Getting rid of AVG's "Helpful" features?

May 1, 2007 1:43 PM

I've got a file (completely harmless) that my anti-virus program (AVG) sees as a security threat, and am now unable to open it. Is there any way to fix this?

The file itself is just a mIRC remote scripts file, and it isn't harboring any viruses. I can't actually open it or allow any other programs to read it, although using HijackThis to kill off some of AVG's startup processes allowed me to be able to move/delete the file. Uninstalling AVG isn't really an option since it's not my box, and I'd rather just figure out how to get the program off my back about this, as this isn't the first time AVG has declared this specific file to be a security threat.

posted by jimmy to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I have the same problem and there doesn't seem to be an 'ignore' feature. At least not one easily found. It's a royal pain to keep putting it back after every scan. If you don't use it often, put it in a password protected RAR or ZIP until you need it again. AVG can't scan in an encrypted archive.

(You may also want to let AVG know about it)
posted by IronLizard at 1:58 PM on May 1, 2007

Seconded letting Grisoft know about false positives - it's in their best interest to maintain the accuracy of their virus scanner - the chances are it heuristically matched a bot script and got marked as a false positive.
posted by rc55 at 2:11 PM on May 1, 2007

Ditch your antivirus program and run house call once a week (or month). Always active anti-virus programs hog system resources for no good purpose at the best of times, and then there are the problems (like you are experiencing).
posted by Chuckles at 2:33 PM on May 1, 2007

This must not be all that uncommon. My AV--the free one from AOL, by Kaspersky--keeps insisting that frieze.com (an utterly harmless add-on for the ancient PC PaintBrush for DOS, which I'm still giving houseroom to) is an imminent threat.
posted by jfuller at 6:32 PM on May 1, 2007