Anti-Viral programs come in two basic types. General purpose programs watch for any suspicious activity and draw it to your attention. These programs call upon you to make some pretty technical decisions about what kinds of activities are OK and have not been terribly popular. They also give lots of false alarms. Virus-specific programs watch only for the actions of known viruses and allow all other types of activities. Virus-specific programs are much easier to use and do not give false alarms.
If a new virus comes along, it is important that a virus-specific program be updated, as it will not know to look for it. General purpose programs only have to be updated when a wholly new type of virus comes along.
