jds

Well, the only progress over these weeks has been with regards the "The installer is unable to initialize early avast! self-defence with error 0x0000007f! Aborting!" error. If I re-install the earlier 8.0.1497 version, I am able to "install" most 9.0.xxxx versions over this (with the help of NNN4NT5) without errors. However, the "shields" are down and actual protection is lacking (the Avast service, I think it's also called). Joe.

Thanks for the suggestion, but it doesn't fully solve my problem. I also need to be sure flash drives, CD-ROM's and floppy disks (yes, I still use them occasionally) don't introduce any nasties. :-/ Joe.

OK, thanks to blackwingcat's VC++2012 runtime (and extended kernel and NNN4NT5), I was able to get Avast 9.0.2013 both installed and "running". Unfortunately, some of Avast's "shields" could not be enabled, so actual protection was lacking. So I then tried other versions of Avast 9.0 that I could find, but all I could now get was the error "The installer is unable to initialize early avast! self-defence with error 0x0000007f! Aborting!". Even trying to re-install the previous version 9.0.2013 gives this error message! Some research on this error (albeit with different hexidecimal codes) suggested the avast utility "avastclear" could resolve this issue, but so far, no success trying several versions of this utility (some run OK and say that uninstallation was successful, but the same error persists when trying to install Avast 9.0.xxxx). Joe.

Oh, that's unexpected. Thanks for the caution, BWC. Would re-installing your extended kernel after installing the VC10 runntime fix these "collisions"? Joe.

Thanks BWC. However, perhaps I don't really understand, as I can't get this to work. I first go to your blog article 1192179, copy the link there for the "vcredist_w2k.exe" file, substitute the server name in the link, but then I get the message : "", File not found in List. Report to BlackWingCat So, what am I doing wrong? Joe. PS. OK, figured it out : 1. Ignore any links in the blog 2. Go to win2k.org 3. Click Windows Legacy Update 4. Click English 5. Click Manual Update 6. Search for "vc" (or whatever, without quotes) 7. Download from the results list ...

OK, I've found the answer to this particular requirement. Blackwingcat also released a package called NNN4NT5 (NNN4NT5.cab, MD5=f42020182e6e17cb72ea38ee193ee3d0) which allows temporary spoofing of XP (and some other versions of MSW). It does however include a warning to reset to the correct version before shutting down or rebooting, lest you not be able to boot up next time! With this I was able to fool and install Avast 9.0.2013, but now the problem is that this needs the VC++2010 redistributable package (edit: actually, it turns out it needs the VC++2012 runtime) for W2000 to be able to run ... Joe.

Thanks, Den. Good to hear from you too! FYI, since Avast became non-viable on W98, I "upgraded" to W2000, but haven't used my desktop much since then. Mostly due to lack of time, but also because this O/S doesn't work as well as W98, especially with all my DOS applications. Now Avast has dropped support for W2000, so I need to resolve this or consider Linux+Wine ... Joe.

Hi BWC, Is there a new location where this VC2010 redistributable package for W2000 can be downloaded? The link here seems to point to a defunct server. Joe.

Well, I've done a little experimentation with this, but am unable to install Avast 9.0.xxxx (the oldest Avast still supported with updated definitions), which complains it needs XP as a minimum. How do I trick the setup program that it is running on XP? The W98 KernelEx had a compatibility setting in the Explorer file properties window to select the spoofed version, but I don't see this feature here. Joe.

Hi jumper, These links to posts no longer work, due to syntax changes at MSFN. For the first one, "page__view__findpost__p__1028960" at the end of the URL needs to be changed to "?do=findComment&comment=1028960". The other two similarly. Joe.

FWIW, i have 'dbghelp.dll' version 6.0.0017.0 (DbgBuild.020528-1721) on my system. I think it came with Real Player 6. Joe. Now I've successfully installed Foxit Reader 6.0.2 0413 and 6.0.3.0524 with an additional entry. [WINSPOOL.DRV] XcvDataW=z8e Also Required: [KERNEL32.dll] ActivateActCtx=o2e0 CreateActCtxW=p1e0 DeactivateActCtx=o2e0 ReleaseActCtx=z1 winhttp.dll msxml4 SP2

Thanks, Den! I've been travelling ... now I'm playing catch-up ... Joe.

Not me (in answer to the original question). Perhaps RapidDriver (shareware) from www.entechtaiwan.com is a possibility. According to the scant history log : So the last W9x compatible version (demo) may be : http://web.archive.org/web/20060718184622/http://www.entechtaiwan.com/files/rdeval.zip OTOH, maybe even the current version is compatible, just not officially. At worst, it may require the assistance of WDMStub (search for the thread in this sub-forum). Joe.