Old ME - what AV works?

Friend has old ME PC acquired from clear-out at work. He has deleted/deinstalled company apps including McAfee corporate. What can he put on in it's place?

 

Does he want a free one or a commercial version?

 

ME *IS* a virus. Uninstall that trash, and put Win98SE on it. I assume it won't run XP, so that is the next best choice - other than turning it into a FreeBSD box or something.

 

To you ME might be a virus but I ran ME for about a year and it worked just fine. I had good luck running mcafee on it but with nod around now in the newer version 2.5 it might be a good choice.

 

Your friend should also take a look at http://www.drweb.com/ and http://www.f-prot.com/.

 

ME a virus? Only a most in-experience person would make such a comment. ME was put-down by many from the very beginning merely because of a lack of knowledge on the part of those who offered negetive comments. ME was the first to offer System Restore.....the first to offer system File Protection......Me offered the fastest Defrag, and ME can be tweaked to the highest an remain stable.......

as to the poster's question.....McAfee Office has worked well on ME....also tested was KAV....Bit Defender...AVG....all responded nicely.
Good luck with your new computer. An may it serve you well for many years. An yes, Open Source dull boot works well on ME....in fact, ME can be easily tripled booted without the slightest issue.
If you are strapped for coins.....go with AVG freeware....its enough for the job.....so are other freeware AV's

 

I still have one old 800mhz box around here running me. It runs nice with Avast free. I also ran a trial of NOD on it for a bit, and that worked nice. I never had any problems with me, it’s a pain to reformat but so was 98 and 95.

 

ME is not a *virus* -- why so negative? After 5+ years of steady use, I still run ME on one partition of my current computer. For some reason, my granddaughter (the game player) prefers it, & it's still the mainstay for my two favorite webmastering proggies. It runs very stable for us. On rare occasions, it has run without reboot for up to 2 weeks. In normal circumstances, however, I soft-reboot that OS every time the computer is going to get a rest of 3 hours or more.

It isn't a program's cpu cycles or ram usage that can constipate ME. Rather, the critical factor is *System Resources* as measured by Win9X OS. The System Resources value is found by...

WINkey + BREAK/PAUSEkey > System Properties > Performance Tab. The Performance Tab shows System Resources. It cannot be increased by installing more ram, either.

For instance, NOD is light on cpu & ram, but (for some reason) uses more System Resources on ME than is true for DrWeb, EZ, F-Prot, or AntiVir PE Classic. Per my experience, any of these is a good choice for ME.

 

ME is awesome! I run XP Pro by the way. Just wanted to put my 2 cents in there, lol.

 

I ran WindowME exclusively from the time it came out until a few months ago. Never suffered any major problems. Still runs quite nicely on my P233 32MB RAM laptop.

Windows Millennium Edition ("Windows Me") Reviewed by Paul Thurrott
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/windowsme.asp

I use F-Prot on my laptop without problem.

 

I used Windows Me till 2003 (didnt have money to buy XP at that time), and to say the least, it was more stable, and faster in games than Windows 98SE. It also has slightly better video quality than Windows 98SE or even Windows 2000.

As for AVs, I recommend you run something light like NOD32 or Command AV on Windows ME.

 

I've been running windows me since 2001. I love it. I've trialed about every antivirus out there. There is only one I can't run. That's norton 2005.

Panda Titanium - I can run this one, but it is heavy. So I didn't choose it.
Mcafee 8.0 - Ran great
Mcafee 9.0 - Memory hog, a real resource hog, I can run it, but I have better options.
Bitdefender Standard - Computer ran good, but had a tendency to hang at shutdown

Nod32 - Runs great
Kav 5.0 personal - Runs great, This is the antivirus I'm currently running. Been running it for about 2 and a half months.

Dr Web- Runs Great
Antivir free - Runs great
Avast free - Runs Great
F-prot - This one was the lightest one of all on my setup.
Trend micro pccillian - Ran great

Theirs probably more that I've trialed, I just can't remember.

Windows me needs to be tweeked. There are many websites that will tell you how to do it. Here's what has worked for me.

#1 Disable system restore, it doesn't work anyway. I use a program called "winrescue" Click on my link below entitled "disaster prevention" to learn more about it.

#2 Click start> Run> Type "misconfig" in the box. Hit Enter. Disable all programs you don't need at startup.

#3 You will need to upgrade your memory or Ramm to at least. 192 mb. The more memory you have the better. You can go all way up to 512 mb. I run 192 mb, however I'm kinda cheating, as I use "tuneup utilities" memory optimisor to control the memory. A good online store to buy your memory is crucial.com. If you decide to not purchase "tuneup utilities" and use the memory optimizor. You will need 384 mb of ramm to prevent freezeups. This can be accomplished by purchasing one 256 mb stick, and one 128 mb stick

#4 Keep all your cookies, cache, and browsing history deleted each time you end a session on your computer.

#5 Run the "maintenence wizard" at least once a week. This will keep your temporary internet files deleted, run scandisk, and defrag. To find the maintance wizard...click start> Accessories> system tools> then click "maintanance wizard.

#6 Run a light firewall such as kerio 2.15, or look n stop, or an older version of zonealarm. You must run a light firewall . This is one of the major resource hogs.

#7 If you choose to run an anti trojan. I run boclean. It runs so light I don't even know it's there.

#8 Go to snapfiles.com and download a free program called "freemeter" You will be able to monitor your cpu, and system resources. Don't let your system resources drop much below 50%. My system resources run 63 - 79% free. It's according to what programs I have running.

Here's my setup as of now.

Firewall. I usually run kerio 2.1.5. However I'm running an older version of zonealarm right now...just for a change.

Antivirus - kav 5.0 personal, I'm also licenced for nod32.

Anti trojan is boclean. Some say you don't need to run an anti trojan with kav. However, they run good together, and I purchased it. I would be stupid not to run it. It probably won't catch anything since I run kav, but it might.

My book is almost finished. I run windows me, 700 mhz processsor, with 192 mb of ramm

Running this setup I haven't had to reformat in close to 2 years. I've installed and uninstalled zonealarm at least twice. Norton 2005 3 times, Kav 4 times. Nod32 7 times, mcafee 4 times Panda titanium twice. That's only the beginning... that doesn't even count other programs that I've uninstalled and installed.

To sum it up. Whenever I hear that someone says that windows me is a sorry operating sysyem I already know that I'm talking with someone who is either.

A- A newbie, or

B- someone seriously lacking in computer intelligence.

 

windows cost money

 

Well, yes. I had to purchase it with cold, hard cash.

 

Thanks

I thought ME was dead, buried and forgotten. Thanks for suggestions.

I forgot to ask if paying or free. I've used NOD on w98se, and avast, and AVG, but never used F-prot or Dr Web. All are popular choices I know, I'm a regular visitor, but lost my password when I changed isp etc.. so I've seen the posts in the past about these.

ME is very rare in discussions.

If the defrag is slow on W98se by-the-way, why not copy the defrag proggy from an ME machine? I did, works very well - still after 3 years - does 15G-of-20GHD in 15 mins! (75% full).

I will set it up to use BoClean and spyware blockers as well, so should be ok in other departments as well.

Thanks very much everyone.

 

I'd just like to add that i'm running ME and have been since Jan 2001. Very stable. I've tried a few AV's, some it's liked, some it hasn't.
NOD32 - No problems.
AVG 7 - Again runs no problems.
KAV 4.5 - No problems.
Command AV - Not good on mine.
F-Prot - Slowed my pc down bad. The version at the time had problems.
Antivir - Nightmare. Crashes my pc. BSOD all the time.

Just a note on KAV 4.5 that i would recommend at least 1 ghz or higher to get the best out of it. It is a bit heavy on resources. Although there are others here who have had success running it resident on slower machines. Suppose it depends on what you are running resident alongside it.

If i was to plumb for one out of the above then it would be NOD32. It's not as good as KAV, but it runs much smoother on slower machines. Plus it's an excellent AV. It also currently has the best heuristics which may one day save your skin.

muf

 

Friend BigC took my words, . I had ME too before moving to XP on this old Compaq. I ran ME for two years with only minor easy fixable problems. So minor I do not even recall them. I think it was less "freeze up" with XP. ME a occassionally freeze and XP almost never. Biggest problem with ME OS was not the OS but Norton AV on it BoClean ran very well on my ME. Just my experience.

Friendly Warning: Be careful of making such harsh blanket statements, this creature asked for help not to be told that current older MS operating system is trash get rid of it.

Good Luck JustaQuickie.

 

@ Mr2cents

A very thoughtful/informative/helpful post my friend.

Just wanted to say that, along with the other posters, I am sure Justaquickie now has ample information to work with. Nice to see.

Cheers, TAS