                   Major changes between version 2.x and 3.x

This note is intended for users that are familiar with F-PROT version 2,
and want a short summary of the major changes.

    1) The program combines the macro-virus scanning ability of F-MACROW
       with F-PROT in one program.

    2) The scanning technology itself has been improved, and the program now
       detects significantly more viruses than version 2 did.  Where F-PROT
       2.28 detected just over 10,000 different viruses, version 3.01
       detects nearly 17,000 DOS/Windows viruses, over 1,000 Trojans and
       over 2,500 Word and Excel viruses, for a total of over 20,500.

    3) The program is now almost entirely data-driven, which means that
       adding detection and disinfection of new viruses will usually not
       require any changes to the program itself.  Therefore, it will
       usually be sufficient just to update the SIGN.DEF and MACRO.DEF
       files, which also means that we will be able to provide updates
       much more frequently than before.

    4) Version 2 was a 16-bit program, compiled with Borland's C compiler,
       but version 3.x is a 32-bit DOS-extender program, compiled with
       Watcom C and uses the CauseWay DOS extender.

    5) Version 3.x requires DOS 3.0 (or later) and at least a 80386 with
       4MB of memory, where the previous version would work on a 8088, 
       with 512K memory, running DOS 2.  We know that a small minority of
       our former users will not be able to use version 3 for this reason,
       but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this.

    6) The VIRSTOP program has been discontinued, and further updates will
       not be provided.  We consider the technology it used outdated, as it
       provides no protection against polymorphic viruses or macro viruses,
       which are probably the biggest problem today.
  
       For Windows '95 users we offer a VxD replacement, named F-StopW. 
       This program (unlike the old VIRSTOP) should have the same detection
       capabilities as the main scanner in F-PROT itself.

    7) F-PROT 3.x is able to scan inside .ZIP and .ARJ archives, without
       having to rely on an external program.

    8) The heuristics in version 3 are being redesigned, with the primary
       goal of redesigning the false alarm rate.  This work is still in
       progress, but the current heuristics are now enabled by default.

    9) Before starting a scan, the program now automatically scans MBRs
       and boot sectors on the hard disk.

   10) User-defined strings are no longer supported, as the program does
       not use "strings" as such any more.

   11) The list of known viruses is no longer included in the form of
       VIRLIST.LIS, but it can be produced by the program itself by
       giving the following command:

             F-PROT /VIRLIS > VIRLIST.LIS

   12) The virus information section of version 2 was badly outdated and
       has been removed.  It will be replaced by a different program in
       the future.
