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Old May 11th 10, 08:39 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.general
Dave Lee Travis Bickle
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Posts: 7
Default Is there still a free AV for ME?

Oh yes, forgot to add: end of 2010 is the date supplied by Alwil to Jerry
Martin as reported here a month or so ago (which I found by searching, i.e.
if I'd seen the thread previously I might have realised Rocky T had
contributed to it before informing him of what he knew before I did). Though
the question then becomes which is better: to continue using a product that
will be essentially pointless in just over 6 months or switch now to one
that could still be getting def updates for years? With my situation it is
different in that - apart from NOD32 being arguably a lot better than
Avast! - it was paid for, so why not keep using it to the last? Though -
while the 98/ME version of NOD32 v.2 not only still works perfectly well in
Windows 95 (a quality now as rare as what comes out of the back of a rocking
horse) let alone 98 and ME - I continue to run the NT version (of v.2)
mostly to get the def updates for use in portable installations. It is a
shame that those will end when the licence does, but it sure as home isn't
worth the price *just* to keep an updated thumb drive installation.

Stinger is not worth bothering with. I don't know why McAfee do, let alone
the humble user. Their sdat scanner either run from DOS for FAT or from a
BartPE (which can also be run from USB) for NTFS, can't be trusted after the
recent McAfee FP debacle. It is nice to have something other than Sysclean,
but Sysclean is pretty good - if you scan without cleaning, then interpret
the results.

Oh, look at the time!

Toodle-oo!

"HRH The Example John Smith" wrote in message
...


"webster72n" wrote in message
...


"HRH The Example John Smith" wrote in
message ...


"Rockytsquirrel" wrote in message
...
Avast 4.8 still works on ME and does update several times a day..


Til the end of 2010, apparently. I tried it but it almost continually
popped up notifications of the new build and as it wasn't immediately
obvious how to turn that off, I uninstalled it.


Not so sure about the end of 2010,
and I don't have the problem with those notifications anymore since I
renewed my registration.
IMHO Avast is still the best.


You haven't tried enough alternatives then, Harry. Incidentally it also
caused problems in 2 or 3 of the systems I installed it on - on which I
now have either NAV2002...or nothing. This is no longer anything to do
with the interface, as I don't give an inverted dos about that when it is
on a system I rarely use. btw I had only recently registered it, on
account of the first key I used was out of date.

Really, if you mean 'the best AV' you're seriously deluded. Personal
preferences aside, Avast! shows the occasional good result in tests but
spends most of it's time at or maybe slightly above mediocre - rather like
AVG, which I used to swear by (as far as free AVs go), but I was never
under the illusion it was 'the best'.

While I still have a little time left on my NOD32 licence, I am migrating
to free Avira - using it here in Windows7 as I type. Once you disable the
nag screen it is pretty good (probably is *with* the nag too if you can
stand that sort of thing). I am undecided as yet as to just how good
Antivir is - though as with all of them it varies over time anyway.
Certainly these days, though, I will go with the German product over the
Czech products any day of the week. Rather like if any version of Linux
was polished enough to stay on a primary here (I just tried Kubuntu 10.04
both on the metal and in VPC and neither stayed more than 5 minutes,
failing as miserably as *buntu always does except for the too-easily
pleased) it would be the originally-German openSUSE. Though I think
Beemers and Porches are a variation on crepe.

Harumph!