So many bad things happen today, especially in the realm of computers and technical support. These days of problems that no one seems to care about are a problem for many.

However, it is sometimes possible to achieve a good result, and with a minimum of effort.

Three days ago, I had downloaded a few files from the Donation Coders website ( a good place to find solutions to little problems, by the way ) and immediately the resident portion of AVG 7.5 Free informed me that all the five files I had downloaded contained a trojan. Finding this hard to believe, I looked first at the online help for AVG, which was not all that helpful – there was no heading for false positives – so next a trip to the AVG website. There was only limited help there, as the procedure described, which included moving the files to the quarantine area, then uploading them to the AVG site. (The site should be updated, or perhaps, if the site refers to a possible solution for the paid version it should so state that restriction) Then I went to my friend Google, where I should have gone first it seems. A couple of hits about simply writing to [email protected] was all it took.

That was last night. Tonight, I checked the e-mail to find this response:

Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your email.
This file is clean. It was false alarm, this means that the file is
clean and virus-free, but AVG detects it as a virus. Unfortunately,
false alarms may appear from time to time in every anti-virus
software. It’s detection will be removed from our definitions in new
update of AVG viruses base, which will be released soon.
Thank you for understanding and cooperation.
         Best regards,
         Rostislav Ratkovsky
         AVG Technical Support

website: http://www.grisoft.com
mailto: [email protected]
—– Original Message —–
From: {me of course}

Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 7:18:57 AM GMT-07:00
Subject: G#0802560652 – false positives
>I have, this week, downloaded 5 files from the DonationCoders website, and your software, AVG Free 7.5 (fully updated) identifies every one of the files as a virus/trojan – the programs as being virus infected, but was a false positive. I have looked on your site at the forums, to see that the suggestion was to turn off heuristic action. That still doesn’t do it. Your software identifies a trojan – PSW Agent SKN .
>
>Hard to believe that you haven’t fixed this yet, but could you look at these files. Thanks. Unfortunately, I cannot include copies, as your software will not allow me to attach the files. However, since others have said that the same problem is occurring, can you check the files at DonationCoders, written by Skrommel.  (especially DimScreen.exe, RecentRun.exe, EjectCD.exe, and CloseCD.exe)

So all it took was about 20 minutes of search time, and another five to send an e-mail. to obtain a good result. I’ll be the first to admit that not all outcomes are so positive – but that is precisely why we should celebrate when good things happen and let others know about it.

In my best Stephen Colbert : No wag of the finger to AVG, but a big thumbs up!

–

[tags] AVG, false positives, Donation Coders, quick reply, customer care, thumbs up [/tags]