Users of AVG 7.5 and 8.0 should be on the alert for a false positive Trojan virus warning after downloading an update on November 11th. It concerns the legitimate Windows system file user32.dll, which AVG wrongly identifies as infected and advises that it should be deleted. Don’t do it!
If you do Windows will not load after a reboot. Apparently it only affects the Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish language versions of Windows XP and AVG has published a rescue plan. It involves running the XP Recovery console, which means you need an installation disc. Of course not all PCs come with one, in which case AVG has come up with a downloadable utility that should fix the problem. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s hard to get too upset with AVG, after all they have been providing us with top-notch virus protection for free these last few years, but the release of AVG version 8 has annoyed a lot of otherwise loyal users. Over the last few weeks popups have been appearing that appear to suggest that AVG was no longer free and to stay protected you had to upgrade to a paid-for version. The fact is AVG 8 is still free for personal use, but of course AVG would rather you purchased the better-specified commercial version – well, you can’t blame them for trying. For the record the free version can be downloaded from http://free.avg.com
The latest problem is a component in AVG 8, called Link Scanner, which has been driving some website owners potty. The idea is when you do a web search it pre-checks all of the links, looking for malicious sites. The trouble is websites get bombarded with fake hits from PCs running AVG 8, clogging up the web with pointless and wasteful traffic. Some users also suggest that the Link Scanners slows their PC down, which could well be the case on older machines. Read the rest of this entry »
HIV entered China in the 1990s mainly through the non checked blood plasma-buying network and infected transfusions in hospitals. But now, sex has bypassed drug syringes as the main factor of HIV transmission in China, and this could lead to a booming of the infection spread from high-risk categories to the overall population, as signaled by a new report made by UNAIDS and a committee of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, and released on World AIDS Day.
There were 50,000 new Chinese HIV cases registered in 2007, raising the overall number of HIV patients in China to 700,000.
“Despite a fall in the rate of new cases since the data were last collected in 2005, infections were still spreading, and sex—not intravenous drug use—was now the main form of transmission. China’s HIV epidemic remains one of low prevalence overall but with pockets of high infection,” said Health Minister Chen Zhu. Read the rest of this entry »
Users of AVG 7.5 and 8.0 should be on the alert for a false positive Trojan virus warning after downloading an update on November 11th. It concerns the legitimate Windows system file user32.dll, which AVG wrongly identifies as infected and advises that it should be deleted. Don’t do it!
