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

[Multibooter]

2 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

I already created a separate thread with the title Startup Managers under Windows XP  which can be found here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/184648-startup-managers-under-windows-xp/
 

 

Thanks!

[Multibooter]

5 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

Are you really serious? A new installation after every update? And all this effort for an ancient programme with a totally outdated AV engine?

It's worth it to me. The initial virus-checking flags about 200 per 1000 (adware, malware, virus, pw-protected). Of these 200 flagged per 1000, about 50 are kept as interesting.

A re-check of these 800/1000 "clean" files, with a new signature e.g. 3 years later, flags maybe 3 more files per 800. An up-to-date signature is not that essential, at least for my purposes, and a re-install and signature update is made about 3 times per year, together with new major partition backups.

Edited June 28, 2024 by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

51 minutes ago, Multibooter said:

It's worth it to me. The initial virus-checking flags about 200 per 1000 (adware, malware, virus, pw-protected). Of these 200 flagged per 1000, about 50 are kept as interesting.

A re-check of these 800/1000 "clean" files, with a new signature e.g. 3 years later, flags maybe 3 more files per 800. An up-to-date signature is not that essential, at least for my purposes, and a re-install and signature update is made about 3 times per year, together with new major partition backups.

You might want to think about your download behaviour. And about your choice of favourite search engine. Yandex is a very bad choice but a good one to get crap.  200 out of 1000 files flagged that's a quota of 20%. Far too much! 
All what I can say is .

[Multibooter]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

200 out of 1000 files flagged that's a quota of 20%. Far too much! 
All what I can say is .

It depends on what you're downloading. The great majority is correctly flagged. I would guess your downloads are safer, with a ratio of perhaps 1 out of a 1000.

[AstroSkipper]

5 minutes ago, Multibooter said:

I would guess your downloads are safer, with a ratio of perhaps 1 out of a 1000.

Of course! I am definitely not interested in collecting malicious files.  I don't put that kind of filth on my disc.  Thanks to good real-time protection and my online behaviour! 

[Multibooter]

6 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

I already created a separate thread with the title Startup Managers under Windows XP  which can be found here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/184648-startup-managers-under-windows-xp/
 

 

I have just started to read the 1st page of your StartUp Manager topic and have noticed that you had an issue with Glary Soft stuff. I remember that the early versions did not contain pw-protected stuff while the later versions did. My archive is at a different location, so I cannot let you know which version was the last version without pw-protected stuff. Kaspersky flags pw-protected files.

The only software with pw-protected stuff in the installer which I trust is Beyond Compare, but even then I always check whether the same files as in preceding versions are pw-protected.

Edited June 28, 2024 by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

19 minutes ago, Multibooter said:

I have just started to read the 1st page of your StartUp Manager topic and have noticed that you had an issue with Glary Soft stuff.

Thanks for your interest! In the end, I couldn't figure out why the described issue occurred in one Windows XP partition but not in the other. One of the rare issues that I couldn't fix. The good thing is that I am now using a much better startup manager. So, thanks to Glarysoft for this issue! 

[AstroSkipper]

McAfee Stinger seems to have abandoned Windows XP in 2021. For testing purpose, I tried to open several stinger32.exe files from 2021 which are supposed to be still XP-compatible but I am always getting the following messsge: "McAfee Stinger executable has been modified and may be infected". Can anyone confirm this? 

[Skorpios]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

McAfee Stinger seems to have abandoned Windows XP in 2021. For testing purpose, I tried to open several stinger32.exe files from 2021 which are supposed to be still XP-compatible but I am always getting the following messsge: "McAfee Stinger executable has been modified and may be infected". Can anyone confirm this? 

Yes and yes... I fired up my old T43 with a fan that sounds like a chainsaw and dead Ethernet but it has an uncrippled install of Enterprise 8.8. Downloaded 11117xdat today to the A31 and copied it to the T43. Ran it and the logfile didn't show any errors. The file mscan32.xxx you see in the picture is engine 5900 but the zip I found at the time didn't work. I think I'm ´missing some other files.

Now it's time for Germany vs Denmark... European Football Championship... good luck!

 

[Skorpios]

Hmm, I was in a hurry when I posted... my post was an answer to:

https://msfn.org/board/topic/184730-antimalware-firewall-and-other-security-programs-for-windows-xp-working-in-2023-and-hopefully-beyond/?do=findComment&comment=1268307

---

Re Stinger:

Confirmed! (Version 12.2.0.313)

 

[Skorpios]

4 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

McAfee Stinger seems to have abandoned Windows XP in 2021. For testing purpose, I tried to open several stinger32.exe files from 2021 which are supposed to be still XP-compatible but I am always getting the following messsge: "McAfee Stinger executable has been modified and may be infected". Can anyone confirm this? 

Timebombed...

Change your year to 2021 and it will work. Beware of the default settings, don't use Repair, Remove or Rename, I only used Report.

A false positive might render your computer useless...

 

 

[Multibooter]

14 hours ago, Skorpios said:

Timebombed...

Change your year to 2021 and it will work.

 

 

DateChanger v1.0 (31Oct2000) was useful for using EOL software frequently, you could include it in a desktop shortcut. It was a freeware, also runs under WinXP. It seems to be a rare file now [filename: datechanger.exe, was available still in 2014, apparently not archived by archive.org]

https://web.archive.org/web/20061112060512/http://www.sharewareplaza.com:80/Date-Changer-downloads_4351.html
It was useful to frequently run the EOL freeware Iomega zip/jaz tester "Trouble in Paradise v2.1b", for testing the quality of zip and jaz disks, without having to set dates manually back and forth. Perhaps it's useful for EOL McAfee Stinger.

Edited June 30, 2024 by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

On 6/29/2024 at 9:07 PM, Skorpios said:

Yes and yes... I fired up my old T43 with a fan that sounds like a chainsaw and dead Ethernet but it has an uncrippled install of Enterprise 8.8. Downloaded 11117xdat today to the A31 and copied it to the T43. Ran it and the logfile didn't show any errors. The file mscan32.xxx you see in the picture is engine 5900 but the zip I found at the time didn't work. I think I'm ´missing some other files.

Thanks for testing! However, it is quite unusual that the virus definitions of McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.8 with such an old scan engine can still be updated in these days. BTW, for updating the scan engine to version 5900, you can try to use this which I found by accident: https://download.nai.com/products/licensed/engine/intel/5900/ I don't know whether this scan engine update is the right one for your installation, though.

On 6/29/2024 at 9:07 PM, Skorpios said:

Now it's time for Germany vs Denmark... European Football Championship... good luck!

Thanks! It worked well! 

Edited June 30, 2024 by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

15 hours ago, Skorpios said:

Re Stinger:

Confirmed! (Version 12.2.0.313)

 

13 hours ago, Skorpios said:

Timebombed...

Change your year to 2021 and it will work. Beware of the default settings, don't use Repair, Remove or Rename, I only used Report.

A false positive might render your computer useless...

Thanks for your confirmation! I also thought that a time bomb had been implemented in the executable. McAfee probably wanted to prevent users from using outdated versions of Stinger. But I wanted a confirmation from others to be sure it's not related to my system only.

[AstroSkipper]

29 minutes ago, Multibooter said:

DateChanger v1.0 (31Oct2000) was useful for using EOL software frequently, you could include it in a desktop shortcut. It was a freeware, also runs under WinXP. It seems to be a rare file now [filename: datechanger.exe, was available still in 2014, apparently not archived by archive.org]

https://web.archive.org/web/20061112060512/http://www.sharewareplaza.com:80/Date-Changer-downloads_4351.html
It was useful to frequently run the EOL freeware Iomega zip/jaz tester "Trouble in Paradise v2.1b", for testing the quality of zip and jaz disks, without having to set dates manually back and forth. Perhaps it's useful for EOL McAfee Stinger.

I always use RunAsDate from NirSoft for this purpose.