Q: It seems that my AVG vault is getting crammed full of tracking cookies, I have a vague idea of what these things are for but I would like to know more about them.
I also found something that bothered me a bit more the other day called CJ- or something Trojan builder. I’m not sure exactly what I should be doing when I see these things in the vault or more importantly when they are flagged up by AVG in the first place. For instance, would it be better to use the heal option rather than move to the vault? Also, if I move things to the vault, and then empty the vault at a later date, would they be shredded or just deleted? More recently, something else has occurred. Everything in the vault is now given a number instead of its name; is this possibly an extra security measure I wonder? Any information appreciated.
My other query is regarding a friend of mine who is determined to retain all his DOS based programs and games but is finding it more and more difficult to get a machine to run them. Are there any possible options or techniques that can be used to run these programs on machines that are more recent?
Tracking cookies in themselves are harmless, they’re merely small text files placed on your PC when you visit websites. It’s basically the site’s calling card and is used to store information about your preferences. Visit a weather site and the cookie will note your location, on a shopping site it may remember the contents of your cart should you surf away without checking out. A cookie may simply record that you’ve visited the site before, or which adverts you’ve been shown for statistical purposes. The reason they’re often flagged by anti-spyware applications is that some people simply don’t like their activities being tracked by certain sites.
When AVG moves a file to its vault it’s deleted from the original location and stored in a hidden folder ($AVG8.VAULT$) in a non-executable form. This is to allow you the chance to reinstate it should you find that it was in fact legitimate. If you suspect a false alarm, a file that’s been placed in the vault which you know is OK, you can use the Send to analysis option to report it to AVG. When you empty the vault via the History, Virus Vault option the contents are deleted without going via the Recycle bin.
As your friend has no doubt discovered, using the MS-DOS option in modern versions of Windows doesn’t really run DOS at all, just something that approximates to it. The best solution is to use a virtual machine such as VirtualBox to run an old copy of DOS within Windows. If you don’t have a copy of DOS try downloading FreeDOS.
Items in the AVG virus vault are deleted from their original location
Originally featured in PCU117
