Support for AVG Free after August 2008

[pixturesk@gmail.com]

While checking out the Grisoft site for some AVG Free information (I
have been using AVG Free for a couple of years), I came across the
following information:

Important notice

"Some older operating systems such as Microsoft Windows ME,
Microsoft Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 98 will only be supported
until August 2008 as a minimum".

So I asked about this on the AVG Free forum, got the following
response:

"I can say that currently Win95 isn't officially supported but AVG
Free still works on it... but I can't say that will also be true for
Win98-WinME at the point that Grisoft does drop support for them. I
can say that most ( not all ) of the other antivirus companies have
already dropped support for Win9x-WinME and you can only expect most
all to do the same very soon".

Just thought I might bring this information to the attention of this
group, check it out for yourself. I have just got a copy of Avast Home
Edition which is also free, seems to get much better reviews, performs
more functions than AVG. I also wrote to the Avast forum to ascertain
their intentions about continuing support for Win98SE, got the
following response:

"The avast policy is to keep all features that were compatible with
Windows 95, 98 and Me available. Only new features are being just
developed for newer Windows versions.
And ok, it will be free.
Welcome to avast. I'm an ex AVG user too".

Avast Home Edition Free requires its own registration process which
you can check out on their website, where you can also get a number of
skins to change the Avast look. Hope this helps.

 

[Dan]

I have heard about this as well and it is annoying since I think AVG should
at least match Avast's policy. I tried Avast but did not care for its
interface and scanning features. Well, if AVG quits in the future then I may
have to go back to AntiVir if they still support 98 Second Edition but I will
just wait and see.

 

[pixturesk@gmail.com]

On Sep 29, 1:26 am, Dan <D...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I have heard about this as well and it is annoying since I think AVG should
> at least match Avast's policy. I tried Avast but did not care for its
> interface and scanning features. Well, if AVG quits in the future then I may
> have to go back to AntiVir if they still support 98 Second Edition but I will
> just wait and see.

Dan, I hope to give Avast a try soon. From my research it seems to get
much better reviews, offer far more protection than AVG (P2P, instant
messaging). I will try to report on my experience with Avast.

 

[pixturesk@gmail.com]

On Sep 29, 7:07 am, "pixtur...@gmail.com" <pixtur...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sep 29, 1:26 am, Dan <D...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > I have heard about this as well and it is annoying since I think AVG should
> > at least match Avast's policy. I tried Avast but did not care for its
> > interface and scanning features. Well, if AVG quits in the future then I may
> > have to go back to AntiVir if they still support 98 Second Edition but I will
> > just wait and see.
>
> Dan, I hope to give Avast a try soon. From my research it seems to get
> much better reviews, offer far more protection than AVG (P2P, instant
> messaging). I will try to report on my experience with Avast.

Dan. I just went to the Avira AntiVir site. They no longer support
Win98/ME.

Windows 98/Me
As of June 30th, 2007 Avira does not support this Microsoft operating
system anymore. A download package for Windows 98/ME is therefore no
longer provided.

 

[Dan]

"pixturesk@gmail.com" wrote:

> On Sep 29, 7:07 am, "pixtur...@gmail.com" <pixtur...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sep 29, 1:26 am, Dan <D...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I have heard about this as well and it is annoying since I think AVG should
> > > at least match Avast's policy. I tried Avast but did not care for its
> > > interface and scanning features. Well, if AVG quits in the future then I may
> > > have to go back to AntiVir if they still support 98 Second Edition but I will
> > > just wait and see.
> >
> > Dan, I hope to give Avast a try soon. From my research it seems to get
> > much better reviews, offer far more protection than AVG (P2P, instant
> > messaging). I will try to report on my experience with Avast.
>
> Dan. I just went to the Avira AntiVir site. They no longer support
> Win98/ME.
>
> Windows 98/Me
> As of June 30th, 2007 Avira does not support this Microsoft operating
> system anymore. A download package for Windows 98/ME is therefore no
> longer provided.
>

Thanks and that information is unfortunate. I may have to write to AVG
and let my concerns be known. I tried Avast a while back and was annoyed how
it wanted to scan so often and just with the interface and load time in
general. I have been really satisfied with AVG and was pleased how when I
removed it the program went out of its way to remove itself fully. I will
stick with AVG for 98 Second Edition for as long as possible. I did run into
issues with Antivir with 98SE in the past so I am not too disappointed that
it no longer supports 98 but thanks for the information anyway.

 

[pixturesk@gmail.com]

On Sep 29, 8:36 am, Dan <D...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> "pixtur...@gmail.com" wrote:
> > On Sep 29, 7:07 am, "pixtur...@gmail.com" <pixtur...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Sep 29, 1:26 am, Dan <D...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > > > I have heard about this as well and it is annoying since I think AVG should
> > > > at least match Avast's policy. I tried Avast but did not care for its
> > > > interface and scanning features. Well, if AVG quits in the future then I may
> > > > have to go back to AntiVir if they still support 98 Second Edition but I will
> > > > just wait and see.
>
> > > Dan, I hope to give Avast a try soon. From my research it seems to get
> > > much better reviews, offer far more protection than AVG (P2P, instant
> > > messaging). I will try to report on my experience with Avast.
>
> > Dan. I just went to the Avira AntiVir site. They no longer support
> > Win98/ME.
>
> > Windows 98/Me
> > As of June 30th, 2007 Avira does not support this Microsoft operating
> > system anymore. A download package for Windows 98/ME is therefore no
> > longer provided.
>
> Thanks and that information is unfortunate. I may have to write to AVG
> and let my concerns be known. I tried Avast a while back and was annoyed how
> it wanted to scan so often and just with the interface and load time in
> general. I have been really satisfied with AVG and was pleased how when I
> removed it the program went out of its way to remove itself fully. I will
> stick with AVG for 98 Second Edition for as long as possible. I did run into
> issues with Antivir with 98SE in the past so I am not too disappointed that
> it no longer supports 98 but thanks for the information anyway.

Hi Dan. I also am re-thinking using Avast. Upon further checking, I
see that it will not perform a real boot up scanning on Win98SE. Also
there might be some proxy re-configuration in Avast because of 98SE,
as well as, there might be a conflict with the Sygate Personal
Firewall I am using. I am not of the computer generation so these
factors have given me pause to re-think my choice of Avast. I agree
with contacting AVG about continuing to support 98SE. If you can give
me the correct link, I also will express my concerns. The only contact
info I can see is for the paid version, no one else can contact them.
Thanks.

 

[Nigel Stapley]

pixturesk@gmail.com wrote:

> Hi Dan. I also am re-thinking using Avast. Upon further checking, I
> see that it will not perform a real boot up scanning on Win98SE. Also
> there might be some proxy re-configuration in Avast because of 98SE,
> as well as, there might be a conflict with the Sygate Personal
> Firewall I am using.


For what it's worth, I use Avast! with Sygate PF (v5.5 build 2710), and
it doesn't seem to cause me any problems.


--
Regards

Nigel Stapley

www.judgemental.plus.com

<reply-to will bounce>

 

[pixturesk@gmail.com]

On Sep 29, 6:55 pm, Nigel Stapley <u...@judgemental.plus.com> wrote:
> pixtur...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Hi Dan. I also am re-thinking using Avast. Upon further checking, I
> > see that it will not perform a real boot up scanning on Win98SE. Also
> > there might be some proxy re-configuration in Avast because of 98SE,
> > as well as, there might be a conflict with the Sygate Personal
> > Firewall I am using.
>
> For what it's worth, I use Avast! with Sygate PF (v5.5 build 2710), and
> it doesn't seem to cause me any problems.
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Nigel Stapley
>
> www.judgemental.plus.com
>
> <reply-to will bounce>

Nigel. Do you just use the default settings in Avast, when running it
with Sygate 5.5 2710, (the version Sygate suggests for Win98SE) in
Win98SE? Thanks.

 

[Nigel Stapley]

pixturesk@gmail.com wrote:
> On Sep 29, 6:55 pm, Nigel Stapley <u...@judgemental.plus.com> wrote:
>> pixtur...@gmail.com wrote:
>>> Hi Dan. I also am re-thinking using Avast. Upon further checking, I
>>> see that it will not perform a real boot up scanning on Win98SE. Also
>>> there might be some proxy re-configuration in Avast because of 98SE,
>>> as well as, there might be a conflict with the Sygate Personal
>>> Firewall I am using.
>> For what it's worth, I use Avast! with Sygate PF (v5.5 build 2710), and
>> it doesn't seem to cause me any problems.
>>
>> --
>> Regards
>>
>> Nigel Stapley
>>
>> www.judgemental.plus.com
>>
>> <reply-to will bounce>
>
> Nigel. Do you just use the default settings in Avast, when running it
> with Sygate 5.5 2710, (the version Sygate suggests for Win98SE) in
> Win98SE? Thanks.
>

Of the six resident providers, I only have Internet Mail, Standard
Shield and Web Shield running (although the Outlook/Exchange one is
running as I type this - even though I use Tbird!). I have VRDB set to
generate only when the system is idle and I don't have VRDB as a
separate icon.

There are one or two other little tweaks (exclusion of certain file
types, etc.), but nothing which is likely to make any difference to
performance.

However, there is a known issue when you opt to do a scan of selected
files and folders (rather than the whole drive), whereby your Explorer
icons (in toolbar, systray, etc.) disappear afterwards and you have to
reboot to get them back. Avast! don't seem to want to recognise this
problem exists.

Still, I've been using Avast! for 4-5 years and am very happy with it. YMMV.

HTH

--
Regards

Nigel Stapley

www.judgemental.plus.com

<reply-to will bounce>

 

[Dan]

Thanks for your feedback, Nigel and I will have to consider Avast if and when
98 Second Edition is eliminated by AVG. I have just been so pleased with AVG
and my dad, Ivan likes it as well for his XP Professional Dell laptop.

 

[Galen Somerville]

"Dan" <Dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4474B68D-E375-46E0-82BD-8C890E48CD73@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for your feedback, Nigel and I will have to consider Avast if and when
> 98 Second Edition is eliminated by AVG. I have just been so pleased with AVG
> and my dad, Ivan likes it as well for his XP Professional Dell laptop.

Theres a difference between AVG not providing an install for Win98 versus AVG not providing updates
for Win98.

If the updates still work then just hang on to the last install version that covers Win98.

I do the same with Zone Alarm for Win98.

If AVG makes it so the older installs can't be done, that's another story. Anyone have more info on
this?

Galen

 

[PCR]

Nigel Stapley wrote:
| pixturesk@gmail.com wrote:
|> On Sep 29, 6:55 pm, Nigel Stapley <u...@judgemental.plus.com> wrote:
|>> pixtur...@gmail.com wrote:
|>>> Hi Dan. I also am re-thinking using Avast. Upon further checking, I
|>>> see that it will not perform a real boot up scanning on Win98SE.
|>>> Also there might be some proxy re-configuration in Avast because
|>>> of 98SE, as well as, there might be a conflict with the Sygate
|>>> Personal Firewall I am using.
|>> For what it's worth, I use Avast! with Sygate PF (v5.5 build 2710),
|>> and it doesn't seem to cause me any problems.
|>>
|>> --
|>> Regards
|>>
|>> Nigel Stapley
|>>
|>> www.judgemental.plus.com
|>>
|>> <reply-to will bounce>
|>
|> Nigel. Do you just use the default settings in Avast, when running it
|> with Sygate 5.5 2710, (the version Sygate suggests for Win98SE) in
|> Win98SE? Thanks.
|>
|
| Of the six resident providers, I only have Internet Mail, Standard
| Shield and Web Shield running (although the Outlook/Exchange one is
| running as I type this - even though I use Tbird!). I have VRDB set to
| generate only when the system is idle and I don't have VRDB as a
| separate icon.
|
| There are one or two other little tweaks (exclusion of certain file
| types, etc.), but nothing which is likely to make any difference to
| performance.
|
| However, there is a known issue when you opt to do a scan of selected
| files and folders (rather than the whole drive), whereby your Explorer
| icons (in toolbar, systray, etc.) disappear afterwards and you have to
| reboot to get them back. Avast! don't seem to want to recognise this
| problem exists.

I like avast!. It takes its updated defs lots quicker than McAfee ever
did. Also, it takes them automatically once connected to the NET-- you
don't have to remember to do it! Occasionally, I will get an error
message that the defs came in corrupt. Then, the easy fix is to do it
manually-- R-Clk, avast!, Updating, iAVS Update. That fixes it every
time!

That problem of mussed icons doesn't happen-- if you don't close the
main avast! interface window. So...

(a) R-Clk Avast! in the tray, & select "Start avast! Antivirus".
(b) Click the "Folder Selection" button, & cancel it's requestor.
(Or, go ahead & select a folder & scan them.)
(c) Close Avast!.

If you never do (c), you never lose the icons. If you reboot having
never done (c), you don't lose C:\Windows\ShellIconCache, either, for
Windows to have to regenerate it.

Also, if you have just one folder to scan or even just one full drive,
you DON'T need the main interface to do it at all. Just R-Clk the folder
or drive in Explorer & scan it using avast!'s Explorer interface. The
only drawback is that the result won't be written to the .log-- "Simple
user interface.txt".

Here are other problems...

(1) Sometimes Avast! goes into self-extractable's to scan the files
inside-- & sometimes it DOESN'T! It goes into "WMP_v.7.1.exe", but not
into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Works\1033\Manual\AR40ENG.EXE"-- yet
BOTH can be opened by WinZip. Also,

However, (before I excluded it) it went into "C:\Program
Files\RioPort\Audio Manager\Setupmdm.exe"-- & that one CANNOT be opened
by WinZip. But I guess it could be someone else's self-extractable.

I have no idea how well McAfee did with those self-extractable's,
though-- SO, it's hard to really complain. And I haven't seen avast!
fail to enter a .cab or .zip.

(2) It gives me a false alarm on "C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio
Manager\Setupmdm.exe". No other virus detector in the world says that
file has a virus! However, I was able to set avast! to exclude that file
from consideration after restoring it.

(3) After quarantining & restoring SetupMDM.exe, its date changed from
what I recall to be a 1999 date to...

C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio Manager>dir setupmdm.exe
Directory of C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio Manager
SETUPMDM EXE 195,716 06-25-07 3:31p Setupmdm.exe

And it SHOWED 1999 while in the chest! Damn! Other than that, the avast!
virus chest worked smoothly.

(4) I don't find avast!'s .log ("Simple user interface.txt") to be very
informative. It doesn't say what options were used to perform the scan--
which folders, whether archives were selected, or whether a Quick,
Normal, or Thorough was done.

Overall-- I'm very pleased with avast!. It scans quicker than McAfee
did, too.

| Still, I've been using Avast! for 4-5 years and am very happy with
| it. YMMV.
|
| HTH
|
| --
| Regards
|
| Nigel Stapley
|
| www.judgemental.plus.com
|
| <reply-to will bounce>

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

 

[pixturesk@gmail.com]

On Sep 30, 6:26 pm, "PCR" <pcr...@netzero.net> wrote:
> Nigel Stapley wrote:
> | pixtur...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> |> On Sep 29, 6:55 pm, Nigel Stapley <u...@judgemental.plus.com> wrote:|>> pixtur...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> |>>> Hi Dan. I also am re-thinking using Avast. Upon further checking, I
> |>>> see that it will not perform a real boot up scanning on Win98SE.
> |>>> Also there might be some proxy re-configuration in Avast because
> |>>> of 98SE, as well as, there might be a conflict with the Sygate
> |>>> Personal Firewall I am using.
> |>> For what it's worth, I use Avast! with Sygate PF (v5.5 build 2710),
> |>> and it doesn't seem to cause me any problems.
> |>>
> |>> --
> |>> Regards
> |>>
> |>> Nigel Stapley
> |>>
> |>>www.judgemental.plus.com
> |>>
> |>> <reply-to will bounce>
> |>
> |> Nigel. Do you just use the default settings in Avast, when running it
> |> with Sygate 5.5 2710, (the version Sygate suggests for Win98SE) in
> |> Win98SE? Thanks.
> |>
> |
> | Of the six resident providers, I only have Internet Mail, Standard
> | Shield and Web Shield running (although the Outlook/Exchange one is
> | running as I type this - even though I use Tbird!). I have VRDB set to
> | generate only when the system is idle and I don't have VRDB as a
> | separate icon.
> |
> | There are one or two other little tweaks (exclusion of certain file
> | types, etc.), but nothing which is likely to make any difference to
> | performance.
> |
> | However, there is a known issue when you opt to do a scan of selected
> | files and folders (rather than the whole drive), whereby your Explorer
> | icons (in toolbar, systray, etc.) disappear afterwards and you have to
> | reboot to get them back. Avast! don't seem to want to recognise this
> | problem exists.
>
> I like avast!. It takes its updated defs lots quicker than McAfee ever
> did. Also, it takes them automatically once connected to the NET-- you
> don't have to remember to do it! Occasionally, I will get an error
> message that the defs came in corrupt. Then, the easy fix is to do it
> manually-- R-Clk, avast!, Updating, iAVS Update. That fixes it every
> time!
>
> That problem of mussed icons doesn't happen-- if you don't close the
> main avast! interface window. So...
>
> (a) R-Clk Avast! in the tray, & select "Start avast! Antivirus".
> (b) Click the "Folder Selection" button, & cancel it's requestor.
> (Or, go ahead & select a folder & scan them.)
> (c) Close Avast!.
>
> If you never do (c), you never lose the icons. If you reboot having
> never done (c), you don't lose C:\Windows\ShellIconCache, either, for
> Windows to have to regenerate it.
>
> Also, if you have just one folder to scan or even just one full drive,
> you DON'T need the main interface to do it at all. Just R-Clk the folder
> or drive in Explorer & scan it using avast!'s Explorer interface. The
> only drawback is that the result won't be written to the .log-- "Simple
> user interface.txt".
>
> Here are other problems...
>
> (1) Sometimes Avast! goes into self-extractable's to scan the files
> inside-- & sometimes it DOESN'T! It goes into "WMP_v.7.1.exe", but not
> into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Works\1033\Manual\AR40ENG.EXE"-- yet
> BOTH can be opened by WinZip. Also,
>
> However, (before I excluded it) it went into "C:\Program
> Files\RioPort\Audio Manager\Setupmdm.exe"-- & that one CANNOT be opened
> by WinZip. But I guess it could be someone else's self-extractable.
>
> I have no idea how well McAfee did with those self-extractable's,
> though-- SO, it's hard to really complain. And I haven't seen avast!
> fail to enter a .cab or .zip.
>
> (2) It gives me a false alarm on "C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio
> Manager\Setupmdm.exe". No other virus detector in the world says that
> file has a virus! However, I was able to set avast! to exclude that file
> from consideration after restoring it.
>
> (3) After quarantining & restoring SetupMDM.exe, its date changed from
> what I recall to be a 1999 date to...
>
> C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio Manager>dir setupmdm.exe
> Directory of C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio Manager
> SETUPMDM EXE 195,716 06-25-07 3:31p Setupmdm.exe
>
> And it SHOWED 1999 while in the chest! Damn! Other than that, the avast!
> virus chest worked smoothly.
>
> (4) I don't find avast!'s .log ("Simple user interface.txt") to be very
> informative. It doesn't say what options were used to perform the scan--
> which folders, whether archives were selected, or whether a Quick,
> Normal, or Thorough was done.
>
> Overall-- I'm very pleased with avast!. It scans quicker than McAfee
> did, too.
>
> | Still, I've been using Avast! for 4-5 years and am very happy with
> | it. YMMV.
> |
> | HTH
> |
> | --
> | Regards
> |
> | Nigel Stapley
> |
> |www.judgemental.plus.com
> |
> | <reply-to will bounce>
>
> --
> Thanks or Good Luck,
> There may be humor in this post, and,
> Naturally, you will not sue,
> Should things get worse after this,
> PCR
> pcr...@netzero.net

Nigel, Dan. I sent another message to the AVG forum essentially asking
them to continue supporting AVG Free for 98SE. They say that because
Microsoft is no longer supporting 98, especially updates, security
issues, that they cannot continue to support 98 as well after August
2008.
So I just took the plunge, uninstalling AVG, (disconnecting from the
internet first), then installing Avast Home Edition Free. The install
+ all the things you were mentioning Nigel, went smoothly, then I re-
connected to the internet, got all the virus + program updates,
configured the program settings to my liking. I was sent a
registration key be email which I entered as part of the install
process. This license goes for 14 months, at which time I just re-
register, yearly, that's how they keep statistics about program usage.
On my first "C" drive scan Avast found 6 viruses that AVG missed.
Avast goes much further than AVG, providing protection for instant
messaging, P2P, also works perfectly with Sygate 5.5 2710. The forum
is very useful, very informative, one of their people helped me with a
couple of configuration issues. I'll try Avast for the next while
making sure that everything is working properly. Even the online user
+ professional reviews for Avast are very positive. Nice to know that
I can continue to use 98SE for the foreseeable future.

 

[Dan]

Have you tried AVG, PCR? I tried Avast after AntiVir and was disappointed
with it. I was so pleased with the low overhead CPU cost of AVG and how it
removes registry entries when the program is removed. I hated all the
auto-scanning defaults of Avast. What do you think?

 

[Dan]

The whole security and safety issue is a lie according to me, secunia and
Chris Quirke, MVP. I will stick with AVG since hackers are not targeting 9x
consumer source code like they target NT (New Technology that lacks a
maintenance operating system like DOS) and Microsoft has tied Internet
Explorer with their operating systems which is a huge mistake like the United
States Justice Department pointed out in 1990 and hopefully the European
Union can finally set Microsoft straight because although I like and respect
the company --- Microsoft does so much better with competition. Remember
Netscape and Internet Explorer and now we have Opera and my current favorite
of Mozilla Firefox. I think Microsoft should ship the operating system bare
of the browser and include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera on a
cd to consumers. Microsoft needs to make another flavor of Vista and XP
Professional and XP Home without the browser and with a cd of at least three
browsers with theirs being the browser they want you to install of course.
Microsoft should do this because of all the ad ware and garbage on the
Internet that may stop legitimate users from using either Mozilla Firefox
and/or Opera and/or Internet Explorer. In my opinion, Apple also needs to
stop shipping their web browser Safari and make the same commitment as
Microsoft and ship with Mozilla Firefox as well since it supports Apple too
and has 256 cipher strength compared to the now weak in my opinion 128 cipher
strength. I know 128 bit cipher strength is not weaked but it can be hacked
with the time and right tools. Sorry, I have not attempted to do this and
was just relaying my experience with my APS (Albuquerque Public School) email
at webmail.aps.edu being hacked. I have heard that APS has now improved
their security with webmail and VPN access but I cannot yet prove it and I am
only reporting what I know. Have a nice week.

http://cquirke.wordpress.com/

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/profile=8ee44ddb-6550-4400-966d-9827b1a109b8

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11573761&postID=3065010928190918746

http://www.spywarepoint.com/forums/t26963-p7-microsoft-zero-day-security-holes-being-exploited.html

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/bulletins/SB07-267.html

http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/dod.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx

http://secunia.com/product/13/?task=advisories (windows 98 second edition)

http://secunia.com/product/22/?task=advisories (xp professional)

http://secunia.com/product/11/?task=advisories (I.E. 6)

http://secunia.com/product/12366/?task=advisories (I.E. 7)

http://secunia.com/product/12434/?task=advisories (Mozilla Firefox 2.x)

Please check out these web sites if you like and really see how much more
safe 98 Second Edition is than XP Professional. If you search about XP Home
you will see that as well and even safer than Windows 2000. The public must
demand from Microsoft another Windows 9x product for consumers who want to
play their old DOS games and educators who want to teach your children using
older programs like Space for Windows 3.1 that will not run on 2000, XP Home
or Pro. and certainly not on Vista. I await the comments and those that are
upset that 98 Second Edition is safer and Mozilla Firefox is more secure than
Internet Explorer because it uses 256 bit cipher strength (A.E.S.) encryption
that supports back to Windows 98. Why do you think the top government
agencies put important stuff on computers not connected to the Internet and
less but fairly important stuff behind at least 256 bit AES cipher strength
encryption. I await everyone's comments on this long post with lots of
weblinks and now I get to be like PCR and his many web-links. Have a great
week. <grin>

 

[pixturesk@gmail.com]

On Oct 1, 1:42 am, Dan <D...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Have you tried AVG, PCR? I tried Avast after AntiVir and was disappointed
> with it. I was so pleased with the low overhead CPU cost of AVG and how it
> removes registry entries when the program is removed. I hated all the
> auto-scanning defaults of Avast. What do you think?

Dan. From my preliminary attempts with Avast, I find it quite easy to
use. You can make a lot of the automatic scanning manual (which I set
for the updates), as well as, set how complete you want the scanning
to be. Not being of the computer generation, I just want something
that works problem-free. Certain features of Avast will not work on
98SE, none that are significant, so as long as Avast continues to
support 98SE, easy for me to navigate, I'll continue using it. I also
use Firefox 2.0.0.7, have about 25 extensions which takes browsing,
for me, to a vary high level. I also use CCleaner, AdAware, Spyware
Blaster, Hijack This, Reg Seeker, MRU Blaster) so I feel that my
computer is just about as safe as can be.

 

[Dan]

I do not like Ad aware because of false positives in the past so I no longer
use it on my dual-boot with 98 Second Edition on one 80 gig. Western Digital
hard drive and one 120 gig. hard drive that is also Western Digital and they
actually are 2 seperate hard drives. The 120 gig has Windows XP
Professional. Unfortunately, I did not study up on Cisco VPN access so it
completly messed up my computer by having problems between it and 98 Second
Edition as well as a potential hacking of my computer. The ASUS motherboard
is still being repaired. Hopefully, I will get it back within 3 weeks or
less from today.

 

[Dan]

I forgot to add that I will continue to use AVG Free until August 2008 or
around that date because I see no reason to switch since this is still almost
a year away.

"pixturesk@gmail.com" wrote:

> On Oct 1, 1:42 am, Dan <D...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > Have you tried AVG, PCR? I tried Avast after AntiVir and was disappointed
> > with it. I was so pleased with the low overhead CPU cost of AVG and how it
> > removes registry entries when the program is removed. I hated all the
> > auto-scanning defaults of Avast. What do you think?
>
> Dan. From my preliminary attempts with Avast, I find it quite easy to
> use. You can make a lot of the automatic scanning manual (which I set
> for the updates), as well as, set how complete you want the scanning
> to be. Not being of the computer generation, I just want something
> that works problem-free. Certain features of Avast will not work on
> 98SE, none that are significant, so as long as Avast continues to
> support 98SE, easy for me to navigate, I'll continue using it. I also
> use Firefox 2.0.0.7, have about 25 extensions which takes browsing,
> for me, to a vary high level. I also use CCleaner, AdAware, Spyware
> Blaster, Hijack This, Reg Seeker, MRU Blaster) so I feel that my
> computer is just about as safe as can be.
>
>

 

[PCR]

pixturesk@gmail.com wrote:
| On Sep 30, 6:26 pm, "PCR" <pcr...@netzero.net> wrote:
|> Nigel Stapley wrote:
|> | pixtur...@gmail.com wrote:
|>
|> |> On Sep 29, 6:55 pm, Nigel Stapley <u...@judgemental.plus.com>
|> |> wrote:|>> pixtur...@gmail.com wrote:
|>
|> |>>> Hi Dan. I also am re-thinking using Avast. Upon further
|> |>>> checking, I see that it will not perform a real boot up
|> |>>> scanning on Win98SE. Also there might be some proxy
|> |>>> re-configuration in Avast because of 98SE, as well as, there
|> |>>> might be a conflict with the Sygate Personal Firewall I am
|> |>>> using.
|> |>> For what it's worth, I use Avast! with Sygate PF (v5.5 build
|> |>> 2710), and it doesn't seem to cause me any problems.
|> |>>
|> |>> --
|> |>> Regards
|> |>>
|> |>> Nigel Stapley
|> |>>
|> |>>www.judgemental.plus.com
|> |>>
|> |>> <reply-to will bounce>
|> |>
|> |> Nigel. Do you just use the default settings in Avast, when
|> |> running it
|> |> with Sygate 5.5 2710, (the version Sygate suggests for Win98SE) in
|> |> Win98SE? Thanks.
|> |>
|> |
|> | Of the six resident providers, I only have Internet Mail, Standard
|> | Shield and Web Shield running (although the Outlook/Exchange one is
|> | running as I type this - even though I use Tbird!). I have VRDB
|> | set to generate only when the system is idle and I don't have VRDB
|> | as a separate icon.
|> |
|> | There are one or two other little tweaks (exclusion of certain file
|> | types, etc.), but nothing which is likely to make any difference to
|> | performance.
|> |
|> | However, there is a known issue when you opt to do a scan of
|> | selected files and folders (rather than the whole drive), whereby
|> | your Explorer icons (in toolbar, systray, etc.) disappear
|> | afterwards and you have to reboot to get them back. Avast! don't
|> | seem to want to recognise this problem exists.
|>
|> I like avast!. It takes its updated defs lots quicker than McAfee
|> ever did. Also, it takes them automatically once connected to the
|> NET-- you don't have to remember to do it! Occasionally, I will get
|> an error message that the defs came in corrupt. Then, the easy fix
|> is to do it manually-- R-Clk, avast!, Updating, iAVS Update. That
|> fixes it every time!
|>
|> That problem of mussed icons doesn't happen-- if you don't close the
|> main avast! interface window. So...
|>
|> (a) R-Clk Avast! in the tray, & select "Start avast! Antivirus".
|> (b) Click the "Folder Selection" button, & cancel it's requestor.
|> (Or, go ahead & select a folder & scan them.)
|> (c) Close Avast!.
|>
|> If you never do (c), you never lose the icons. If you reboot having
|> never done (c), you don't lose C:\Windows\ShellIconCache, either, for
|> Windows to have to regenerate it.
|>
|> Also, if you have just one folder to scan or even just one full
|> drive, you DON'T need the main interface to do it at all. Just R-Clk
|> the folder or drive in Explorer & scan it using avast!'s Explorer
|> interface. The only drawback is that the result won't be written to
|> the .log-- "Simple user interface.txt".

UPDATE: Actually, even using the avast! Explorer interface, you may
select multiple folders (using the SHIFT or CTRL keys) & hand them to
avast! for a scan.

|> Here are other problems...
|>
|> (1) Sometimes Avast! goes into self-extractable's to scan the files
|> inside-- & sometimes it DOESN'T! It goes into "WMP_v.7.1.exe", but
|> not into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
|> Works\1033\Manual\AR40ENG.EXE"-- yet BOTH can be opened by WinZip.
|> Also,
|>
|> However, (before I excluded it) it went into "C:\Program
|> Files\RioPort\Audio Manager\Setupmdm.exe"-- & that one CANNOT be
|> opened by WinZip. But I guess it could be someone else's
|> self-extractable.
|>
|> I have no idea how well McAfee did with those self-extractable's,
|> though-- SO, it's hard to really complain. And I haven't seen avast!
|> fail to enter a .cab or .zip.
|>
|> (2) It gives me a false alarm on "C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio
|> Manager\Setupmdm.exe". No other virus detector in the world says that
|> file has a virus! However, I was able to set avast! to exclude that
|> file from consideration after restoring it.
|>
|> (3) After quarantining & restoring SetupMDM.exe, its date changed
|> from what I recall to be a 1999 date to...
|>
|> C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio Manager>dir setupmdm.exe
|> Directory of C:\Program Files\RioPort\Audio Manager
|> SETUPMDM EXE 195,716 06-25-07 3:31p Setupmdm.exe
|>
|> And it SHOWED 1999 while in the chest! Damn! Other than that, the
|> avast! virus chest worked smoothly.
|>
|> (4) I don't find avast!'s .log ("Simple user interface.txt") to be
|> very informative. It doesn't say what options were used to perform
|> the scan-- which folders, whether archives were selected, or whether
|> a Quick, Normal, or Thorough was done.
|>
|> Overall-- I'm very pleased with avast!. It scans quicker than McAfee
|> did, too.
|>
|> | Still, I've been using Avast! for 4-5 years and am very happy with
|> | it. YMMV.
|> |
|> | HTH
|> |
|> | --
|> | Regards
|> |
|> | Nigel Stapley
|> |
|> |www.judgemental.plus.com
|> |
|> | <reply-to will bounce>
|>
|> --
|> Thanks or Good Luck,
|> There may be humor in this post, and,
|> Naturally, you will not sue,
|> Should things get worse after this,
|> PCR
|> pcr...@netzero.net
|
| Nigel, Dan. I sent another message to the AVG forum essentially asking
| them to continue supporting AVG Free for 98SE. They say that because
| Microsoft is no longer supporting 98, especially updates, security
| issues, that they cannot continue to support 98 as well after August
| 2008.
| So I just took the plunge, uninstalling AVG, (disconnecting from the
| internet first), then installing Avast Home Edition Free. The install
| + all the things you were mentioning Nigel, went smoothly, then I re-
| connected to the internet, got all the virus + program updates,
| configured the program settings to my liking. I was sent a
| registration key be email which I entered as part of the install
| process. This license goes for 14 months, at which time I just re-
| register, yearly, that's how they keep statistics about program usage.
| On my first "C" drive scan Avast found 6 viruses that AVG missed.
| Avast goes much further than AVG, providing protection for instant
| messaging, P2P, also works perfectly with Sygate 5.5 2710. The forum
| is very useful, very informative, one of their people helped me with a
| couple of configuration issues. I'll try Avast for the next while
| making sure that everything is working properly. Even the online user
| + professional reviews for Avast are very positive. Nice to know that
| I can continue to use 98SE for the foreseeable future.

Very good! Keep us informed on any peculiarities you may notice. By the
way,...

(a) D-Clk avast! in the Tray.
(b) Highlight "WEB Shield" in the Installed Providers box.
(c) Visit a WEB site or two.

Do you see the "Scanned Count" number increasing?


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

 

[PCR]

Dan wrote:
| Have you tried AVG, PCR? I tried Avast after AntiVir and was
| disappointed with it. I was so pleased with the low overhead CPU
| cost of AVG and how it removes registry entries when the program is
| removed. I hated all the auto-scanning defaults of Avast. What do
| you think?

Well, I am overall pleased with avast!, as I wrote earlier. I did have
occasion to uninstall avast! briefly, & it did very well. It may have
left one/two empty Registry key(s) behind that were easy to delete &
perhaps one empty folder on the HDD. Also, it did not undo a tweak I had
myself done (possibly on Stapley's urging) believing it provided a
better avast! WEB Shield. But that was easily manually undone. After
that, I did reinstall avast! & am overall very pleased.

Does AVG make any attempt to scan inside self-extractables?

For instance, I can R-Clk "WMP_v.7.1.exe" in Explorer, chose to scan it
with avast!-- & shortly I will discover 856 files of 42.2 MB were
scanned & are virus-free!


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net