Antivirus

TopicId215

The GPS software is free of viruses or other malware, however, some anti-virus programs may detect is as a "false positive".

Any software can be a "false positive", that is, software that the anti-virus considers malicious, even though it is not.

False positives may depend on:

• The anti-virus producer (there are various anti-virus producers on the market, each of which uses different methods for identifying malware).
• The anti-virus product (the same producer can market or publish a number of anti-virus products).
• The anti-virus version.
• The version of anti-virus signatures.
• The operating system (some producers change the product according to the operating system).

To resolve these problems there are 2 main methods described below.

Configure the anti-virus program so that it does not check the GPS program folder  

Normally the anti-virus software can be configured to exclude scanning the files and folders you do not want scanned.

In the case of GPS, the program folder can be identified from the main GPS menu (also see:  Folders and GPS folders and files) :

Tools > Folders > Open program folder.

For example, in the case of F-PROT, the tasks to be carried out are described in English via this link: http://www.f-prot.com/support/windows/fpwin_faq/375.html

For F-PROT version 2011 the tasks to be carried out can be summarised as described below.

In the main page of the Anti-virus 2011 click Settings and proceed as follows:

1. Select Computer > Anti-virus and anti-spyware scan, or Computer > Manual scan.
2. Click Open list of excluded elements.  
3. To exclude a file, unit or folder:  
4. Select the Objects template.
5. Select Exclude objects (files, folders, etc.).  
6. Click Add.  
7. Select the file, unit or folder to be excluded from anti-virus scanning (the most simple choice is to exclude the GPS program folder, which can be identified as described above).
8. Click OK to close the Exclude from scanning dialogue box.  
9. Click OK to apply the new settings.

Reporting a false positive to the anti-virus producer

Normally anti-virus producers make a service available for reporting false positives. This normally involves sending the suspected file to the producer, who analyses it and then provides a correction for their anti-virus software if necessary.

The service depends on the anti-virus producer and is normally accessible via the Internet. For example, in the case of F-PROT software, the link is

http://www.f-prot.com/virusinfo/false_positive_form.html