New generation of virus defenders How to eliminate viruses In the
virus dictionary approach, when the antivirus software looks at a file, it refers to a dictionary of known viruses that the authors of the antivirus software have identified. If a piece of code in the file matches any virus identified in the dictionary, then the antivirus software can take one of the following actions: attempt to repair the file by removing the virus itself from the file, quarantine the file (such that the file remains inaccessible to other programs and its virus can no longer spread), or delete the infected file. Although the dictionary approach can effectively contain
virus outbreaks in the right circumstances, virus authors have tried to stay a step ahead of such software by writing "oligomorphic", "polymorphic" and more recently "metamorphic" viruses, which encrypt parts of themselves or otherwise modify themselves as a method of disguise, so as to not match the virus's signature in the dictionary. An emerging technique to
deal with malware in general is whitelisting. The regular
appearance of new malware is certainly in the financial interest of vendors of commercial antivirus software, but there is no evidence of collusion. [2] Some
antivirus software can considerably reduce performance. Users may disable the antivirus protection to overcome the performance loss, thus increasing the risk of infection. For maximum protection, the
antivirus software needs to be enabled all the time — often at the cost of slower performance (see also software bloat). It is important to note that one should not have more than one memory-resident antivirus software solution installed on a single computer at any given time. Otherwise, the computer may be crippled and further damaged.[3] It is sometimes necessary to temporarily
disable virus protection when installing major updates such as Windows Service Packs or updating graphics card drivers. Active antivirus protection may partially or completely prevent the installation of a major update. When purchasing antivirus software, the agreement may include a clause that your subscription will be automatically renewed, and your credit card automatically billed at the renewal time without your approval. For example,
McAfee requires one to unsubscribe at least 60 days before the expiration of the present subscription.[4] In that case, the subscriber may contest the charges with the credit card issuer, but this recourse is likely to fail if in fact the subscriber had authorised such a "continuous payment authority".
Norton Antivirus also has a default setting that includes the automatic renewal of your subscription. [5] Some antivirus programs are actually spyware masquerading as antivirus software. It is best to double-check that the antivirus software which is being downloaded is actually a real antivirus program.[6] Some commercial antivirus software programs contain adware. For example, the home/small business version of
Anti-Virus 2008 displays an advert for CA products whenever the desktop is unlocked after a period of inactivity. Most widely-accepted
antivirus programs often do not detect
newly-created viruses. This can be verified by making a program with destructive code in a language like C++