Will Security Essentials continue to update for XP?

[casey.o]

After my recent infection of Sality virus, I have decided to run some AV
software. But I'm not willing to pay for it. Nor will I use anything
made by Symantec. I downloaded Avira and gave it a try. It crashed
upon install, giving me a BSOD, and locked up the computer. After
hhutting off the power, I got an error message saying that Windows had
recovered from a fatal error. (This is a new install of XP-Pro, right
out of the box). It ran, I scanned the HDD, and it found no viruses.
Then I began scanning an external drive with some backups on it. I
could not believe that is posted a text file called "virus.txt" as
malware. (That is something I copied off a website explaining about
some virus, and pasted into notepad). It also began several patch files
for old (win98 era) shareware programs as dangerous. (all of which have
been used in the past with no problems).

On top of that, it annoyed the hell out of me. Everytime I clcicked on
any .EXE file, I got a warning message telling me how dangerous this
file is, and I had to click RUN to actually go to the file. Yea, I know
that any executible file can be dangerous, but I dont need this annoying
hassle to remind me on EACH file. I clicked "DO NOT SHOW THIS AGAIN",
but it did....

I then went online with Firefox. (ver 14). I never had any problems
with FF before installing this AV, but now, FF ran so slow I could
barely use it, and at that point the whole computer became so slow it
literally took 3 minutes to open "Control Panel". (Which I went to, in
order to remove Avira).

Needless to Avira is gone..... (and the computer runs at normal speed
again).

I have used Security Essentials in the past, and it seemed to work OK.
That's what I intend to use again, but I'm wondering if it will be
upgraded for XP as well as other newer MS Operating Systems.
I wou7ld think the viruses would be the same so the updates would suit
all OS's.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

After my recent infection of Sality virus, I have decided to run some AV
software. But I'm not willing to pay for it. Nor will I use anything
made by Symantec. I downloaded Avira and gave it a try. It crashed
upon install, giving me a BSOD, and locked up the computer. After
hhutting off the power, I got an error message saying that Windows had
recovered from a fatal error. (This is a new install of XP-Pro, right
out of the box). It ran, I scanned the HDD, and it found no viruses.
Then I began scanning an external drive with some backups on it. I
could not believe that is posted a text file called "virus.txt" as
malware. (That is something I copied off a website explaining about
some virus, and pasted into notepad). It also began several patch files
for old (win98 era) shareware programs as dangerous. (all of which have
been used in the past with no problems).

On top of that, it annoyed the hell out of me. Everytime I clcicked on
any .EXE file, I got a warning message telling me how dangerous this
file is, and I had to click RUN to actually go to the file. Yea, I know
that any executible file can be dangerous, but I dont need this annoying
hassle to remind me on EACH file. I clicked "DO NOT SHOW THIS AGAIN",
but it did....

I then went online with Firefox. (ver 14). I never had any problems
with FF before installing this AV, but now, FF ran so slow I could
barely use it, and at that point the whole computer became so slow it
literally took 3 minutes to open "Control Panel". (Which I went to, in
order to remove Avira).

Needless to Avira is gone..... (and the computer runs at normal speed
again).

I have used Security Essentials in the past, and it seemed to work OK.
That's what I intend to use again, but I'm wondering if it will be
upgraded for XP as well as other newer MS Operating Systems.
I wou7ld think the viruses would be the same so the updates would suit
all OS's.

MSE will continue to update until July 15, 2015. But, you can not install
MSE after April 8, 2014.

 

[casey.o]

MSE will continue to update until July 15, 2015. But, you can not install
MSE after April 8, 2014.

That's not true. I installed it last week after getting that virus. It
was installed, updated and running, but the Sality virus "destroyed it"
(and destroyed everything else I tried to run to stop the virus,
including "MS maliscious software removal tool."). I could not go to
any AV sites while the virus was active, but I had the install file for
MSE on my hard drive. I installed it, and I was able to tun the updates
from MS. Apparently the version on my HDD was not the latest (I
downloaded it about a year ago), so it offerred to upgrade it, while I
was on the MS update site, but I never got that far before the virus
destroyed the installation.

If I cant install it, what else is there as far as FREE, and something
that is not going to annoy me. I dont need to get a reminder every time
I click on a .EXE file. All I want it to do is run silently in the
background until some malware enters my computer, and ONLY THEN do it's
job.

 

[casey.o]

You were able to install MSE because you had saved the executable. If you
had not and tried to get it from the Website, you would be SOL.

I thought that might be the case....

I'm using Avast on XP. It runs well for me.

Maybe that's the one I'll try....
Thanks

 

[Bruce Hagen]

That's not true. I installed it last week after getting that virus. It
was installed, updated and running, but the Sality virus "destroyed it"
(and destroyed everything else I tried to run to stop the virus,
including "MS maliscious software removal tool."). I could not go to
any AV sites while the virus was active, but I had the install file for
MSE on my hard drive. I installed it, and I was able to tun the updates
from MS. Apparently the version on my HDD was not the latest (I
downloaded it about a year ago), so it offerred to upgrade it, while I
was on the MS update site, but I never got that far before the virus
destroyed the installation.

If I cant install it, what else is there as far as FREE, and something
that is not going to annoy me. I dont need to get a reminder every time
I click on a .EXE file. All I want it to do is run silently in the
background until some malware enters my computer, and ONLY THEN do it's
job.

You were able to install MSE because you had saved the executable. If you
had not and tried to get it from the Website, you would be SOL.

I'm using Avast on XP. It runs well for me.

 

[Ken Springer]

I thought that might be the case....


Maybe that's the one I'll try....
Thanks

Avast is on all my Windows installs, including the VM's.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 25.0
Thunderbird 24.3.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>,

After my recent infection of Sality virus, I have decided to run some AV

That's a good idea (-:.

software. But I'm not willing to pay for it. Nor will I use anything
made by Symantec. I downloaded Avira and gave it a try. It crashed
upon install, giving me a BSOD, and locked up the computer. After
hhutting off the power, I got an error message saying that Windows had
recovered from a fatal error. (This is a new install of XP-Pro, right
out of the box). It ran, I scanned the HDD, and it found no viruses.

I've been using Avira since I've had this machine (which I bought new).
It's never given me any problems, apart from occasional "buy" popups:
for some years only about once a day when the daily updates came in
(which were automatically dismissed with ClickOff), and more recently
(still only about once a day) popups for their other products. The only
other thing I'd say is it's very slow to _start_ when I tell it to
manually scan a file or folder - which I usually do, although it seems
to (integrate well with Firefox and thus) scan anything I download
anyway.

Others seem happy with Avast!, and even AVG: I switched to Avira after
AVG (slowed down the machine and) blotted their copybook with the last
"upgrade" for 98, so I've never run it on XP. My 7 machine came with it
on, and it seems to be OK there.

MSE - the Microsoft one - seems to be OK too, and its definition files
_are_ being updated (the one part of XP that Microsoft have said they'll
continue to support for a while).

Then I began scanning an external drive with some backups on it. I
could not believe that is posted a text file called "virus.txt" as
malware. (That is something I copied off a website explaining about
some virus, and pasted into notepad). It also began several patch files

That wasn't the "EICAR test virus", was it? That's an executable (in a
DOS box at least!) that contains only text characters, and is recognised
by all AV software - it's intended as a trivial test for AV software.
The code does actually run - it prints something like "this is the EICAR
test virus". If this _is_ the case, (a) you'll find _any_ AV software
will declare it a virus, (b) if you rename it (I think to .com), it'll
run as I've described.

for old (win98 era) shareware programs as dangerous. (all of which have
been used in the past with no problems).

(a) are you _sure_ they haven't been infected since you last used them?
(b) even if infected with something that'll harm XP and beyond, they
_may_ still run as originally intended under 98.

On top of that, it annoyed the hell out of me. Everytime I clcicked on
any .EXE file, I got a warning message telling me how dangerous this
file is, and I had to click RUN to actually go to the file. Yea, I know
that any executible file can be dangerous, but I dont need this annoying
hassle to remind me on EACH file. I clicked "DO NOT SHOW THIS AGAIN",
but it did....

I don't get that. But if it doesn't suit you, try any of the others.

I then went online with Firefox. (ver 14). I never had any problems
with FF before installing this AV, but now, FF ran so slow I could
barely use it, and at that point the whole computer became so slow it
literally took 3 minutes to open "Control Panel". (Which I went to, in
order to remove Avira).

I'd recommend getting Revo uninstaller - even the free version. This
makes a better job of uninstalling things than their own uninstaller (it
actually invokes the application's own uninstaller as part of the
process anyway, but then goes round detecting any remaining traces -
registry keys, files, and folders - that the original uninstaller
missed, and - optionally, it lets you choose - removes those too).

Needless to Avira is gone..... (and the computer runs at normal speed
again).

_Any_ AV will slow the PC down _somewhat_, depending on how you set its
settings; at most severe, it will scan any file you read from or write
to disc, which after your recent experiences you may want to do.

I have used Security Essentials in the past, and it seemed to work OK.
That's what I intend to use again, but I'm wondering if it will be
upgraded for XP as well as other newer MS Operating Systems.

It will - see another post in this thread, which gives the (earliest)
date until.

I wou7ld think the viruses would be the same so the updates would suit
all OS's.

Well, there are viruses that won't run on earlier OSs - though ideally
the AV should detect ones that won't run on the current OS in case the
files are ever moved to one where they will run, so you could be right.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Bruce Hagen

MSE will continue to update until July 15, 2015. But, you can not
install MSE after April 8, 2014.

I think it's that you can't _download_ it now; if you already had, I
think it will still install.

 

[casey.o]

That wasn't the "EICAR test virus", was it? That's an executable (in a
DOS box at least!) that contains only text characters, and is recognised
by all AV software - it's intended as a trivial test for AV software.
The code does actually run - it prints something like "this is the EICAR
test virus". If this _is_ the case, (a) you'll find _any_ AV software
will declare it a virus, (b) if you rename it (I think to .com), it'll
run as I've described.

I'll have to open it with a hex editor. I suppose its possible'

It dont sound dangerous anyhow.......