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

[Dave-H]

That's great, but as you say, it has to be more than just you and me!
Especially good that they now have reports from two different countries.
👍

[AstroSkipper]

I also mentioned that very often, people who use Windows XP also use the latest versions of Windows, such as 10, 11 and so on. If you’re completely disappointed by one operating system in terms of Panda Dome, it doesn’t reflect well on the others.  
Here is aditionally a screenshot with nearly all Panda hotline numbers at no costs:



All Windows XP users here on MSFN and all guests reading this thread! Call them and report your issues with Panda Dome under Windows XP! 

Edited 19 hours ago by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

6 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

I thought according to their website that 12.x versions, where x>0, were no longer compatible with Windows XP. 

@modnar Or do you use an extended kernel or an additional layer in your Windows XP installation where you have installed IOBit Malware Fighter 12.5? 

Edited yesterday at 05:33 PM by AstroSkipper

[modnar]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

@modnar Or do you use an extended kernel or an additional layer in your Windows XP installation where you have installed IOBit Malware Fighter 12.5? 

I forgot to answer that one. No no, I don't use any fancy kernel extensions, just USP4. 12.5 is for XP no doubt. However I already threw it off my box because it's too cut-down.

I have, as before, observed that Panda (my favourite version 22.03.01) 2x calls rootsupd.exe (XP's cert thing) during installation, so I quickly reacted and after the second time I ran a-new extracted Thomas' CA Updater so it finished before green-blue Panda orb appeared in the tray. We'll see if this now works. As I said before - the whole thing to me is certificates, don't know specifics though. Depths of Satan... Otherwise it's Avast patchwork quilt for me again...

[AstroSkipper]

1 hour ago, modnar said:

However I already threw it off my box because it's too cut-down.

What I now expect from an anti-malware programme is that it simply warns me of any threats. No automatic removal, as I’ll take care of that myself should one ever arise. I have my own specialist tools for that. And most alerts are false positives anyways. It’s very important that it uses very little RAM and CPU. That’s why I think VirIT eXplorer Lite is great for my system. And I prefer real offline definition updates. Cutting down unnecessary features is therefore no problem for me.  

Edited 22 hours ago by AstroSkipper

[Tangy]

A review Of VirIT kind of old but I would say rather indicative of what to expect 12 years later.

 

https://www.insightsintechnology.com/2014/01/virit-explorer-lite.html

 

@AstroSkipper Conidering this plus the post right above this one, I think I am going to get myself an AV..

[modnar]

The problem with VirIT is their quote: "Virus and malware removal for 60 days", so a non-starter for me.

Oh and Panda is acting up again, surprise surprise. :-/

Edited 11 hours ago by modnar

[AstroSkipper]

3 hours ago, modnar said:

Oh and Panda is acting up again, surprise surprise. :-/

And what exacty does that mean? The problem with one-sentence statements that contain no information is always the same. They’re of no use to anyone. And the reader is then left to guess, interpret or make assumptions, which only lead to rumours and wild theories. That is completely counterproductive. So please provide a bit more information!  
By the way, have you already reported your problems/issues/errors with Panda Dome on Windows XP to Panda’s support team? 

Edited 7 hours ago by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

17 hours ago, modnar said:

12.5 is for XP no doubt. However I already threw it off my box because it's too cut-down.

And again a single sentence statement.  Which crucial features do you miss in the free edition of IOBit Malware Fighter? And why don’t you get a 6-month licence for the Pro version? You can find them everywhere, and they’re even available at regular intervals. IOBit runs lots of promotions. I managed to get hold of some yesterday.  This gives you the opportunity to test the programme thoroughly, exploring all its features, and then report on it in detail here.  Here is a feature comparison: https://www.iobit.com/en/malware-fighter-pro.php
Or take this one:



Use this to clarify your point! 

Edited 5 hours ago by AstroSkipper

[Dave-H]

Back again. 
I'm cautiously confident that I've found another workaround for the problem with Panda Dome, and this one appears to have stuck.

I was puzzled as to why the crashes, although sometimes apparently at random, could be triggered at will, at least on my machine.
One thing which nearly always triggered an immediate crash, even if the system had been running for some time without any, was to click the Windows 'Start' button.

This led me to think that there was some issue with Windows Explorer which was triggering the crash.
One other clue was that one of the first things I noticed was that if I clicked Start, even if it didn't crash, the user-added shortcuts were a blank box, only populating after several seconds.
I tried excluding Explorer from scanning, but that made no difference.

I then tried excluding my whole system drive from scanning.
Hey presto, no more crashes!

So, by a process of elimination, I eventually narrowed it down to the folders which were triggering the crashes when they were scanned.
I now have three folders excluded from scanning –

Documents and Settings\[Username]\Start Menu
Documents and Settings\[Username]\SendTo
Documents and Settings\[Username]\Recent

So far this has stopped the regular crashes, and Panda has updated without them coming back again.
This is pure speculation, but what I suspect happened here is that Panda rolled out an update which broke compatibility with the Windows XP Explorer, which is quite different from that on later versions of Windows, of course.

When Panda tried to scan those folders, like the 'Recent' folder being scanned when 'Documents' is clicked on the Start Menu, this triggered a crash.

This is of course only a workaround, not a fix, and the problem could come back at any time, but at least on my system it seems to have fixed it for now.
There is a security issue with excluding system folders from scanning, of course, but as the folders concerned only contain shortcuts, I would think it's pretty minimal.

If anyone else still has a malfunctioning installation of Panda Dome installed, I would be interested to know if this works for them.

[AstroSkipper]

33 minutes ago, Dave-H said:

This is of course only a workaround, not a fix, and the problem could come back at any time, but at least on my system it seems to have fixed it for now.
There is a security issue with excluding system folders from scanning, of course, but as the folders concerned only contain shortcuts, I would think it's pretty minimal.

Interesting, indeed. But unfortunately, I can't test that at the moment. As I already reported, I uninstalled and removed all related to Panda Dome. And due to the serious crash I had I really don't know if I want to give it a try at the moment. But what about your support ticket? It's nearly one week ago.  Surely they must have replied at least once to let the customer know what the status of the support ticket is.

Edited 3 hours ago by AstroSkipper

[Tangy]

10 hours ago, modnar said:

The problem with VirIT is their quote: "Virus and malware removal for 60 days", so a non-starter for me.

Oh and Panda is acting up again, surprise surprise. :-/

About the 60 days , we could always use an on/off line scanner. Let us also no forget, beggars can't be choosers.

Could you please elaborate on panda.

thank you.

[Tangy]

For example Eset : Here is how to get it for XP: Click on link https://www.eset.com/us/home/online-scanner/  >Towards bottom of web page click 'Choose language version' >Under 'Download Options' click 'Choose other product version' >Under 'Configure download' click the down arrow of 'Version' and select Version 2 ('Operating system' window will show XP)>click 'DOWNLOAD'. Hope that still works. It did about a year ago.

[AstroSkipper]

21 minutes ago, Tangy said:

For example Eset : Here is how to get it for XP: Click on link https://www.eset.com/us/home/online-scanner/  >Towards bottom of web page click 'Choose language version' >Under 'Download Options' click 'Choose other product version' >Under 'Configure download' click the down arrow of 'Version' and select Version 2 ('Operating system' window will show XP)>click 'DOWNLOAD'. Hope that still works. It did about a year ago.

I already downloaded it yesterday. But I haven't tested it yet. 

[AstroSkipper]

@Tangy But the good is VirIT eXplorer Lite is already a perfect offline scanner with a huge local database. And you can send malicious files to C.R.A.M. at any time. And for disinfection you can use, for example, RogueKiller Free. 

Edited just now by AstroSkipper