                                                                    May 1995
    Upgrading versus Updating
    -------------------------
    The user of anti-virus software are accustomed to update their AV
    software at regular intervals. Updates are necessary if your anti virus
    is a scanner. The spreading of new viruses in the past has been
    relatively slow. It took a year, sometimes even two, for new viruses to
    become common, in a certain geographical area. Now, with the
    availability of the networks, virus spreading takes much less than
    before. The virus exchanges (VX) has also largely contributed to the
    rapid dissemination of viruses. Once a virus is in the news, thousands
    of collection owners are looking to add the hot item to their
    collection, and quite many viruses escaped in the wild this way.

    Certain viruses have set records and became common within three to six
    months from their first being reported. Therefore, scanner based
    anti-virus software need updating, at three months intervals at the
    longest. Some products are updated with shorter intervals. It is quite
    common that the producer of a scanner announces a special release when a
    new virus hits the news. Such were the cases of Junkie and KAOS4. In
    most cases the hysteria proved to be overblown.

    InVircible has a virus scanner too. Its database contains only the most
    common and widespread viruses, just about a couple of hundreds, which
    are about 5% or less of the total number of viruses. Naturally, it takes
    quite a long time, a year or longer, for a virus to become really
    widespread. Only few viruses make it, and this is why IV's scanner has
    very few viruses added to its database, annually.

    NetZ Computing keeps publishing new versions of InVircible on a regular
    basis. Sometimes the new version contains a new virus in its database,
    but in most cases it does not. The real purpose of these apparently
    updates is totally different. Since in most cases they do not contain
    scanner updates, then we will call them what they really are: upgrades.

    With the constant flux of users' questions, wishes and suggestions, we
    often improve a certain technique, or fix a bug, or even more likely -
    add a new feature. If you look in the HISTORY.TXT file, you will notice
    that there isn't a single version that announced  a new virus was added
    to IV's database. The differences between versions, or revisions, is due
    to new features, or changes introduced in basic techniques.

    Do you need to upgrade?
    -----------------------
    If the current version of InVircible works properly on your machine,
    then it's unlikely that you need to upgrade. Unless you want to, because
    of a new features included in the newer version.

    A text file named WHATSNEW.xxx is provided with each upgrade. In the
    file you'll find a list and description of the improved and of the new
    features. Before upgrading your current version, read the document to
    decide if you need the upgrade.

    There is no need to upgrade InVircible more frequently than once to
    twice a year, at the most. In the five years since its first version,
    InVircible proved to be efficient against the viruses that appeared
    since then, with or without the upgrades.

    Network administrators are advised to upload the upgraded version to the
    server, to the directory from which IVlogin is run (see appendix A in
    the manual). This will automatically upgrade the IV version on the
    workstation hard disks, when the user logs into the network.

    How to upgrade a licensed user.
    -------------------------------
    The purchase of a license for the utilization of InVircible is for life,
    for the specific version that you purchased only, and provides you the
    the possibility to upgrade without additional charges, for a period of
    one year. The installation of the IV license to your hard disk earmarks
    the HARD DISK, not the software, as an IV licensee. The InVircible
    software recognizes the IV earmark.

    To upgrade from a lower version, download the newer InVircible version
    from the BBS or network service of your choice. Open the ZIP file into a
    temporary directory, change directory to the one containing the new
    version and run the IVB.EXE program. Watch if the "Licensed" label
    appears at the upper left corner of the screen. If yes, then your
    license is still valid and you can then proceed with INSTALL/FAST. It
    will overwrite the older version with the new one and it will inherit
    the license of the former version.

    To upgrade a licensed floppy, format the diskette (deleting all files
    won't suffice, there is a hidden file on these floppies, this is why it
    needs formatting) and copy the new version files to it. When done, issue
    the command IVB A: /A (or B:) to install the IV Armor on the floppy.

    In case the newer version indicates "Sentry" instead of "Licensed" when
    running the newer software, then your license term for upgrades expired.
    You can then choose to purchase a new license for another term, or stay
    with your current version, for as long as you wish.

    Once you changed the license from a 6.01x version to 6.02, on your hard
    disk, then the lower versions will not recognize the hard disk as
    licensed anymore. Yet the distribution floppy is valid for both 6.01x
    and 6.02 versions.

    A last note about Sentry and licensed operation. From version 6.02 and
    on, when running InVircible in Windows' DOS shell, on an IDE drive, you
    will notice that IV switched to Sentry mode. When you exit Windows to
    plain DOS, you will see that it switched back to "licensed". There is a
    reason for this. InVircible, and anti virus program in general, should
    not be used for corrective maintenance when in a Windows DOS shell,
    because of the differences in how they manage low level and hardware
    access. IV is thus purposely put in Sentry mode, to prevent any user
    mistakes.
