Avira discontinuing support

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by fred128, Feb 12, 2007.

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  1. fred128

    fred128 Registered Member

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    I received an email from Avira that they are discontinuing support for Windows 98 on June 30. It's getting more and more difficult to find anything that will work with that operating system.
     
  2. bigc73542

    bigc73542 Retired Moderator

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    since Win 98 is osolete it will only get worse in the software compatability
     
  3. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    Haven't Microsoft stopped support for that OS anyway? If that's right, it means there are no updates for it so they're hoping those still using it will switch to another OS. No wonder vendors like Avira are dropping support.
     
  4. Stefan Kurtzhals

    Stefan Kurtzhals AV Expert

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    Even the malware authors stopped supporting that OS. :D
     
  5. Blackcat

    Blackcat Registered Member

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    :D :D
     
  6. ASpace

    ASpace Guest

    I'll second that : :D :D
     
  7. Firecat

    Firecat Registered Member

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    Only Win98 or also WinME? o_O
     
  8. Mr2cents

    Mr2cents Registered Member

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    Hi Fred. I just got a new computer with xp media center. I had been running windows me since about 2001. I noticed certain antivirus companies stopped supporting 98, and me about as soon as microsoft did last july.

    I made a list of every antivirus company that did this. They bailed out, and no longer offered support for 98, or windows me. I'm looking at all the names on this list right now. To make a long story short. I will never purchase any of their products again.

    As stated previously. I'm now running windows xp. The antivirus companies that stopped supporting 98 and windows me. Will Never be on this computer. I don't care how good their detection rates are, or how great they are. The companies on my black list will no longer be considered for future purchases. They won't even be tested on this computer. This post isn't aimed toward avira. Avira is one of the companies that have stayed with us. At a certain point, their will be no antivirus companies supporting 98.

    The best thing to do is not repurchase their products when you go to xp. It's all about the money. Kav has offered excellent support. I'm going to be running linux 100% of the time very shortly. However, I'm going to renew my subscription to kav. Why? Because of the great support they have provided.

    I will be only using windows to play a volleyball game I like. This game is played offline. I won't even have to access the the internet with windows. Will I need Kav? NO. Then why would I purchase their product? Because of the great support that they have provided me over the last 2 years. That's how much support means to me.

    :cool:
     
  9. herbalist

    herbalist Guest

    Most of the AVs that do work with 98 are getting too heavy to run on it well. If a manual scanner will suffice, F-Prot for DOS makes a good on demand and integrated scanner. AVZ Anti-viral toolkit works with 98. Version 6 of AntiVir works well with 98, but you have to update it manually. The definition files still work with it.
    Very true. Much of todays malware uses rootkits, which don't affect 98. With the advances in malware, running an OS that isn't targeted much isn't such a bad thing.
    If you want to continue running 98, you might consider moving to a security strategy that doesn't rely on identifying specific malware in order to protect you from it. The system policy editor for 98 can really limit how much damage malware can do. SSM supports 98 and is much lighter than most all AVs. Properly configured, and with informed responses to it's prompts, SSM can protect you as well or better than an AV. Different 3rd parties are still working with 98 to improve it and fix vulnerabilities that are found. Don't underestimate how much DOS can do to protect windows.
    98 can be secured quite well, if you take the time to really learn your system. To a large degree, you're replacing vendor support with your own understanding of how your system works, what belongs there, and learning what the different apps and system components do. There's several good rule based apps that can keep you secure, if you're willing to put in the time it takes to learn them, and practice reasonably safe internet practices.
    Rick
     
  10. StevieO

    StevieO Registered Member

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    What ! Must be all those pirated copies of XP floating around in all corners of the world. If it wern't i think even more people would still be using 98. And it might surprise some that, more people than what they might think are happily and very securely still running it. I know i am, and a good number of friends and family also. Unless you're a gamer etc, you don't really need XP, never mind Vista.

    I'm sorry to hear that support will end in June, maybe they'll reconsider ? The good thing is i presume, is that we will still be able to use it and get daily definition updates.


    StevieO
     
  11. Perman

    Perman Registered Member

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    Hi, folks: I feel very sorry for those users whose O/S are no longer supported by certain security apps. But just stay back one step and recollect your thoughts. Who has abandoned your O/S first? Was that mighty giant MS ? If the parent would dare to sever ties w/ his/her own child, that legally-orphaned kid will be in nobody's care except children aids. There is no such an agency in cyberspace. Therefore, survival is your own business. To blame whom? AV vendors? NO! Blame the creator! Microsoft. Do not use its products, including XP and Vista, just because you will be abandoned eventually. :p Of course, only if this thinking is in fact logical. :D
     
  12. C.S.J

    C.S.J Massive Poster

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    this forum is biased!
    i agree with dropping such support, 98, ME ?

    get with the times, we are in 2007 now, 2007.....

    dropping that support will give more resources to XP / vista users, im all for that :D
     
  13. fred128

    fred128 Registered Member

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    I have XP machines so I'm not crying about the loss but I am angry about contracting for licenses that are supposed to last one year and then get cut off midyear. That's not the right thing to do.
     
  14. rayoflight

    rayoflight Registered Member

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    AVG Free/Paid supports Windows 98 and Windows ME.
    Avast Free/Paid supports even Windows 95.
    F-Prot 3...

    Got it and agree.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2007
  15. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    AVG still works with win98 so you're not all alone yet :)
     
  16. EliteKiller

    EliteKiller Registered Member

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    NOD32, Kaspersky, Bitdefender, and several other reputable AV's still work in 98SE.
     
  17. Mr2cents

    Mr2cents Registered Member

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    Here's a couple of more antiviruses that still support 98.
    Kav and Nod32. Woops. EliteKiller beat me to it.
    drweb also supports 98.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2007
  18. pilotart

    pilotart Registered Member

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  19. EASTER.2010

    EASTER.2010 Guest

    Personally i am very disappointed with Microsoft's lack of interest (as if they ever care) in going back at least one more time to completely re-write and restablize Me/98SE as well as improve (The Dog Ugly GUI :ouch: ) as well as add some other new features before running away from it like it was some plague.

    Come On Microsoft Developers, wheres your guts? How about a revisit and name it WINDOWS 98.6 as in "Normal".
     
  20. herbalist

    herbalist Guest

    Whenever I see an article about a new type of rootkit or read about how easily they're defeating rootkit detectors, it makes me so glad that I chose not to "get with the times." Vendors supporting 98/ME doesn't take away anything from their support of XP. Looking at the latest crop of malware, XP users are going to need all the support they can get.

    The availability of an AV is not a sufficient reason to drop an operating system. Signature based AVs are a technology that's even more obsolete than Win98. Even with hourly updates, they miss a lot of the malicious code. AntiVir's present Virus definition files are 11.6mb. Checking each accessed file against a database of this size is a very inefficient and wasteful use of system resources, especially on the older system that don't have a lot to waste.
    Software is available for 98/ME that will more than adequately secure it, providing the user is willing to learn to configure and use it properly. My security package is based around Kerio 2.1.5, SSM free, and Proxomitron, all free rule based apps that are light, yet very effective. My AV is used only for manual scanning, not as a resident guard or shield. With no resident AV, my system is much faster. Combined with the system policy editor and "default-deny" usage, you can safely use 98/ME for all normal uses.
    Rick
     
  21. FRug

    FRug Registered Member

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    I'm not trying to bitch, but sticking to windows 98/ME seems pretty masochistic to me. Let me say this outright: that system sucks, it always did and it always will continue to be one of the worst products MS has ever unleashed unto mankind. The lousy kernel design severely cripples anything related to performance for security programs, much more than anything (in this context) Vista will ever be able to do.

    Yes there are still a few AVs that continue their support for this OS atm, however you would be VERY disappointed to see either which features/detections they have deactivated on-access to provide bearable performance. Other features, like behaviour blocking, may simply not be available at all.

    Diminishing hardware support, incompatible tools and games, system instability and in many cases broken drivers that will probably remain broken forever are not what I'd like to deal with on my home system (VIA 4in1 anyone?). When I ditched 98SE for W2K back then, I never looked back. Not once.

    If you don't want to pay for a new system (if required) or OS, you could still migrate to Linux. IMHO if all you do is do a bit of chatting, surfing, writing letters and stuff, Linux is probably the best thing for you anyway.

    Continuing support for an OS that has been dropped by the vendor is a losing battle, it binds ressources because the system bases are so utterly different, and it prevents you from integrating new technologies because its simply impossible/unfeasible to implement them for both OSes. From a company point of view, investing money in an evolutionary dead end such as 9x based systems may simply not be profitable, because the user base keeps diminishing quickly. The few remaining paying users (I'm not talking about the total userbase of 9x, but the share an AV vendor has of them) will continue to switch to other systems, and the investment will simply prove to have been wasted. This is especially true if companies that offer free versions of their software.

    What Stefan Kurtzhals said is true in a certain funny way, yep. Some of nowadays malware isn't able to run on 9x anymore. However a large part of it still does, and 9x is easy prey since major security issues have remained unfixed for YEARS. 9x is as open and vulnerable as it can get.

    If you like shooting yourself in the leg, i can't help it. But in your own interest you should consider the alternatives. Even if they have funny names ending with ...ix.
     
  22. Stefan Kurtzhals

    Stefan Kurtzhals AV Expert

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    Actually I was not really joking. I recently visited two friends who are still using Win9X. They didn't have a firewall (DSL modem, not router), didn't patch Win98, used IE 5/6 (totally unpatched) and Outlook.

    Basically the ideal target for malware you would expect. I was assuming that both computers were crawling with malware, booted from a Bart PE CD and was very surprised that there was not a single malware or adware active on these systems. The same systems with the same setup and XP instead would be infected in 30-60 seconds after being connected to the internet.

    BTW, so you guys are suggesting we shouldn't improve the detection of Avira or add new features but instead spend the time with backporting things to Win9x?!?! Vista is out, so we are forced to support that one and Microsoft already announced that in 2009, they will put out their next "masterpiece". o_O
     
  23. pykko

    pykko Registered Member

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    well, Win98 is already 9 years old... you could switch to other OS. But, if I have the current version for Win98 and I let it install and update normally, wouldn't it work even after support is gone? :D
     
  24. Inspector Clouseau

    Inspector Clouseau AV Expert

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    Win 9x is not sold anymore. That said as a company it's impossible to gain new customers with (whatever type of application) for this operating system. Nobody who buys a new machine installs 9x anymore. That you still have people running 9x is however another story. BUT even this number is going down every day. If you buy (or use) a 10+ years old car, would you expect that your local car dealer offers the latest navigation system including DVD entertainment system for your car? Of course not, they are focusing on the new cars, since nobody is going to buy a 10+ years old car for a SERIOUS reason. And if you do so, you're well aware that it might not have all nice equipment maybe not even airbags. That said: use/buy it on your own risk, you don't get any warranty on it.

    And if we would not draw somewhere a line, we would still sell/support Windows 3.x AV Software. Because there might be 512 users worldwide who still using this. 250 users going with symantec, 125 users McAfee, 75 users Trend Micro and the remaining licenses would be shared between all other companies, makes around 1-2 customers for every other av company. WOW :rolleyes: Now that's what i call a deal. You have to pay aprox. 12 people in your company for maintaining device drivers/TSR, for building/compiling old database formats which are much more limited than the new version of your product, you have to provide support for those turkeys who still use 3.x, you have to make QA, and if you are completely nuts then you have to employ 2 or 3 sales guys to try selling it, since it produces fixed costs for the company every month so you must gain somehow a turnover.

    Edit: I've forgot ofc the most important fact: You could use your existing resources for more important things: Focusing on current problems. Protecting the majority of users from current threads. That somebody with a 9x system gets infected is less likely since you don't have them running that often as the new operating systems. That said who cannot afford XP should go with linux, there is and there will be AV scanners. I have a Vista License but i'm not using it yet, because i think it's crap. (seriously) But at least i'm using XP since this is much more stable (and still supported by MS). If this gets dropped i switch completely to OSX 64Bit or Linux. We'll see...
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2007
  25. Firecat

    Firecat Registered Member

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    Well, I don't find the issue of Windows 9x support being dropped very shocking, *but* I noticed that some vendors (Microsoft, Symantec) are now supporting only Windows XP and upwards with the latest version of their software. Windows 2000 is left out there like a baby in the cold. Win2k is as vulnerable as XP is to the latest malware, and it is much of the same technology as what is there in XP. Then why do people drop support for Windows 2000? IMO, dropping support for Windows 2000 at this time is unacceptable. Vendors who do this should not be supported in any way.
     
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