Dave-H

Thanks, sorry I'd forgotten that! I've downloaded it ready in case I have to use it.

Panda 22 is still warning me about dodgy website links embedded in other sites, so I guess the protection is still OK at the moment. Do you have a link to the offline installer for 21, should I need to use it?

Oh I'll certainly give it a try if I can't rescue my present installation. I still have an open support case about it! If nothing comes of that, trying version 21 will be my next move. Strange that an older version would apparently be happy with the same update files which apparently crash the later version, though.

I've now tried as a test removing the cache folder completely from my Panda installation. Rather unexpectedly, the program has not recreated it. It's been running for ages now like that with no crashes, but it's not updating, presumably because it has nowhere to put the files! Doing a manual update from the option in the settings does nothing. I guess I could leave it like that, but of course, like the version of Malwarebytes I used on XP for years, it will eventually become useless for protection because of no updates. I tried Avast on my system a few years ago and never got it to work on my desktop system. Even the supposedly compatible version for XP would not run, its core service obstinately refused to start, reason unknown. I even worked with Avast's technical support people about it, and even they couldn't determine what the problem was. I tried a test install on my netbook under XP, and that worked perfectly, so what the problem was with the desktop remains a mystery.

The file version of the installer file is meaningless, unfortunately. It isn't the version of Panda Dome that it will install. It's probably just the version of the packaging process used. As far as I can see, the only way to find out what Panda version it is, without actually installing it, is to extract it with 7-Zip and look in the extracted \Program Files\Panda Security\Panda Cloud Antivirus\ folder. There you should find a file called version.ini, which, if you open it, will list the Panda version and build number.

Well, I guess of those here still using XP, very few use Panda Dome, even though it's one of the vanishingly few security programs which is still supposed to work on XP. I found one instance on the virtually dead Panda forum reporting the same problem (with no response). https://support.pandasecurity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12151&sid=a73549f228b82be2dde1657a770a28e4 My installation is still crashing all the time. It stops if I clear the recent files in the cache folder but starts again as soon as the folder repopulates.

Yes indeed, in fact, the first test I did was to replace that entire folder with one from an ISO image I made a few days before the fault appeared. It made absolutely no difference, it still carried on crashing, so I discounted the contents of that folder as having anything to do with the problem. I next looked for any other recently updated files in the Panda installation, and that led me to the cache folder in the Panda program files folder.

It's a 020-3xxx-xxxx number, which should be a standard rate London number. There is no indication that it's a premium rate number, which by law in the UK there would have to be if it were. As I'm in London myself, with a 020-8xxx-xxxx home landline number, I would expect it to have been local rate. As such, the call should have been free on my landline phone package as long as it wasn't over 60 minutes long, which it wasn't.

OK, an update. I rang the local UK number for Panda's technical support. It's operated by a company called AnyTech365. They took ages to answer the phone, but just as I was thinking about giving up, the call was answered by a very nice and very helpful guy, who sounded completely English! He wasn't aware of the problem, and I had the usual lecture about the risks of still using XP, but when I pointed out that Panda make a big thing of still supporting XP, he was quite conciliatory about it! Amazingly, when I said I'd already reported the problem via a web form, when I gave him the case number, he actually found my report from last Friday on his system! It's open and pending response apparently. I told him that I had, since the report, discovered that the files in the cache folder are apparently related to the problem, and he has added that information to the report. So, a rather better experience than I thought it would be! All I can do now is wait and see what comes back, but if nothing does, at least I now know there's a real person I can talk to if I need to.

Not to get anyone's hopes up, but I may have found a fix, or at least a workaround. In the Panda program files folder, there is a subfolder called 'cache'. I looked at that and thought, 'clearing out caches is often a good idea'. After first backing it up, of course, I deleted all the files in it. The program then ran on a reboot, with no crashes. All the instabilities seemed to have gone away. The only thing that happened was that Panda started prompting me to OK the running of a lot of program files, so maybe that's where that data was stored before. After OKing all the prompts, things were still good, but surprisingly the cache folder still didn't seem to have anything in it. The folder originally contained a .mngr file, a .util file, a .code file, and several sets of .act and .sig files, which were in pairs with the same filename. The first three files were dated from the date of the program's installation; of the other pairs, one was from back in February, and the others were all from July 3rd this year. I put all the files back, except the recent ones, which I was suspicious of, and everything is still fine. So, was there a corrupted file or files in there?

Well I'm still hoping to hear back from Panda technical support, so I won't do anything until I give up waiting if nothing happens! They do have a UK support phone number too. My installation has worked fine for seven months, with no problems at all, so if it's corrupted, I have no idea how or why. The service executable hasn't changed, so I can only assume it was something that was downloaded on a synchronisation update a couple of days ago.

Mine seems to be a bit more stable now. It doesn't seem to crash spontaneously. The one thing that seems to guarantee crashing it is hitting the start button on the taskbar. That seems to generate an instant crash. After that it restarts and seems to settle down and doesn't crash again.

That's only for XP users, though. We discovered earlier that if you download and install the latest version from Panda on Windows 10, say, you get that version. If you install it on XP, however, it automatically downloads and installs an earlier version (22.03.05). I assume that is the latest (and probably last) version for XP. The build date for that version is 12/08/2025, which I think you thought was December because you didn't realise the date was in European format, so it's August 12th, not December 8th, even older than you thought! The current version is 23.01.00.0000, whose build date is 29/06/2026, so very recent. Nothing back from Panda support as yet. I have disabled the real-time scanning, which has stopped Panda interfering with the rest of my system, but the service is still crashing. In my case I can only tell this by looking at the Windows System Event Log. The service is automatically restarted after 30 seconds.

Well, I've reported the problem and had an acknowledgement back that the report has been received. Let's see what happens!

I see absolutely no grounds for assuming that they are dropping XP support. There could be any number of reasons for this issue, none of them intentional. Could be an expired certificate, who knows?! There's only one way to find out, and that's to ask Panda, which I will!

Sorry, 'pattern update' probably isn't the right term in this case. It's the synchonisation of your installation with the Panda cloud data, which it does automatically every day. I simply forced a manual update, which appeared to work.

Stop the bickering please. FWIW I'm having the same issue with Panda Dome 22.03.05. As you say, the main service keeps stopping and then restarting. I have updated the Windows root certificates and cleared the Windows temp folder. The first instance of a crash was yesterday, 2nd July, at 1312 my time. There are other symptoms on my system, which may or may not be related. Windows Explorer is locking up quite often. It always recovers after being frozen, but it can take a couple of minutes. The taskbar is completely frozen during that time, although I can still open windows like My Computer. I have done a manual pattern update of Panda Dome, which did work. I haven't tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it, as far as I'm concerned that would be the very last resort. I'd be very surprised if this were the start of any withdrawal of Windows XP support, in fact, Panda make a big thing of the fact that it is still compatible with XP! https://www.pandasecurity.com/en/mediacenter/best-antivirus-for-windows-xp/ Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a support forum for Panda Dome, only the usual chat options.

Thanks!

No problem.

Thank you!

It has been two years since @Humming Owl last visited here. You could try sending him a PM. This is, of course, off-topic, but I hope he's OK too.

@roytam1 OK, it's taken a lot longer than last time, but we're at page 200 again! Could you do your usual thing, and when the next set of builds is rolled out, start a new part 6 thread with them? Thanks.

Thanks!

Yes indeed! He's done the same edit that I did to the file and bundled a copy of pwrp_k32.dll in the zip file with it.

Thanks, everyone. Yes, that modification makes the file work fine on XP.