You are cordially invited to try VDS 2.10 on your PC DESCRIPTION & FEATURES VDS (Virus Detection System) is an anti-viral software package designed to contain the spread of computer viruses by providing early detection and quick recovery. What distinguishes VDS from other anti-viral products is that its operation is based on analyzing viral behavior rather than just looking for known byte sequences extracted from virus samples. Therefore, VDS does not require frequent upgrades. VDS uses a proprietary triple-pass verification technique to catch the most evasive "stealth" viruses even when they are active in memory. Coupled with its blazing operational speed (thanks to its optimized internal cache), VDS represents the strongest software solution currently available. VDS (registered only) generates a customized device driver during installation. The device driver barely adds three seconds to bootup time and catches all system infectors with ease. It recovers vital system areas automatically. The user is given an opportunity to embed his own message inside the device driver. This message is displayed if a possible infection is detected. Businesses will find this feature very useful since it can be used to prompt users to report any incidents as instructed by the message. A unique feature of VDS is its decoy launching mechanism. The decoys are used to lure any viruses active in memory and to capture them in a POV (Prisoner Of VDS) file for examination. The captured intruders can speed up diagnosis process since you will know which virus you are dealing with or whether it is a new virus. VDS documentation rivals many books on computer viruses not only by its readability but also by its technical content. It offers practical guidelines and a risk analysis test designed to evaluate the vulnerability of your computers to viral attacks. The package includes a special utility program that helps users to recover from all system infectors that target vital areas of hard drives such as the master boot record. Another program in the package allows users to search network and floppy drives for known viruses. AVAILABILITY VDS Advanced Research Group offers six different versions of VDS: trial, personal, academic, charity, business and complimentary. Trial version is only $7 and can be ordered directly from the developers. It is also available on several BBSes and can be downloaded for free. Everyone is encouraged to upload the trial version of VDS to BBSes in their area, as long as the complete package with this message and documentation is uploaded. Personal version sells for $25 and can be used on as many computers as the user personally owns. If the user chooses to become a registered user after ordering the trial version, the $7 is credited towards the payment for the personal version. Site-licenses for businesses can be negotiated. Business version allows all employees of a company to use VDS on their home computers at no extra charge. System Requirements: IBM PC/XT/AT/PS2 or compatible computer with 384K RAM, MS/PC-DOS 3.0 or higher, a hard drive and a floppy diskette drive. HOW TO ORDER A COPY OF VDS Phone orders can be placed by calling (410) 247-7117 and providing your name and address. You can pay by C.O.D., check, money order or request to make another arrangement if your company policy does not permit C.O.D. purchases. To order VDS by mail (complete ORDERFRM.TXT), or if you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, you can write to: Attn: Tarkan Yetiser VDS Advanced Research Group P.O. Box 9393 Baltimore, MD 21228, U.S.A. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DIFFERENCES BETWEEN REGISTERED & TRIAL VERSIONS: * No integrity-checking device driver is generated * No special installation diskette * No printed manual * No licensee name and serial number * There is a promotional opening screen ONLY during installation * Supports a single DOS partition (C: drive) * Beeps after done with verification and asks you to register RUNNING VDS 2.10 UNDER MS WINDOWS 3.0 & 3.1 All programs in the VDS 2.10 package can run under MS Windows 3.0 & 3.1, although they are not specifically written for that environment. We recommend that you create a PIF file for each program using the PIF editor. The programs can run both in full screen and windowed mode; however, it is less troublesome to use full screen mode, at least with VDS.EXE, the integrity checker, to avoid system hangup. Do not attempt a task switch while VDS.EXE is running; otherwise, the system may appear to freeze. VDSFSCAN can be run in the background; even multiple copies can run at the same time! VITALFIX should NEVER be run while Windows is loaded. It is a low-level disk manipulation utility that can make Windows disk cacher inconsistent. Another option is to shell to DOS prompt and then run the programs in the VDS 2.10 package. This is much closer to a plain DOS environment, and there will be less conflicts. Nevertheless, we managed to run VDS in a window along with other applications successfully. Feel free to experiment. Please remember that the MS Windows 3.0 & 3.1 compatibility VDS 2.10 offers is limited, and is still being tested. We plan to release a Windows version in the near future. Considering the popularity MS Windows 3.0 is enjoying, the near future can be very soon! WARNING TO DR DOS 6.0 USERS If you are using the Superstore driver to compress your hard drive, you cannot install VDS integrity checker on your computer. VDS integrity checker is not compatible with compressed hard drives due to the nature of its operation. If you enabled the password feature of DR DOS, then you need to temporarily disable it to be able to install VDS properly. After installation, you can reactivate the security feature. Do not protect C:\VDS210 directory using a password. VDS needs to access its data files without such restrictions. VDS.EXE should be run as the first line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you run it later from the command line, you may need to use the -X switch to avoid system hangup. VDSFSCAN can work on compressed partitions. Protected directories and files are not scanned. If VDSFSCAN cannot change to a directory or open a file for reading, it will skip it. VITALFIX may not be able to recognize the layout of a compressed drive; however, it will allow you to access the disk sectors. Be very careful when using such a low level utility on compressed drives. On non-compressed drives, it works just fine.