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

[FranceBB]

23 hours ago, Cocodile said:

"Avast antivirus subsidiary sells 'Every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site.' Its clients have included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, and McKinsey."

Old story. Besides, it wasn't the antivirus, but a "product" called "Avast Secure Browser" which is a chromium fork and as such it doesn't work on XP. That, of course, used to track everything and give data to third party for analysis as long as you opted in to share your info, however Avast wasn't aware that the third party was also reselling the data instead of using it for research and to make transactions safer (yes, in theory it was born as a browser on which you were supposed to make transactions like logging in to your bank account or use credit cards / debit cards on etc so that it was totally sandboxed etc etc etc). When the story came out, Avast dropped the contract with the third party.

Since you're concerned about the antivirus itself, that program only shares data about the threats you find if you choose to send them up for analysis. It also shares a very limited amount of data, which can be increased if you opt in to the optional data sharing, but it's gonna be limited to how many threats you face every month, what your subscription is like and what OS you are running on what hardware etc so that they have some statistics that can be useful to make a better antivirus. For instance, think about polymorphic viruses. They're viruses whose code changes frequently so that - in theory - they will be able to do some damage before they're included in the virus definitions and detected. Avast of course has heuristics, so it might see that although a program isn't in the virus definition, such a program isn't signed and is behaving in a peculiar way, perhaps by accessing resources etc. It's a point based system and if the score adds up to a certain threshold, Avast detects it and blocks the program, thus asking you confirmation. Although this might lead to some false positives, it can also detect polymorphic viruses and, once you catch one of those viruses which is temporarily blocked, you can send it in for analysis and they will immediately add it to the virus signature database which every user will receive through the streaming updates immediately. All this is, again, if you "opt in", with the word "opt in" being the keyword here.

21 hours ago, Vistapocalypse said:

I have chosen to block Cocodile’s content, but from your quotation it appears that he has dredged up old privacy concerns about Avast that were of course discussed in another thread more than 3 years ago (MSFN wasn’t born yesterday, and AstroSkipper and I were both Avast users back then). To make a long story short, Avast halted the practice soon after it was widely publicized. Here’s a link that was first brought to our attention by @jaclaz, who I thank:

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

Exactly. I remember talking about this a while ago, thank you for confirming.

Edited June 30, 2023 by FranceBB

[Vistapocalypse]

7 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

Of course, Avast Premier's self-protection was deactivated before I started the uninstall routine. Everyone who wants to completely remove an AV programme that has such a self-protection function should know this. But that did not help at all....The way I described in the article "Why I switched from Avast! to WiseVector StopX" I quoted above, on the other hand, worked excellently, but is not readily accessible and recommended for an inexperienced user. 

Best practice is to create an up-to-date image using Macrium Reflect or similar software before installing any antivirus, and Avast 18.8 in particular! 

[Vistapocalypse]

14 hours ago, Dixel said:

Product Update: Can't remove previous version of Eset...

OT since ESET is no longer an option for XP - but since you are so knowledgeable about such matters, I have to ask: Is Bratislava another “KGB nest”? 🤔

[Milkinis]

4 hours ago, FranceBB said:

Since you're concerned about the antivirus itself, that program only shares data about the threats you find if you choose to send them up for analysis. It also shares a very limited amount of data

do you work for AVAST ? 

if you don't you are just parroting BS that you read online.

can you tell us why do Avast AV services work 24/7 nonstop and cannot be suspended on the services manager ?

what kind of data is being sent to Avast servers when the AV is locked up and unused ? 

Edited June 30, 2023 by Milkinis

[NotHereToPlayGames]

This thread is typically too "defensive" to want to participate.

But the only thought I have is this - what antivirus product out there does NOT have a service running 24/7 and what antivirus product out there does NOT "collect data" from its users?

My perception has always been that they *ALL DO*.

The line in the consumer-sand is generally NOT that data is collected, but rather that the data is then SOLD to other companies.

Edited June 30, 2023 by NotHereToPlayGames

[Milkinis]

27 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

what antivirus product out there does NOT have a service running 24/7 and what antivirus product out there does NOT "collect data" from its users?

some malware scanners allow you to switch them off or disable their services one way or the other while not being in use

however AVAST services cannot be removed even though you disable WFP (windows file protection)

 

[NotHereToPlayGames]

That seems to be the NORM to me.

McAfee.  Norton.  Avast.  Avira.  Kaspersky.  Panda.  They all have "uninstall/removal TOOLS" that you have to download because the Operating System's normal "uninstall" routines don't do the job.

[Cixert]

I just tested Spybot - Search & Destroy version 1.6.2 @AstroSkipper
Unfortunately up to version 2 it is not possible to update the database. Until 1.6.2 you had to update the entire program.
Sorry.

Edited June 30, 2023 by Cixert

[AstroSkipper]

20 minutes ago, Cixert said:

I just tested Spybot - Search & Destroy version 1.6.2 @AstroSkipper
Unfortunately up to version 2 it is not possible to update the database. Until 1.6.2 you had to update the entire program.
Sorry.

Hello @Cixert! Thank you for testing! That means the last XP-compatible version 1.6.2 of Spybot - Search & Destroy is now obsolete, and the database can no longer be updated in any way. Right? 

Edited July 1, 2023 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[Vistapocalypse]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

Hello @Cixert! Thank you for testing! That means the last XP-compatible version 1.6.2 of Spybot - Search & Destroy is now obsolete, and the database can no longer be updated in any way. Right? 

I was also confused by Cixert’s post, but I think Spybot 2.4 was the last to support XP/Vista. (I never used it.)

https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-2-5-compatibility/

[Dixel]

14 hours ago, Vistapocalypse said:

OT since ESET is no longer an option for XP - but since you are so knowledgeable about such matters, I have to ask: Is Bratislava another “KGB nest”? 🤔

For me, ESET never was, not only it marked legit copy protection game files as "viruses", it also deleted important files on my XP pc and put them to "quarantine" forever, I was not surprised to see it still does!  To be fair, I gave it a chance in the past. I remember, I even lost my online registration for the DVD check of Sacred 2 (based on securom). As for your OT question, I fail to understand, why would you be interested, if you discarded ESET anyway? I could only guess, but If you want to be recruited or renew some previous pre-1991 arrangements, I'm sure there's no need to go to Bratislava, and I'm definitely not the one to talk to!

NOD32 "Such file could contain valuable information, and losing it is certainly not what you’d wish for"

https://hetmanrecovery.com/recovery_news/how-to-return-files-if-eset-nod-deleted-or-placed-them-in-quarantine.htm

[Cocodile]

18 hours ago, FranceBB said:

All this is, again, if you "opt in", with the word "opt in" being the keyword here.

Allegedly.

14 hours ago, Milkinis said:

do you work for AVAST ? 

if you don't you are just parroting BS that you read online.

can you tell us why do Avast AV services work 24/7 nonstop and cannot be suspended on the services manager ?

what kind of data is being sent to Avast servers when the AV is locked up and unused ? 

He won't tell, and I agree with you, words, words, words, lots of words, source - trust the words . 

[Cocodile]

13 hours ago, Milkinis said:

some malware scanners allow you to switch them off or disable their services one way or the other while not being in use

however AVAST services cannot be removed even though you disable WFP (windows file protection)

 

A very nice observation, I had the same troubles. You're very helpful!

[Cocodile]

14 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

But the only thought I have is this - what antivirus product out there does NOT have a service running 24/7 and what antivirus product out there does NOT "collect data" from its users?

I think you forgot to mention, there's a huge difference between the places where the data finds itself in the end! Moscow or Washington.

[AstroSkipper]

9 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

Hello @Cixert! Thank you for testing! That means the last XP-compatible version 1.6.2 2.4 of Spybot - Search & Destroy is now obsolete, and the database can no longer be updated in any way. Right? 

I checked the homepage of Spybot - Search & Destroy again, and the last release compatible with Windows XP does indeed appear to be version 2.4. Here is a quote on this from the link posted above to the page with the heading Spybot 2.5 Compatibility:

Quote

Unfortunately, these changes mean Spybot 2.5 is not compatible with Windows XP or Windows Vista. Users of these operating systems are advised to continue to use version 2.4 for now.