FAQ

The main purpose of the Virus Vault is to keep any deleted file for a certain period of time, so that you can make sure you do not need the file any more. If you find out that the missing file is causing problems, you can send it to analysis, or restore it to the original location.

To open the Virus Vault, navigate via AVG User Interface -> History menu -> Virus Vault.

After highlighting an object in the list with your mouse, the function buttons enable you to carry out the following actions:

• Restore – moves the infected file to its original location (stated in the Path to file column)
• Restore as – moves the infected file to a selected folder
  • Note: You can Restore or Restore as multiple items at a time; highlight them in the list (by holding down Ctrl+arrow, or Shift while selecting individual items with your mouse) and press the respective button. If some of the selected items are not restored successfully, these will remain highlighted in the list.
  • When restoring files from the Virus Vault, please also note the following: 
    • If the file was originally an e-mail attachment (see the Original name column), its original location is a temporary folder which might be tricky to find on your harddisk. For this reason, only the Restore as feature will be available for e-mail attachments.
    • Registry keys can be only restored back to original location (i.e. only the Restore button will work).
    • Any file is restored under the Original name. If not available, then the file is restored under name given in the Path to file column.
• Delete – completely and irreversibly removes the file from the disk.
• Empty Vault – removes all files from the Virus Vault.

• Send to analysis – this option is available from context menu after right-click on the file in Virus Vault. After selecting this option file is send for analysis to the AVG virus labs or to the Technical Support team.
  Please note that this feature only serves for sending "false alarm" files, i.e. files that have been detected by AVG as infected or suspicious, but you believe are harmless.

Note: All files stored in the Virus Vault are available in a non-executable archives in the $AVG8.VAULT$ folder. This folder is on all hard disk partitions hidden by deafult.

Most of today's viruses (Trojan horses, I-Worms, Worms, etc) create their own files which contain nothing but a body of the virus. In such cases the only way to remove the infection is to delete the infected file. When you moved the file to the AVG Virus Vault it was deleted from its original location, coded, and then saved in a non-executable file in a hidden folder. Your PC is no longer infected then.

If you are not missing any data file and your applications are running, then you can delete these vaulted files from the AVG Virus Vault program.

You can do it selectively from AVG Virus Vault program -> select files -> delete. Or you can delete all AVG Virus Vault contents in one go:

•  Double-click the AVG icon on your desktop -> choose the "History" menu and select the "Virus Vault" option -> click on the "Empty Vault" button.

In some cases, AVG detection that is designed to recognize files infected by one particular virus may be triggered by a file that is not infected. Such detection is called False Alarm. By providing us with the incorrectly detected files, you will allow us to fix the detection and ensure that only infected files will be reported by AVG.

Typical examples of false alarm are files that you have on your computer for a long time (old documents, backups, etc.), or files that are required by some common/commercial application.

If you suspect that AVG has detected a clean file on your computer, you can send us the file directly from your Virus Vault (Right-click the file in Virus Vault and select "Send to analysis" option from context menu). We will then inform you about the result of our analysis, as described on this website.

When moving some infected file to the Virus Vault, you can encounter the "The Virus Vault has reached the maximum file count limit" message. This situation is caused by damaged vvfolder.idx file.

To resolve this issue please take the following steps:

• Show hidden files and folders as described in FAQ 987.
• Delete the X:\$AVG8.VAULT$ folder [*] (where X: represent the name of the drive; e.g. C:\$AVG8.VAULT$) on all hard disk partitions.
• The situation will be resolved now. Please do not forget to disable showing of hidden files and folders again using the steps from FAQ 987.

Should the issue persists, please do not hesitate to contact AVG Technical Support as described in FAQ 1467.

[*] Open My Computer -> choose the desired drive -> right click the folder you wish to delete -> Choose the Delete option.