Which Antiviruses are Known for a Fact to be Working on XP SP3 as of 2019?

[Mathwiz]

14 hours ago, siria said:

Cloudflare, who knows?? Have read somewhere that half the global internet traffic is meanwhile traveling through their servers, and that they have full unencrypted access to everything, incl. passwords.

Don't believe everything you read. Almost all Internet logins today are TLS-encrypted and all TLS sessions are end-to-end encrypted; no one in between has unencrypted access to the contents, unless they've managed to compromise the servers and steal their private keys. (And even that only works until the certificate is renewed in a year or two.)

You can do man-in-the-middle attacks, but unless the client software doesn't properly verify the server's certificate, the user will just get an error message. They may be able to bypass, but security experts and paranoid types are gonna squeal. Some of the Goog's Android software doesn't do that verification (hence the ability to spy on your phone while it spies on you) but pretty much every Web browser does. Corporations who censor their employees' Internet access (as most do) have to install special trusted certificates on all their PCs to get around this.

It's good to be a bit paranoid in our modern world, but don't let your paranoia override your common sense. Almost privacy leaks today come from spyware, especially on smart phones, but also PC software, including - unfortunately - Avast. (Despite Avast's efforts to anonymize the data they sell, they probably have underestimated the Goog's ability to match a user's "fingerprint" to the copious databases collected by Android smart phones.)

[Mcinwwl]

32 minutes ago, Mathwiz said:

(Despite Avast's efforts to anonymize the data they sell, they probably have underestimated the Goog's ability to match a user's "fingerprint" to the copious databases collected by Android smart phones.)

Or simply somem "high manager" didn't care, for as long as revenue was summing up...

[VistaLover]

6 hours ago, Vistapocalypse said:

@VistaLover are you still using a Kaspersky 19.x product?

... Actually, I'm currently using a slightly older, less bloated, paid-for version of KIS, for which I had bought (at a bargain price) a legal 3-year/2 PCs licence; that - slightly older - version continues to receive definitions updates and, before you suggest so yourself, passes with flying colours all the tests at your favourite AMTSO site ; but that 3-year long licence expires this coming June 2020; so I may have to revise my AV options by that time...

 Chances are this almost 13-year old Vista laptop will be decommissioned by then - I am the (un)proud owner of a newly bought (over the January sales period) modern era 17'' laptop, coming, of course, with Win10 64-bit; it is my plan to transition to that over the next months as my main machine, but this depends on a lot of factors at my end, mostly getting to grips with Win10 itself (which, at this moment, looks so alien to me... ); that hardware, of course, doesn't support Vista in the slightest, but, for nostalgia reasons, I may install it in a VM there (and that's the reason I made sure the new machine has ample RAM, 12GB to be exact...).

I hope your curiosity is satisfied now @Vistapocalypse, apologies to the rest for the off-topic nature of the post

[Vistapocalypse]

On 1/30/2020 at 12:13 PM, jaclaz said:

Since we are in an anti-virus related thread, JFYI:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/avast-to-end-browser-data-harvesting-terminates-jumpshot

Thanks for the link jaclaz, it will hopefully put an end to apprehensions about using Avast 18.8:

Quote

Avast will no longer sell users' browser histories to third-party companies, the antivirus vendor said....plans to shut down operations at Jumpshot, the subsidiary in charge of selling the browser history data.

21 hours ago, VistaLover said:

... Actually, I'm currently using a slightly older, less bloated, paid-for version of KIS, for which I had bought (at a bargain price) a legal 3-year/2 PCs licence; that - slightly older - version continues to receive definitions updates and, before you suggest so yourself, passes with flying colours all the tests at your favourite AMTSO site ;

Sounds like a version that officially supported Vista and XP (whereas 19.x reportedly works, but does not officially support). I have no doubt that Kaspersky's paid versions are among the most effective antivirus products in the world! Tests by independent labs have proven that time after time. My only concern was about what else the software might be capable of...

[siria]

Horror. Pure horror. Just yet another incredible revelation:
https://gen.medium.com/amazon-is-an-even-bigger-threat-to-privacy-than-facebook-a52638e9e314?gi=d04fda0abb6
(link posted by caliber: https://msfn.org/board/topic/180462-my-browser-builds-part-2/?do=findComment&comment=1177151 )

This is only the beginning, and then gets even worse:
> Amazon Is an Even Bigger Threat to Privacy Than Facebook
> With its Ring doorbell, the tech giant can now see what you buy, what you browse, and who you’re letting into your home

It's really long since too late already to escape the total surveillance everywhere.

Regarding this part:
> (Amazon claims they aren’t going to integrate facial recognition into its Ring cameras,
> but mark my words: It’s only a matter of time before they do.)

they are doing it long since too. An article from Aug. last year says amazon is selling face recognition service for just 40cent per 1000 faces, from the videos recorded onto their servers, also for things like those private smart doorbells:
https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article198730615/Videoueberwachung-Hongkongs-Protest-betrifft-auch-Amazon-und-Google.html

Die Kameras von Anbietern wie Googles Smart-Home-Tochter Nest streamen ihre Bilder direkt auf die Cloud-Server des Konzerns, wo die Aufnahmen von Gesichtserkennungsalgorithmen ausgewertet werden. Taucht ein fremdes Gesicht auf, schlagen die Systeme Alarm.

Damit dürfte die Zahl privater Kameras künftig deutlich schneller steigen als die öffentlicher Stellen. Die passenden Algorithmen zur Auswertung der Kameras liefert Amazon ebenfalls: Der Dienst Rekognition der Cloud-Tochterfirma AWS verspricht die kostengünstige Gesichtsauswertung großer Mengen von Videodaten, pro 1000 verarbeiteten Gesichtsbildern verlangt der Konzern gerade einmal 40 Cent, Polizeibehörden in den USA berichten zudem von Sonderangeboten für Ermittler.

G-translation (haven't figured out yet how to include a 2nd quote here):

The cameras from providers such as Google's smart home subsidiary Nest stream their images directly to the group's cloud server, where the images are evaluated by facial recognition algorithms. If a strange face appears, the systems sound the alarm.

As a result, the number of private cameras is likely to increase significantly faster than that of public bodies. Amazon also provides the appropriate algorithms for evaluating the cameras: The Rekognition service from the cloud subsidiary AWS promises the cost-effective facial evaluation of large amounts of video data; the group only charges 40 cents for every 1,000 facial images processed, and police authorities in the USA also report special offers for investigators Edited February 2, 2020 by siria

[Comrade_Hajji]

On 1/17/2020 at 12:51 AM, Dr. Drill said:

ESET NOD32 Antivirus v.4.2.76 works great

Officially supported is v9 (I use 8.0.0.0 installator, it updates up to 9.0.429.2).

Nowadays it's more difficult to find a proper browser for WinXP than an antivirus.

[Vistapocalypse]

3 hours ago, Comrade_Hajji said:

Officially supported is v9 (I use 8.0.0.0 installator, it updates up to 9.0.429.2).

Welcome to MSFN Comrade_Hajji. Does ESET have official download links for 8.0.0.0 installers? MSFN members are often more interested in "last version that works" than "last version that officially supported" (but we still don't have official ESET download links for that in this thread either).

I recently came across  Windows XP and Vista compatibility with Malwarebytes AdwCleaner:

Quote

Malwarebytes AdwCleaner version 8.0 and later no longer supports Windows XP and Vista. Version 8.0 only works on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 machines.

Versions before 8.0 may still work on a Windows XP or Vista machine. If you have a Windows XP or Vista operating system, you may download an older version of Malwarebytes AdwCleaner.

• Click the following link to download Malwarebytes AdwCleaner 7.4.2

 

[Sampei.Nihira]

The latest version of AdwCleaner that works with Windows XP is 6.046.
The following ones don't work:

https://filehippo.com/download_adwcleaner/history/

Edited February 9, 2020 by Sampei.Nihira

[Vistapocalypse]

6 hours ago, Sampei.Nihira said:

The latest version of AdwCleaner that works with Windows XP is 6.046.

I cannot dispute that since I'm not running XP and haven't even tried 7.4.2 on Vista, not having any adware to clean. I suppose Malwarebytes must be mistaken then.

[VistaLover]

8 hours ago, Sampei.Nihira said:

The latest version of AdwCleaner that works with Windows XP is 6.046.

... Actually, my dear Italian friend , the last XP compatible version should be 6.047 ; you can fetch that from vendor's own "archived versions" repository:

https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/files/
=>
https://toolslib.net/downloads/finish/1-adwcleaner/851/

BTW, have you tried any higher versions on XP with .NET FW 4.0 installed?

1 hour ago, Vistapocalypse said:

haven't even tried 7.4.2 on Vista

... Of course, any Vista discussion is OT for this thread, but I had made several AdwCleaner tests on my own, reported below:

FWIW, v7.4.2 launches fine here:

... But, binaries of the 8.x.x branch just silently fail to launch when double-clicked ; inspection with Dependency Walker does not reveal any vital missing function calls (only one in a delay-load dependent module), plus the executable's PE header has a Sub System version of 6.0, so I assume its devs have implemented a hard block on Vista in another way ; perhaps it requires a version of .NET FW > 4.6.1 ?

In any case, though officially unsupported, v7.4.2 appears to be the last running on Vista...

Edited February 10, 2020 by VistaLover

[Sampei.Nihira]

@VistaLover

You're right I also have adwCleaner 6.047:

 

https://malwaretips.com/threads/sampei-nihira-security-config-winxp-pos-ready2009-2020.97166/page-9

It is also possible to check it from my security configuration published on MT.

FileHippo must have forgotten this build !!

VistaLover wrote:

Quote

....BTW, have you tried any higher versions on XP with .NET FW 4.0 installed?........

Absolutely not.
I uninstalled all the versions of the NET FW on my pc with W.XP.

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by Sampei.Nihira

[Vistapocalypse]

2 hours ago, VistaLover said:

... Of course, any Vista discussion is OT for this thread, but I had made several AdwCleaner tests on my own, reported below:

It appears that I had reacted to those old reports as well, and that WinClient5270 has already listed 7.4.2...

[Comrade_Hajji]

23 hours ago, Vistapocalypse said:

Does ESET have official download links for 8.0.0.0 installers?

Sure it does not. You should have downloaded it five years ago or can find somewhere else (ready to get some trojan on it).

23 hours ago, Vistapocalypse said:

more interested in "last version that works"

EAV had problems with registry since v11. AVG Antivirus still works. Avast, Avira are long-discredited, all of those Chinese spying 'incredible antiviruses' as well.

Actually, most of post-XP software versions are getting Android-like (difficult to manage, weird interface e.g. blinking progress bar instead of filling one), you have to think about downgrade anyway. EAV isn't exception to this rule since v10, but v9 seems to be able to work and update signatures at least for the next 5-6 years.

 

[Dave-H]

22 minutes ago, Comrade_Hajji said:

Sure it does not. You should have downloaded it five years ago or can find somewhere else (ready to get some trojan on it).

EAV had problems with registry since v11. AVG Antivirus still works. Avast, Avira are long-discredited, all of those Chinese spying 'incredible antiviruses' as well.

Actually, most of post-XP software versions are getting Android-like (difficult to manage, weird interface e.g. blinking progress bar instead of filling one), you have to think about downgrade anyway. EAV isn't exception to this rule since v10, but v9 seems to be able to work and update signatures at least for the next 5-6 years.

 

As AVG and Avast are now the same company, I don't see how one can be considered OK and the other "discredited"?
When I tried them both they seemed to be virtually identical.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Dave-H
Addition

[Comrade_Hajji]

7 minutes ago, Dave-H said:

AVG and Avast are now the same company

That doesn't prevent the owner from getting benefit from the both of products, as MS did it with Win7 and Win10.

If my information is outdated and now AVG differs from Avast no more than Labour Party from Conservative one -- please accept my apologies.