AVG 7 Updates - how do they work

erb

I update my PC with AVG 7 updates regularly and these seam to run in sequence e.g. file numbers 515 one day, 516 the next day, then 517 and so on...

However, I also update my son's PC with AVG 7 updates on a weekly basis but the update provided is only the latest one e.g. 517.

Is this right What about the previous updates 515, 516?

Wombat

I would think that each update is a complete, latest virus definition file. So 517 would also include the changes contained in all previous updates, like 515 and 516.

erb

Wombat I don't think so because the latest file is often smaller than previous ones. If the latest file included previous updates it would get progressively bigger. For instance the one tonight no. 518 was only 19KB but the previous one was 194KB.

Wombat

If you have a look here:

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/72/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

it's clear that there are 2 different types of update: complete and differential. So if a download is a different size to what you were expecting, then it's probably a differential update.

It also states that the AVG Download Manager is quite capable of sorting out which updates are required to give you the latest anti-virus protection.

I can fully understand your concern about this, and it's a shame that you can't simply email Grisoft for the answer, but they don't do email support for the free version. Personally, I would be happy to trust that the program can cope with missed downloads or incomplete downloads. Since a lot of people are still using dial-up Internet access and are therefore subject to service interruption at any time (including during an update download), I think it would have been very remiss of the AVG programmers if they hadn't allowed for this eventuality in their coding.

erb

Thanks for giving me some reassurance. I still don't fully understand how they work but appreciate that an incremental element may have some impact and also the 2 PCs I update have different operating systems that may also have some impact on what needs updating. I will have to put my trust in the download manager.