close".

Clicking on "?" will open the AVG help window, explaining more about each of the other options.

Clicking on "Remove selected" will send the selected infection to the virus vault. To select a specific infection, click on it from the list at the top of the window.

Clicking on "Remove all unhealed" will send all of the detected infections into the virus vault. this is the option you should normally choose.

Clicking on "Close" will dismiss the window and leave the infected files on your computer. Please do NOT use this option unless you are an advanced user and know exactly what you are doing.

If you make, or think you have made, the wrong selection:- If you think you might have made a mistake when dealing with the alert windows above, please use the scan computer function to check your computer for computer viruses. The scan computer function is covered in the next tutorial.

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