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Most Antivirus Programs to Support Windows XP Past End Date


Monroe

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I don't use an antivirus program myself, however came across this article for people that like using them.

Most antivirus programs to support Windows XP well past its own end date

01/16/2014 ... 5 hours ago

http://www.neowin.net/news/most-antivirus-programs-to-support-windows-xp-well-past-its-own-end-date

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it will continue to provide antivirus signatures for its free Security Essentials program until at least July 2015. Now a new survey of 29 antivirus software companies shows that most of them will continue to support Windows XP for at least two more years, and in some cases even longer.

The list was complied by the independent antivirus testing firm AV-TEST, and shows that only Symantec has yet to provide any information about when their Windows XP support will end. Most of the companies have yet to offer specific support end dates for Windows XP, with many saying that it won't end for at least two more years. Microsoft is still planning to stop providing all security and bug fix updates for the OS on April 8th, over 12 years after it launched.

There are a few antivirus companies on the list that have set specific end dates for Windows XP antivirus support, besides Microsoft. Avira and ThreatTracker will stop on April 2015, while Sophos shuts down its Windows XP definitions in September 2015. Bitdefender says it will end support for consumers om January 2016, and for corporate customers on January 2017. Trend Micro stops supporting Windows XP in January 2017 and Kaspersky Lab will end support for corporate users in the second half of 2016, but will continue supporting consumers until at least 2018. Webroot has the most distant Windows XP end date; it won't stop supporting the OS until at least April 2019 when the OS will enter it's 18th year!

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It will come faster than you think... I remember when Windows ME/98 support ended in 2006, it only took two years before all vendors dropped 9x support completely. AVG 7.5 was the last one in 2008 for WinME. The only thing that still works is ClamWin. I think Windows XP will attain security through Obsolescence quicker than people realize. But thats, like, uh, just my opinion, man.

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Thanks submix8c for the extra reading. It will be interesting as these few months click by ... less than three months. Then what will develop after that ... an underground group of people with unofficial fixes, of course they don't have to be "underground" but they will be out there somewhere tinkering around ... it's human nature wanting to fix something ... like an old toaster oven or Windows XP, instead of throwing it on the junk pile.

With my limited knowledge of the inner workings of XP, I can't think of what I might need to be fixed down the road ... maybe a new Daylight Savings Time update occasionally? I have a good working system ... maybe one day I won't be able to get on the internet, that might be a possibility I guess. I don't use IE 8 except for updates, I still use the old K-Meleon browser (an updated version) and it works just great for my setup.

So I guess we will see ... let's get these updates over with ... let the challenge of the "unknown" begin!

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problem isn't just in XP

its in all NT win versions

if you disable UAC in any NT 6, it is equally weak as XP/2000 is

about 1.5 years ago I got certain virus under win7 SP1, that installed itself under SYSTEM account !!!!

UAC was off

(gee I thought SYSTEM was protected by certain restrictions even with UAC off - guess NOT)

Edited by vinifera
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It will come faster than you think... I remember when Windows ME/98 support ended in 2006, it only took two years before all vendors dropped 9x support completely. AVG 7.5 was the last one in 2008 for WinME. The only thing that still works is ClamWin. I think Windows XP will attain security through Obsolescence quicker than people realize. But thats, like, uh, just my opinion, man.

Off topic for this forum of course, but I should mention that I'm still using a copy of Trend PC-cillin 2002 on Windows 98SE, and you can still manually download and install current pattern files for it, as I do every Monday!

:)

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I don't think it's off topic, good to have all this information. It may be of use to someone. I just want to add from my first post ... as I said earlier, I do not have an antivirus program installed on my computer but I do keep a current copy of Stinger handy on a flash drive in case of a problem. It seems to be updated everyday and comes in a 32 or 64 Bit download. It may still work with Windows 98SE ... not 100% sure anymore.

Stinger

http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/stinger.aspx

McAfee Stinger is a standalone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but a specialized tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with infected system. Stinger utilizes next-generation scan technology, including rootkit scanning, and scan performance optimizations. It detects and removes threats identified under the "Threat List" option under Advanced menu options in the Stinger application.

... if you look in the Release Notes on the right side you will see the current dated version. This is what's there now.

Stinger Release Notes

Build Number: 12.1.0.750

Build Date: 17-Jan-2014

Edited by duffy98
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It will come faster than you think... I remember when Windows ME/98 support ended in 2006, it only took two years before all vendors dropped 9x support completely. AVG 7.5 was the last one in 2008 for WinME. The only thing that still works is ClamWin. I think Windows XP will attain security through Obsolescence quicker than people realize. But thats, like, uh, just my opinion, man.

No I can bet a lot of money that antivirus support will be here for XP for a long time. Especially avast, they will support windows XP for a long time. Heck they still support windows 98 :w00t: .

Edited by Flasche
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A relationship is not likely. The commonality is that the date falls on a Patch Tuesday (second Tuesday of the month).

Edited by 5eraph
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I think Windows XP will attain security through Obsolescence quicker than people realize. But thats, like, uh, just my opinion, man.

We need to be careful not to use Windows 9x/ME support history as a precedent here. That OS line may have achieved security through obsolesecence, being that it's a simpler, flimsier kernel that no attacker targets anymore. However, the Windows NT kernel continues to exist in Vista, 7 and 8 and WIL BE TARGETED. XP doesn't differ nearly as much and will be much more affected. So I don't think XP will eventually be a safe bet based on the likelihood that 9x now seems to be a safer bet after years of non-support status.

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