Help Your Antivirus Detect Viruses - Get New Virus Definitions

During an anti-virus update, your software installs a data file containing a new set of virus definitions. This "DAT" file (so named because it normally carries the extension .dat) tells your anti-virus program what malicious code it is supposed to be looking for when it scans your computer system and associated hard drives. Almost all up-to-date anti-virus software has automatic mechanisms to update virus definitions with no overt action required on the part of the computer user.

In the early evolution of anti-virus software's, the user was actively responsible for visiting a company website, downloading an updated DAT file, and figuring out how to install it on their computer, virus definitions just did not get updated regularly enough for the counter-measures to be effective. DAT files must be updated regularly since new virus, worms, and Trojans sometimes appear on a daily basis.

How do I Obtain a Virus Definition File?

Most anti- virus programs provide a built-in mechanism to seamlessly achieve an anti-virus update. While computer users themselves are admittedly a rather lazy lot when it comes to issues of maintenance on their machines, software just does as it's told, connecting to the internet at the specified time and updating the needed DAT files without having to be reminded or prodded to do so. Usually this is a transparent process. In case a "pop-up" window appears from your anti-virus software asking for permission to execute such a download, say yes!

One piece of well-known anti-virus software is Norton by Symantec. Virus definitions for this software are obtained automatically at set intervals from the company's AV Center. Usually the computer user is not aware that the download and installation of an AV update of virus definitions is occurring as a background process on their machine. Anti-virus downloads signal their completion with a small box that appears in the lower right hand corner of the screen telling the user their virus protection has been successfully updated.

Since the development of this system of free anti-virus download updates, the overall effectiveness of anti-virus has improved markedly. In fact, most new computer systems come with some form of anti-virus software pre-loaded in a trial version format. It is well worth your while to pay for the full-edition. Once activated, the anti-virus software is almost completely self-maintaining; acquiring the needed anti-virus free downloads/updates on its own. The computer user need only respond to warning and service messages as they appear on the screen - most probably at quite infrequent intervals.

Continue to : Computer Virus Definitions and its Use