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

[shelby]

On 10/3/2023 at 7:04 PM, AstroSkipper said:

Wise Anti Malware - Abandoned!?

First, some information about Wise Anti Malware. It came in two versions: Wise Anti Malware Free which was free of charge and Wise Anti Malware Pro which was commercial. Both versions offered a real-time protection. The differences are explained below under the section Features. Wise Anti Malware was designed to help protect against adware, viruses, malware, phishing, ransomware, spyware and unwanted programs (PUP/PUA). It included Custom, Quick, and Full scanning capabilities to check your computer for signs of malware, adware, etc. Wise Anti Malware was and is compatible with Windows XP.

Features:

The most important feature of Wise Anti Malware is real-time protection, which is considered as the first guard to defend your PC against Malware threads. It has three shields, Malware detection, Adware detection, and Registry protection (Pro only).

• Malware shield: Detect and block malware threats by using the extensive databases of the renowned Avira virus scanner.
• Adware shield: Detect and block AD windows.
• Registry shield: Detect and prevent programs from adding new startup items into the registry (Pro only).
• Three scanning modes: Quick Scan, Full Scan, and Custom Scan.
• Adware cleaner: Removes annoying advertising programs, blocks intrusive pop-up ads, and resets redirected web browser homepages.
• System Cleaner: Efficiently removes leftover registry entries, temporary files, cookies, and cache files.

The paid Pro version had two additional features:

• Auto-update database
• Registry protection

Homepage: https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-anti-malware.html

Version number: 2.2.1

Date of release: 26.12.2019

System requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 (both 32-bit and 64-bit)

Hardware requirements:

CPU: Pentium 233 MHz or above
RAM: 128 MB or above
Disk Space: the minimum of the space for installing Wise Anti Malware is 500 MB

Supported languages:

English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian,

Version history:

Reviews:

https://www.techno360.in/wise-anti-malware/

https://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Security-Related/Wise-Anti-Malware.shtml

Download link: https://downloads.wisecleaner.com/soft/WiseAntiMalware_FullInstaller.exe

So much for the facts, which I had already researched some time ago, and therefore did not want to withhold from anyone. With version 2.2.1, all features were made freely available. Thus, the Free version became a free of charge Pro version. Actually great, if it weren't for the word if.  I recently installed this version and examined it more closely. Unfortunately, I discovered some unpleasant things. According to the Wise Anti Malware homepage, the main interface should look like this:

But unfortunately, the main interface of Wise Anti Malware 2.2.1 looks like that:

No information about the last database update! This was apparently simply hidden in this version. Probably for good reasons. For comparison, I first installed the older version 2.1.8, and this entry was still there. After that, I installed Wise Anti Malware 2.2.1. When starting the programme, it should actually automatically download and initialise the scan engine, shown in the next screenshot:

Unfortunately, the automatical download of the virus engine didn't happen. Only in the systray icon, when you hover over it with the mouse pointer, or in the tab Malware Scanner, a notification first says "The engine is starting" and after a while "Engine failed to start". And absolutely nothing about updating! These notifications are rather hidden, and the user does not even notice that the real-time protection is not started. This is definitely a no-go. And why do they still offer a non-working antimalware programme at all?  At least for Windows XP. I don't understand that. Here are some screenshots to show these notifications:

I reinstalled the programme, tried it more times, but nothing changed. Additionally, I followed some advices listed in the FAQ on their homepage. Unfortunately, without any success.  Anyway! This version comes with definition updates from 23.11.2018, and the programme is neither able to start its scan engine nor to update its virus database. Therefore, I think Wise Anti Malware is abandoned and completely out of support. If anyone knows more, or the version works on their computers after all, please post here!

Cheers, AstroSkipper 

ok here is my results. I have vista

[AstroSkipper]

2 hours ago, shelby said:

ok here is my results. I have vista

Thanks for testing and reporting! Unfortunately, you tested it under Windows Vista. However, this thread is targeting Windows XP exclusively. Under Windows XP, Wise Anti Malware does not work anymore and must be considered abandoned. Although off-topic, I would be interested to know when the last virus definitions were that you loaded under Windows Vista. This cannot be determined from your pictures.

[shelby]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

Thanks for testing and reporting! Unfortunately, you tested it under Windows Vista. However, this thread is targeting Windows XP exclusively. Under Windows XP, Wise Anti Malware does not work anymore and must be considered abandoned. Although off-topic, I would be interested to know when the last virus definitions were that you loaded under Windows Vista. This cannot be determined from your pictures.

that is i am looking for

[AstroSkipper]

19 minutes ago, shelby said:

that is i am looking for

The information for the last updating of the virus definitions should be shown in the tab Quick Check. Look at my picture!

[shelby]

12 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

The information for the last updating of the virus definitions should be shown in the tab Quick Check. Look at my picture!

i check for updates and the quick check tab

Edited December 10, 2023 by shelby

[AstroSkipper]

30 minutes ago, shelby said:

i check for updates and

Congratulations! So at least, it is still working under Windows Vista. But under Windows XP, it doesn't work anymore.

Edited December 10, 2023 by AstroSkipper

[shelby]

1 minute ago, AstroSkipper said:

Congratulations! So al least, it is still working under Windows Vista. But under Windows XP, it doesn't work anymore.

Maybe try to install the 2.2.1.110

[AstroSkipper]

13 minutes ago, shelby said:

Maybe try to install the 2.2.1.110

That was the version I tested first. No chance! It doesn't work anymore under Windows XP. The updating and the initialisation of the scan engine fail there. Therefore, Wise Anti Malware has to be considered abandoned under Windows XP, unfortunately.

[AstroSkipper]

22 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

31 minutes ago, shelby said:

i check for updates and

Expand  

Congratulations! So at least, it is still working under Windows Vista. But under Windows XP, it doesn't work anymore.

To be sure that you have the most recent definition updates their date is very important. Not that they are from 2019 or something like that. Check if they are really from today! 

[shelby]

5 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

That was the version I tested first. No chance! It doesn't work anymore under Windows XP. The updating and the initialisation of the scan engine fail there. Therefore, Wise Anti Malware has to be considered abandoned under Windows XP, unfortunately.

if someone can test it under x64 edition we will know

[shelby]

3 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

To be sure that you have the most recent definition updates their date is very important. Not that they are from 2019 or something like that. Check if they are really from today! 

 

[AstroSkipper]

3 minutes ago, shelby said:

if someone can test it under x64 edition we will know

The chances are even worse under Windows XP 64-bit. After my deep testing, I personally know that using Wise Anti Malware under Windows XP 32-bit is no option anymore.

3 minutes ago, shelby said:

 

This picture is unfortunately worthless. You have to look for the date and version of the downloaded definition updates. If the programme does not offer any information, you have to look inside Wise Anti Malware's folders.

[shelby]

8 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

The chances are even worse under Windows XP 64-bit. After my deep testing, I personally know that using Wise Anti Malware under Windows XP 32-bit is no option anymore.

This picture is unfortunately worthless. You have to look for the date and version of the downloaded definition updates. If the programme does not offer any information, you have to look inside Wise Anti Malware's folders.

where

[AstroSkipper]

13 minutes ago, shelby said:

where

Where the programme saves its data. For example, use Total Commander to search your system partition for the string "Wise"! It's been months ago, so I can't tell you the exact locations at this point. 

Edited December 10, 2023 by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

And one thing is clear. My investigations in terms of Wise Anti Malware are complete. I will no longer install this programme under Windows XP 32-bit.