Vistapocalypse

I never used ClamWin because it has no real-time protection, which I regard as a necessary feature and is in fact the only feature that ever saved me from a serious online threat. Of course real-time protection uses some system resources, but those are generally not as scarce for systems running Vista or newer as they were in the XP era.

@ScrapMechanicFan2016 has posted in the lengthy Extended Kernel thread, “Webroot Secure Anywhere requires the SHA-2 updates...” (That is also true of ESET, or soon will be.) I wonder what version of Webroot he is using with extended kernel, and what was the last version to officially support Windows Vista? I can see that Webroot System Requirements no longer include Vista, and there is a download for the final XP-compatible release, which would no doubt work on vanilla Vista but wasn’t necessarily the last version to support Vista. We try to keep track of such details in the thread Last versions of software for Windows Vista.

I believe you were recently browsing the “Download links” thread? I think you are looking for KB932925, unless that is a newer version of the Hold’em extra. I tried searching Microsoft Update Catalog for it, but found no results. However, greenhillmaniac has it in his repository. You can find a repository link in the first post of his thread Windows Vista Update Repository. He has Ultimate Extras folders in both the x64 and x86 folders. I wish you success!

Microsoft has said that definition updates will continue until 2023: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-is-microsoft-security-essentials-c25ad47a-7d15-8072-1438-b07dffcbbb20 I wonder if you used AVG’s removal tool? If not, then it could be that the darn thing is still running, and you might not be able to install MSE or any other AV. Have you reinstalled Win7 after you stopped using AVG?

I can’t argue with that: the MSE client hasn’t been upgraded since 2016. On the other hand, the old antispyware version of Defender is something that Win7 inherited from Vista, and is definitely not equivalent to Defender on Win10 or even 8.1. You have not said whether or not any third-party antivirus program (all of which still support Win7) is installed. I thought your issue might have been a conflict with another real-time security product. Running two or more real-time solutions simultaneously has been known to cause slowdowns, false positives, etc.

Do you also have an antivirus installed? If so, then I would recommend keeping the old Windows Defender antispyware turned off. If not, then I would suggest installing Microsoft Security Essentials (which would turn off Defender because it’s better).

Not strange if (1) SHA-2 support is installed and (2) you have manually installed definition updates. See my July 2019 post, especially the Edit and screenshot, for another imperfection that worried me. (Avast definitions do not require SHA-2 support or manual installation.)

Connection failed looks rather imperfect.

OT: Do any of those have built-in support for TLS 1.2 or do they all rely on systemwide protocol support (i.e. IE)?

Avast 18.8 can certainly get definition updates on vanilla Vista. Do you mean it wasn’t working with an older version of extended kernel, but now it does? I’m glad to hear that someone is able to use Avast with extended kernel! Let us know if you encounter any issues.

Since this thread has been bumped... You reported “Kaspersky crashes” in your January 25 post in the lengthy extended kernel thread. Was that issue ever resolved, perhaps by the latest version of extended kernel? @VistaEX recently posted here that “avast can get definition updates now” [with the latest extended kernel?], although he later edited out the remark after I quoted it two posts below. I wonder what version number of Avast he is using with extended kernel, and if he might be inclined to share any other details with us? I have certainly tried an extremely old version with vanilla Vista as recently as July 2019, but it would not be my recommendation. By all means share further details about using MSE with extended kernel if you would.

That was not possible when I was trying out Yandex 17 a year ago (see 2nd screenshot in linked post). Looks like I was able to install UBO 1.24.4 from the Chrome Store, which was probably not the last CRX2 version but not far from it. My how time flies.

That’s interesting. I wouldn’t want to irritate Dixel by discussing an antivirus here, but perhaps you could post more details about using Avast with latest extended kernel in Best Windows Vista anti-virus thread?

Welcome to MSFN Licht92. Since no other Win7 users have reported that issue, did you install an antivirus last month? That would usually turn off Defender, and you only get automatic definition updates when it is turned on. Still, M$ did block antispyware definition updates for Vista in 2019, so they may have done the same to Win7 now. In that case, you could manually download and install definitions from this M$ page: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/defenderupdates

You could run sfc /verifyonly (which does not “fix” anything if I remember correctly), then check CBS log to see if anything other than extended kernel files was found, but that does sound rather tedious to me.

Your hard drive might be wearing out. About reinstalling Vista, I hope you are aware that Windows Update no longer works.

True, but OP said he does not want that browser or anything Firefox-based, which narrows the choices for Windows XP considerably. (He might want to consider Windows 7.)

Welcome to MSFN Kewun. I don’t think “Advanced Chrome” was really based on Chromium 54 despite its user agent string, and it seems like I heard it was developed in China like Extreme Explorer 360, which btw is currently the darling of this forum. If you don’t want anything Chinese, then you may want to consider Yandex 17.4.1, which was a Russian browser version based on Chromium 57 and released about a year after your Chrome 49. Chrome 49 only supports TLS 1.2 insofar as Internet Explorer can be updated to support TLS 1.2, which is not very far in the case of IE8 - and no support at all for TLS 1.3. I’m afraid that RainyShadow’s suggestion above might be as good as it gets.

No, those builds are only needed by computers that don’t even support SSE2, which is only a fraction of the remaining Windows XP diehards. I think browsers that support SSE2 will be around for a long time - they just won’t be based on the latest Chromium.

You absolutely cannot use “the new version of iTunes” on XP or Vista. (In fact Apple ended support for Windows 7 and 8.1 a few months ago now.) The information posted above relates only to the possibility of signing in to your Apple account using iTunes 12.1.3, which was released in 2015 and was the last version to support XP. (Even signing in was apparently blocked for such old versions by October 2019, and I mistakenly thought that might be the reason you posted here.) If you or anyone else wanted to download iTunes 12.1.3 from Apple’s website, it can be found at this page: https://support.apple.com/downloads/itunes Note: It is not possible to support any iOS devices with such an old version (unless maybe you haven’t upgraded your iOS since 2016 or earlier).

I’m glad to hear that AVG Internet Security is still usable on Vista, but this is not AVG Support Community! If you trust AVG never to throw a false positive more than you trust these browsers, then don’t use these browsers. If these detections are behavior-based rather than signature-based (which is most likely), then you should be able to turn off behavioral detection in AVG settings. In the unlikely event that AVG definitions have blacklisted your browser, you could contact AVG to request whitelisting. (Many years ago, before AVG was bought by Avast, I persuaded them to whitelist a hack called mc2xml that was useful for acquiring Microsoft data for use with a 3rd party DVR.)

Perhaps requires SHA-2 support?

Hello KennyOmega. I’m not sure if you joined MSFN just to answer this 2-year-old question or if you would like to use iTunes 12.1.3 on Windows XP yourself? FWIW, a Windows Vista user posted on February 1, 2021 that he is now able to sign in with two-factor authentication enabled on his Apple account. If that doesn’t work for you, another Vista user posted a “trick” on March 27, 2020 that might be worth investigating.

Hmm, the original post still lists them both as ONG under PDF Viewers/Editors, so hopefully WinClient5270 will fix that sometime. (I still prefer my old Adobe Reader XI.)

Welcome back again. I concluded that functionality was gone forever soon after your October 20, 2019 post and uninstalled my legacy iTunes, so I cannot confirm your very interesting report. (I used to prefer 11.1.5 because it did not crash with a DEP error when closing on Vista like 12.1.3.)...