AVG 2011 found Offspon.exe as a malware, Is it true?

[NamJam]

Just, I have bought a new Dell laptop which was already having Microsoft Office Starter 2010 and Q-partition named "Microsoft Office Click-to-Run" installed on it. Then, I installed Microsoft Office Professional 2010 & AVG 2011 on this laptop. As soon as installation gets completed, AVG pop ups with an error that it has found "Q:\140066.enu\office14\offspon.exe" as a malware and gave me choice to want to move it to the virus vault or want to leave it as it is. I'm not pretty sure that this file is a malware as I have recently bought this laptop and hardly ever used a browser to access websites, apart from Hotmail and AVG. What should I do now and what should I do? I guess I would go with the suggestion of an AVG then it may not let me use the MS Office properly. Office might not be able to run this process.

[Badrunath]

You supposed to have appropriately removed the Starter version of Office earlier before installing the Pro version. If you have done it then Q drive must have gone with the its content. But I guess NO! Anyway, I recommend you to uninstall the Pro Version which you have just installed and then uninstall the Starter version as well. Now you have to reinstall the New version that it PRO in the same way as you have done it earlier. Now reboot the machine and check that it works or not. I think AVG must not be having any issues with the Offspon.exe if your Office Pro is not really having any malware.

[NamJam]

I have removed the whole MS Office I mean to say all the versions installed on my laptop removed and then I started installing the new version which I have bought recently, And it couldn't be infected by any malware until and unless I have used it anywhere. It does not seems to be logical that Microsoft has given me an infected version of the MS Office. After completing an installation of OFFICE PRO again, I was having the same error message from the AVG. Can you guys tell me exactly for what purpose this file needs to be used. I think I will try to keep it as it is by ignoring the warning from the AVG. But still I am afraid that my laptop should not get infected by the same malware.

[MahaGuru]

offspon.exe is the process which has been used for rotating advertisements in Microsoft Office Starter Edition. This program is a genuine program from the microsoft but if this process won't supporting your office version then you won't be having advertisements displays. Now AVG might not be knowing that this program is from the microsoft as it has been added just in order to display an ads and nothing else. And AVG detects it just because it is an adware but not at all malicious or harmful. I suggest you to ignore the warning given by the AVG as if it shows you any problem in future then make sure that nothing is happening because of any such process.

[CitricAcid]

I recommend you not to depend on only single software to secure your windows machine as you must have noticed that every other software shows you different responses on the windows system. AVG is not aware of file provided by the Microsoft or Microsoft might not know about the behavior of AVG antivirus. Similarly some other antivirus software might not be detecting the same process as virus or anything. It just does not focus it. This means that you should always have at least two antivirus solutions on your windows machine and if you ask why? Then I would be considering you lucky for this time but this could happen negatively as well. AVG software gave you wrong information about any file so it may not give any information about the file which is really infecting your windows machine. So It is better to keep your machine under dual security coat so that at least other can give some indications about an infected file so that you can remove the same.