Updates

The effectiveness of anti-virus software depends on how up-to-date the program is, in particular the virus definition file and the scan engine. To carry out regular updates, the Updater component is integrated into your Avira product. The Updater ensures that your Avira product is always up-to-date and able to deal with the new viruses that appear every day. Updater updates the following components:

  • Virus definition file:

  • The virus definition file contains the virus patterns of the harmful programs which are used by your Avira product to scan for viruses and malware and repair infected objects.

  • Scan engine:

  • The scan engine contains the methods used by your Avira product to scan for viruses and malware.

  • Program files (product update):

  • Update packages for product updates make extra functions available to the individual program components.

An update checks whether the virus definition file and scan engine are up-to-date and if necessary implements an update. Depending on the settings in the configuration, the Updater also carries out a product update or informs you of the product updates available. After a product update, you may have to restart your computer system. If only the virus definition file and scan engine are updated, the computer does not have to be restarted.

Note
For security reasons, the Updater checks whether the Windows hosts file of your computer was altered, whether the Update URL, for example, was manipulated by malware and is diverting the Updater to unwanted download sites. If the Windows hosts file has been manipulated, this is shown in the Updater report file.

An update is automatically performed in the following interval: 6 hours.

In the Control Center under Scheduler, you can create additional update jobs that are performed by Updater at the specified intervals. You also have the option to start an update manually:

  • in the Control Center: in the Update menu and in the Status section

  • via the context menu of the tray icon

Updates can be obtained from the Internet via a Web server of the manufacturer. The existing network connection is the default connection to the download servers of Avira. You can change this default setting in the Configuration under General > Update.

Updates