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Antimalware, firewall, and other security programs for Windows XP working in 2023 and hopefully beyond I hereby open a new thread on the topic of security programs for Windows XP. I have been thinking about that for a longer time, and then I decided to tackle this project. Windows XP is a very old operating system and a deeper knowledge of how to make it more secure is very important in my opinion. Therefore, I think it makes sense to get an overview of all the security programs still available for Windows XP. The thread "Which Antiviruses are Known for a Fact to be Working on XP SP3 as of 2019?", where I have previously written frequently about antivirus programs, has become rather bloated and confusing due to many informationless posts, is mainly focused on the topic of antivirus programs for Windows XP and has been completely unstructured from the very beginning. It is good to have such a thread full of different information for reference but there are many posts either outdated, incomplete or off-topic. Therefore, I have decided to start a completely different thread from scratch. I deliberately chose the term antimalware in the title of this topic. In these days, most so-called antivirus programs can not only identify computer viruses, but also trojans, worms, rootkits, exploits, spyware, and so on. Generally speaking: a virus is a malware, but a malware is not always a virus. Therefore, malware is a generic term for any malicious software, including viruses. For many years now, the so-called antivirus programs have actually been antimalware programs. In any case, this new topic here is about antimalware, firewall and other security programs for Windows XP. Under the term other security programs, I include among others security suites like internet security and total security, antivirus, antispyware, anti-rootkit, anti-exploit, online and offline scanner, ad blocker, protection layer, virtualization, security check and control programs and so on that make the use of Windows XP safer. And to avoid any misunderstanding, the main focus in this thread is on the concept of security. Those security programs that have been officially classified as insecure or not trustworthy are not the subject of consideration here, of course. Furthermore, many of these security programs can no longer be clearly classified in one of these categories due to their multifunctionality. I therefore define the following categories and their abbreviations: AM+ = Antimalware program with real-time protection AM- = Antimalware program without real-time protection SP = Specialized program (focused on one main antimalware function) IS = Internet Security TS = Total Security ON = Online scanner OF = Offline scanner AB = Ad blocker FW = Firewall VP = Virtualization program PL = Protection layer program SC = Security check program CP = Control program MF = Multifunctional program In addition, for the sake of simplicity, I define the following licence types and their abbreviations, reduced to the essentials: C = Commercial (any payment software including shareware) F = Free D = Donationware O = Open source In the second post of this thread, I will provide and maintain an alphabetical list of working antimalware, firewall, and other security programs for Windows XP which were each presented in a corresponding post here. This list has the following columns: Name, Version, Type, Date and Link. Name means the name of the program, Version means its last/latest version, Type means its license type, Date means its last/latest date of release or creation (in some cases, there is no date of release available anymore) and Link means the link to its corresponding post here in this thread. I will only include programs in this list that receive updates in some form, be it program updates, definition updates or database updates. With the exception, of course, that there are also programs that do not necessarily need such updates. In the third post of this thread, I will create and maintain an alphabetical list of programs that need to be tested for compatibility, features and support or whose installers have been lost and therefore could not be tested. In the fourth post of this thread, I will create an alphabetical list of programs that have recently been abandoned or should be avoided. Some of them should only be used for a while or be avoided due to security reasons. This project is very extensive and involves a lot of work. In-depth research in particular is very time-consuming, but necessary. So be patient, especially if the list of programs fills up slowly! As always: Good things come to those who wait. And just for clarification, I will not check all the programs myself to see if they can be installed properly and work, of course. Here, other members can make a perfect contribution with their knowledge or experiences already made. Furthermore, all the programs I have listed are not necessarily to be understood as recommendations. Basically, they are simply options that are still available for Windows XP. Because we all know that most manufacturers of security software have long since given up on Windows XP. If I personally consider a program to be good, I will express this in its relevant post. More about that here: Any discussions, questions or suggestions about security programs for Windows XP are explicitly welcome. But one thing must be very clear, everything should relate to this topic. Just for clarification, insulting, provocative or completely off-topic posts (especially about operating systems other than Windows XP) will not be tolerated. That means, please stay on topic! This thread is intended to be a well-structured source of information where readers can get ideas on how to make their old Windows XP a bit more secure. If you like this thread, or you find it interesting and helpful, I would appreciate any contribution, be it a comment, a like or an upvote. Thanks for your interest! Windows XP forever! Kind regards, AstroSkipper

I've got MSE 4.4.304 installed per the consensus of it being the best version to install on XP. I'd like to get it working, and I'm perfectly fine with manually installing definitions, which is what I do on Vista anyways, and occasionally on W7 though auto-update there works on its own so that I never have a chance to download the definitions There's a procedure specified in the middle of this thread (now closed), from @heinoganda I believe: 1. Get the old good pe_patch.exe. 2. Rename mpam-fe.exe to TEMP.EXE 3. Use PE_PATCH to change "Sub-System Version" from 5.2 to 5.1 4. Use the reliable n7epsilon's PEChecksum.exe v. 1.4 to correct the PE Checksum. (or ModifyPE) 5. Rename TEMP.EXE to mpam-fe.exe and run it. I couldn't find PEChecksum, the file is no longer available, but ModifyPE works in XP. I changed Sub-System Version from 6.0 to 5.1 then clicked Save, then ran ModifyPE on it using: @echo off cd /D "%~dp0" modifype.exe TEMP.EXE -c pause Now, running the file, I don't see the "not a valid Win32 application" error, but nothing at all seems to happen. Thoughts? In Task Manager, I see TEMP.EXE for a couple seconds, then it disappears. I've tried killing MsMpEng.exe beforehand, and after TEMP.EXE exits that comes back up. Still red, no definitions installed. Previously, I also tried this script: However, this seems to auto-update MSE, which is not what I need - nor do I need it to download definitions. I'm just trying to install the mpam-fe.exe file I already have. I've also tried: For some reason, a minute or so after copying the files into that (originally empty) folder, they disappear. Not sure why, the folder is empty again. Seems that MSE is processing them, almost, but no change in the dashboard, everything is still red. Also tried this procedure: 1.239.450.0 is recommended, but I could only get MpSigStub from as new as mpam-fe 1.211.1490.0 without being TOO new... It runs, after about 30 seconds, it deletes the other extracted files in the directory, then exits. Again, it would SEEM that it was successful. Yet, MSE is as red as always. How can I actually install the current definitions? And if I can't install the current definitions, what are the latest definitions it will happily install?? **UPDATE:** Finally found some success! This page had it all: Turns out the definitions THEMSELVES did stop supporting XP at some point. I ran this one, and now my MSE is now yellow instead of red. That link in question (the latest XP-compatible mpam-fe.exe) is archived in the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive). I'm happy with that - I suppose it's yellow because it knows they are already old, and my MSE will never be green, and I should just live with that? Yellow is better than red, just want to know what I could expect here...

Advice, please. My HP laptop came with Windows 8 installed which I upgraded to 8.1. It also came with Norton Antivirus and that program has expired and been removed. It also came with Microsoft Defender. When I tried to install Microsoft Security Essentials, I received a notification that I did not need to install Microsoft Security Essentials since Microsoft Defender provided the same protection. MY QUESTION: Do I need to install an antiviral program since I have Windows Defender? If so, which is the preferred one. Thanks, tlcmd