Antimalware, firewall, and other security programs for Windows XP working in 2023 and hopefully beyond

[Multibooter]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

Panda has always achieved reasonable results in official tests. It is better to leave such tests to the professionals.

Reviews:

"Panda's ability to catch malware lags behind that of many other free security products,"

from: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/panda-free-antivirus,review-3524.html

"Its security scores may not be consistently impressive"

from: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/panda-dome

I was also surprised at the score of 6/100. I initially thought that I had a wrong setting in Panda. The 100 files in my sample were from actual downloads from eMule, together with many good, clean files.  I have two 2TB HDDs with flagged stuff from eMule, and could have increased the sample size to 10,000 infected files from eMule,  but an initial check with 100 randomly picked infected files was good enough for me. I only wanted for myself an initial glance at the approximate detection capability of stuff from eMule, which may be different from the results of official tests by the professionals.

Edited 14 hours ago by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

1 hour ago, Multibooter said:

Reviews:

"Panda's ability to catch malware lags behind that of many other free security products,"

from: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/panda-free-antivirus,review-3524.html

This review is 7 years old and therefore obsolete. My linked test is from this month, December 2025.

1 hour ago, Multibooter said:

"Its security scores may not be consistently impressive"

from: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/panda-dome

On this side, you can read that its online protection score was a strong 99.25%.

Quote

...
 

Panda Dome has earned an AAA award from SE Labs for the period between October and December 2024, as it has shown a Total Accuracy Rating of 99% and not a single false positive - better than Microsoft Defender and Webroot, but not quite at the level of Avast, Kaspersky, or McAfee, all of which had the perfect 100% score.

(Image credit: SE Labs)

At the same time, AV-Test’s Product Review and Certification Report for September - October 2024 has given Panda a 6/6 score for protection, 5.5/6 for performance, as it performed just a tad poorer than the industry average in some segments, and 6/6 for usability.

... albeit its online protection score was a strong 99.25%.
 

Of course, you can always pick out whatever you need for your argument. 

[AstroSkipper]

One thing is clear. Panda Antivirus Free is a cloud-based anti-malware programme. You have to be connected to the internet and perform scans only online and not offline to get a reasonable detection rate.

Edited 12 hours ago by AstroSkipper

[Multibooter]

17 hours ago, Multibooter said:

I first installed MS .NET Framework v4.0 (18Mar2010) under WinXP SP3. Then I installed OK Panda Dome v21.01.00 under WinXP. I selected "Offline installation" during installation. I have not yet activated the program because activation requires entering an email address. After the first run the Settings window indicates "Last updated 12/26/2025".

Maybe here is the solution to the low detection rate of Panda Dome: As described my earlier posting above, I did NOT activate Panda Dome. Therefore there was no apparent need to install  ProxHTTPSProxy, HTTPSProxy or ProxyMII under WinXP as described in AstroSkipper's posting of 20Dec2025 https://msfn.org/board/topic/184730-antimalware-firewall-and-other-security-programs-for-windows-xp-working-in-2023-and-hopefully-beyond/page/83/#findComment-1284113

My old Inspiron 7500 is connected to the Internet via Ethernet, and the activity light of the Ethernet PC Card does NOT indicate any uploading activity during virus-checking by Panda Dome, i.e. Panda Dome is apparently using a built-in, rudimentary signature set, and was not uploading files for online checking. Panda Dome, however, did NOT give any messages that the virus-checking is incomplete and no online checking took place, e.g. because Panda Dome was not activated or because of  a TLS problem.

The two reviews by tomsguide and techradar, quoated in my earlier posting, were from the top search results displayed by the Yandex search engine.

For my testing of Panda Dome I have been re-using "My personal in the Wild", described in my posting of 6Jul2024 (please scroll down there)
https://msfn.org/board/topic/184730-antimalware-firewall-and-other-security-programs-for-windows-xp-working-in-2023-and-hopefully-beyond/page/70/#comments

I do not want to enter my email address to activate Panda Dome, so I am done with my testing of Panda Dome.

Edited 3 hours ago by Multibooter

[NotHereToPlayGames]

16 minutes ago, Multibooter said:

I do not want to enter my email address to activate Panda Dome

I doubt that you really "have to".

ie, enter a FAKE/TEMPORARY email address !!!

I use GUERRILLA MAIL all the time for things like this.  There are others.

**NEVER** give out your real email.  Not even my checking account has me REAL email.  I do *NOT* want their monthly *CRAP* just to tell me a monthly statement is available.

[AstroSkipper]

I have different email addresses. Therefore, I don't care at all if I get flooded with advertising emails on certain email accounts. But I wouldn't use a temporary address for the Panda account, as this email address is used to register the products used and for support enquiries. 

[Multibooter]

24 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

I doubt that you really "have to".

ie, enter a FAKE/TEMPORARY email address !!!

I use GUERRILLA MAIL all the time for things like this.  There are others.

**NEVER** give out your real email.  Not even my checking account has me REAL email.  I do *NOT* want their monthly *CRAP* just to tell me a monthly statement is available.

An old email address at GUERRILLA MAIL still works, but not the Panda activation. After entering the email address in window "Activate Panda Dome", Panda dome displays "Error checking the account. We're sorry but we were unable to access your Panda account. Make sure you have an Internet connection and try again."

Same issue with FAKE MAIL GENERATOR,  the same error message by Panda Dome. So either some disposable email addresses are black-listed by Panda Security or activation requires additional TLS stuff, or both

[AstroSkipper]

17 minutes ago, Multibooter said:

An old email address at GUERRILLA MAIL still works, but not the Panda activation. After entering the email address in window "Activate Panda Dome", Panda dome displays "Error checking the account. We're sorry but we were unable to access your Panda account. Make sure you have an Internet connection and try again."

Same issue with FAKE MAIL GENERATOR,  the same error message by Panda Dome. So either some disposable email addresses are black-listed by Panda Security or activation requires additional TLS stuff, or both

The activation of a Panda account needs a TLS connection. That's why you have to use ProxHTTPSProxy or similar technology under Windows XP.  No chance without it since Windows XP lacks modern, secure protocols natively. And any contact to Panda support without a registered account is not possible. 

Edited 2 hours ago by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[Multibooter]

41 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

I have different email addresses. Therefore, I don't care at all if I get flooded with advertising emails on certain email accounts. But I wouldn't use a temporary address for the Panda account, as this email address is used to register the products used and for support enquiries. 

Using different emails does NOT protect your privacy. United States spy agencies identify people by name, email address(es), phone numbers, IP numbers assigned etc.

OT: the header of a Jeffrey Eppstein FBI file recently released indicates also the IP number as a personal identification trait, together with the date of birth. https://web.archive.org/web/20251227130144/https://www.miamiherald.com/public/latest-news/2wwvfa/picture313924496/alternates/FREE_1140/Screenshot 2025-12-23 115102.png

In many countries the router IP number assigned by Internet providers is nearly impossible to change. You can pull the power plug of the router and reconnect it, but still the same router IP number.

Edited 1 hour ago by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

Russia, China, United States and so on. All these totalitarian, undemocratically run regimes spy on people and collect data in order to gain total control. Fortunately, I am European and, above all, German. I have my privacy and the data I disclose well under control. I have no problem disclosing a specific email address for contacting a company like Panda. 

Edited 1 hour ago by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[Multibooter]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

The activation of a Panda account needs a TLS connection. That's why you have to use ProxHTTPSProxy or similar technology under Windows XP.  No chance without it since Windows XP lacks modern, secure protocols natively. And any contact to Panda support without a registered account is not possible. 

That looks too tricky to me, at least for testing Panda. Do you have simple instructions for installing the TLS stuff under WinXP?

In contrast, updating the various versions and editions of My ancient version of Kaspersky in one swoop is quite simple. I just use a little corporate utility, Kaspersky Updater, to create/update a single update distribution folder from which 30+ Kaspersky programs can be updated off-line.
Below is a screenshot of this little corporate utility, which I used for updating 3 different Kaspersky programs, the normal workstation edition, the specced-down workstation edition and the server edition.

This screenshot shows the signature update of 10Dec2025 for my posting "My ancient version of Kaspersky under Windows 10" of 15Dec2025.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/184730-antimalware-firewall-and-other-security-programs-for-windows-xp-working-in-2023-and-hopefully-beyond/page/82/#comments

The message "... Retranslation successful" means that the update was successful and that the update distribution folder was filled OK. No idea what the part "and update is not requested" refers to. Kaspersky Updater here was run under Windows Server 2003 (blue window title) and updating under WinXP and Win10 from the update distribution folder worked OK.

No need to register with an email address and to fiddle around with TLS stuff under WinXP.

 

Edited 50 minutes ago by Multibooter

[Multibooter]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

I have no problem disclosing a specific email address for contacting a company like Panda. 

Owned 100% by a U.S. company with U.S. government contracts? On the other side of the globe: Eugene Kaspersky's relation to the KGB? No easy choices.

Edited just now by Multibooter