free av for win 2000

[stuck]

I have a laptop that runs win 2000. It only gets used once in a blue moon. It was using Avast but it won't update as it no longer supports Win 2000. Similarly AVG doesn't seem to support Win 2000 and neither does Avira.

Clamwin does but it doesn't have on-access real time scanning.

I know it's a long shot but does anyone know of something like the big three free tools (AVG, Avast & Avira) that still supports Win 2000 and has on-access real time scanning?

Ken

[HansV]

AVG version 9 supports Windows 2000, and I gather that AVG still releases definition updates for it.
You can get AVG 9 Free from sites such as http://www.oldapps.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (see Old Version of AVG Free Edition 9.0.851)

[stuck]

AH! Missed that in my Googling. I'll try that one.

Thanks,

Ken

[stuck]

Having installed AVG 9 (with much grinding from the poor ol' HDD, this thing is really sloooooow) I find that the virus definitions are out of date (they are 2010 vintage) but when I try to update them AVG reports no updates available. It looks like AVG pulled the plug on v9 updates a couple of years ago.

Oh well, it was worth a try.

Ken

[HansV]

Sorry about that - I found a quite recent post in another forum that stated that AVG still updates v9, but I obviously wasn't able to check it.

[StuartR]

I assume there's a good reason that you can't just update this laptop to a slightly more recent operating system, that would certainly be the easiest way to resolve this problem.

[stuck]

I assume there's a good reason that you can't just update this laptop

Yes, no money!

Ken

[JoeP]

What is the usage of the PC? Is it connected to the outside world? Does it need to be? Can you get by with no A/V?

Joe

[stuck]

It has minimal usage, today is the first time in months and months I wanted to use it but I did want to connect to the outside world.

No matter, this is obviously the end of that aspect of its life.

Thanks everyone.

Ken

[John Gray]

If you are careful, and if your laptop doesn't get connected to anything else at home (LAN, USB Flash Drives, etc,) then you ought to be fairly OK if you are behind a hardware firewall (who isn't?!) and you have a software firewall active on the laptop. (All you have to find is a software firewall which supports Windows 2000!)...

[stuck]

(All you have to find is a software firewall which supports Windows 2000!)...

Thanks but that will require a new thread and more time than I've got spare right now!

Ken

[jonwallace]

At the risk of shooting off at a tangent, if you don't really need Microsoft software on this laptop, you could always stick something like Linux Mint on it.

[stuck]

Now there's an idea, there may yet be life in this old dog yet.

Ken

[stuckling1]

Linux antimalware:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-linux ... -programs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Although none of the Linux programs have the "sit in your system tray monitoring for nastys in real time" protection that windows AVs have, they just scan your system when you run them.
Presumably this is because people don't write malware for Linux on the same scale as they do for Windows. And also because there are so many different Linux kernels out there . And folk that run Linux (bit of a generalisation but hey) tend to be savy types that know what they're doing with PCs and probably wouldn't mind starting again if worst came to worst.

Finally, you can always keep your Win2000 installation in place and put Kubuntu on beside it in a dual boot config.
And the price is always right...

[BobH]

Plus 1 on the Linux recommendation. I run it on a netbook for astronomy apps.

[ChrisJakarta]

I have used a legacy version of Avast on a Windows ME VM. You might look at Old Version of Avast Antivirus for Windows 2000.

Chris

[stuck]

I have used a legacy version of Avast on a Windows ME VM.

and you get updates still? It was because Avast stopped updating on Win 2000 that I started this thread.

Ken

[ChrisJakarta]

I rarely update because I rarely use - and I have limited bandwidth. The current version of my database is shown as 110609-1, 09-06-11. I started to update (shown as 12040102), but canceled when I saw it was 52MB.

I think you can also download the virus databases from Download Updates.

But perhaps I'm also !

Chris

[viking33]

I rarely update because I rarely use - and I have limited bandwidth. The current version of my database is shown as 110609-1, 09-06-11. I started to update (shown as 12040102), but canceled when I saw it was 52MB.

I think you can also download the virus databases from Download Updates.

But perhaps I'm also !

Chris

A rarely updated or rarely used AV program is practically useless. The older the updates are the less functional or able to catch any of the newer nasties, it will be. I highly recommend that you check around for a newer and compatible AV for your system.

[ChrisJakarta]

I rarely update because I rarely use - and I have limited bandwidth. The current version of my database is shown as 110609-1, 09-06-11. I started to update (shown as 12040102), but canceled when I saw it was 52MB.

I think you can also download the virus databases from Download Updates.

But perhaps I'm also !

Chris

A rarely updated or rarely used AV program is practically useless. The older the updates are the less functional or able to catch any of the newer nasties, it will be. I highly recommend that you check around for a newer and compatible AV for your system.

Many thanks for your most valuable guidance. Perhaps I should have repeated that this is Windows ME on a VM. I installed this ME guest primarily to see if it was possible, and to identify the challenges. These challenges include finding an AV program that supports earlier versions of Windows, the subject of this thread.

Yesterday was the first time I fired up this VM since last September. I see no point in firing it up just to update the virus database. AFAIK, there is no risk as long as it isn't running.

As this thread has identified, there is a shortage of "newer and compatible AV" that will run on these legacy systems. If you have some further guidance on this I'm sure it will contribute to solving the original question.

Chris