• Detect and mitigate computer viruses.virus alert image by dead_account from Fotolia.com
  
  Viruses and worms spread rapidly across the Internet and other networks. A computer can be infected by opening a malicious email, viewing a crafted website or even clicking on a hyperlink. To prevent infection, you should never open any files or click any links attached to an unknown email or download from an unknown website. Various antivirus detection test methods and tools can detect and eliminate viruses. These methods detect infections soon after they have happened and indicate the infected system components.
  
  

Static Detection Test

• With this method, a virus is detected by investigating the files or records for the emergence pattern of virus. Static detection includes numerous methods such as String Scanning method, Generic Detection method and Heuristics Analysis. String Scanning method looks for sequences of strings that are related to a certain virus but not possible to be included in other programs. Generic Detection method uses one common string to detect numerous or all identified variants of a family of viruses, while Heuristics Analysis is an expert-based method that determines the susceptibility of a system regarding specific risks by deploying various decision rules.
  
  

Dynamic Detection Test

• This method tests if a program is infected by running it and viewing its activities. Detection tools monitor known activities of viruses such as attempts to infect detection. The detection tool also monitors behavior including trying to write to boot sectors and system files. A behavior blocker is a detection program which monitors a running program's behavior in real time, looking for suspicious activity. When such activity is observed, the blocker can stop the suspicious operation from running, terminate the program or send alerts to users.
  
  

AVG Detection and Scanning Tool

• AVG is a widely used tool which prevents you infection by viruses and spyware. You can set a schedule for scanning the whole computer for any infections. Options include automatically healing infections, reporting potential threats, scanning for tracking cookies, using Heuristics and Scanning system environment. AVG can automatically find updates, thus your antivirus software can always stay up to date.