Confused by AVG

Discussion in 'Malware Help (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by a_needy_1, Aug 16, 2008.

  1. a_needy_1

    a_needy_1 Private E-2

    This afternoon I was running an AVG 8.0 virus scan as I do everyday and today it came up with 30 warnings. There were no infections, and no spyware, but 30 warnings. Most of the warnings were Adware.Generic but 4 were Adware.TitanShieldAntispyware, 1 was Adware.NewDotNet and one was Adware.Isearch. The reason that this confuses me is that the only thing out of the ordinary that I did in the past day was install UT3 and I have seen none of the symptoms of spyware, eg. my computer is running at normal speed, there are 50 processes running currently, a normal amount for me, and I see no popups, I have access to task manager, the start menu, and all websites I have tried. I use both WOT and SiteAdvisor and have not been to any unsafe sites in the past several days, and cant remember the last time I used IE. BTW, all of these warnings are found in an activeX directory. My question is, does this sound mostly like a bunch of false positives, as yesterday AVG found nothing, or should I carry through with the malware removal process in the pinned posts. Also, if you guys want me to upload my avg log, can you tell me where it is located?
     
  2. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    DO you have SpywareBlaster installed? if so then AVG could be finding its ActiveX list of blocked items in its scans, this did happen a while back, would have thought Grisoft may have fixed this by now.

    Some info on this from Wilders


    But make sure if you do have SpywareBlaster or even Spybot that you update both applications to latest versions, also its very possibel that if they are all in same location ( especially if this location HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\ ) that its false positive from AVG and maybe fixed in next virus definition update.
     
  3. a_needy_1

    a_needy_1 Private E-2

    No, I do not have spyware blaster, but I do have spybot 1.6.0 with teatimer running, if that is any help. Also, I just tried to run UT3, the game I just installed, and since AVG moved those files to the virus vault, it always displays an error message.
    <Edit>
    Oh, sorry, I just read the last line of your post after I posted, and your right, they are all in the location you stated. Does this mean that AVG is attacking spybot, because I have had spybot 1.6.0 installed for a week or two and nothing of the sort has happened until yesterday. Also, if they are a false positive, will the AVG update automatically release them for me or should I release them before my next scan. Finally, could this have anything to do with UT3?
    BTW thank you very much for helping me.
    </Edit>
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2008
  4. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Grisoft used to have a blurb posted on their site simply saying that Spyware Blaster was incompatible with AVG8. They were basically saying their program was fine and they had no plans on fixing their false detections. I can no longer find this blurb so I'm wondering if they had a change of heart and fixed their bugs or they whether they are just trying to avoid the bad press by not even saying anything about it anymore.

    We had spoke about this in many threads here at MG's. One was this:

    http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=159452


    You may want to try uninstalling AVG8 and then reboot. After reboot, reinstall your game and see if it works now.
     
  5. a_needy_1

    a_needy_1 Private E-2

    Ok, thanks. But, I just emptied the vault, does this mean I deleted the files, and if so, is there a way to get them back? here is the blurb you are looking for, http://free.avg.com/ww.faq.num-1319#faq_1319. Finally, before I uninstall AVG, is there better av software you recommend and is it dangerous to uninstall AV software since they work at such a low level, I assume at the registry or lower?
    Again, thank you very much for helping me.
     
  6. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    You did not delete any files. You just delete the registry entries that AVG8 removed that were protecting you. Just rerun Spyware Blaster.

    Thanks. They renumber it. It had a totally different number before. This means they still have not admitted that they are wrong and/or don't know how to fix the issue.

    No it is not dangerous to uninstall them. It is dangerous to run without them.

    You can try one of the other free AVs listed in the below:

    How to Protect yourself from malware!

    They are all reasonable choices. Each program does have there own issues ( including some false positives) but you will see that AVG8 has been moved to the bottom of the list and I have included warnings about it.
     
  7. a_needy_1

    a_needy_1 Private E-2

    Thanks, you guys are great, and on a side note, UT3 works now, all I had to do was reinstall it, probably an unrelated coincidence. You guys are awesome.
     
  8. a_needy_1

    a_needy_1 Private E-2

    One last question, though. If I install comodo antivirus. which has an on access scanner, and a realtime blocking tool, such as comodo BOclean, will they go to war because they both work in realtime?
     
  9. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    One is an antivirus the other is an antispyware program so there are no conflicts. Note that BO Clean has no scan function.
     

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