whats the best anti-virus for win98SE

i tried Norton '05 but my gosh its slow

I'v always used AVG in all my computers and never had any trouble, but according to Grisoft's site Windows 98 will only be supported until August 2008.

Try AVG Free, CC. You'll be amazed at how much of your machine Norton was gobbling up. They may be ending support later this year, but the upside is a lot of code, including virii, won't run on 98 anymore. Avast is supposed to be another good free one.

okay, ill do avg thanks

Avast runs pretty briskly on my old Katmai computer.

Been using AVG for the past two years with no problems

i use avg right now. its not a rescorce hog at all!

What AVG versions are you guys running, I ask because I tried it a while ago installing v7.5.432 and got a BSOD everytime I started an on-demand scan. I see the latest version is 7.5.516.

I also tried Avast 4.7 but the well documented problem there is the systray icons disappear when doing a full system scan.

Kaspersky v6 had 100% cpu usage as an issue.

Cheers

You are lucky. On my system the menubar and desktop icons disappear too. You can work around this by manually starting the build in Avast screensaver to do a full system scan. This is icon-safe. You can create a shortcut to AvastSS.scr to make this easy.

Many thanks for the info noguru.


I don't have Avast installed on my system now but for clarity you are saying start the scan from AvastSS.scr.
Do you double click on that file? Is that for a full scan only? what about scanning just single files or folders.

Cheers

PS Also tried
- Bit Defender 10, icons in system tray turned black, lock ups and 'bidlite' in ctrl-alt-del stopped responding
- AntiVir Free very sparse and apparently no HTTP scanning
- NOD32 which seemed to lock up on boot at desktop but I think that this was associated with my Second Chance recovery prog.

im runnin the latest, no problems

I don't use any Anti-virus.
Well, from time to time I crank up ClamWin and SpyBot just for the sake of it...

You can access the settings in displaysettings/screensavers in your control panel. You can choose to scan folders and drives but not single files. And yes just doubleclick on the file, it's in your system directory.

Btw, this icon thing is really annoying. It seems to me that this screensaver and the logviewer are the only part of Avast that are not affected. I just checked the program-settings screen cos I didn't remember that these screensaver settings are not there. And my startmenu and quicklaunchbar where blank. So I reboot...... And now I accessed the screensaver settings and I can reboot again.

Good thing Avast works fine in the background and that you don't really need to open the GUI

Well, I have a problem now...my university only allows me to use "certain" AV applications because I'm forced to use Cisco Clean Access *sends chills down spine* and AVG (which is also my favorite AV app) is not supported. My options are Symantec Norton AV, Trend-Micro AV, SoftWin BitDefender, McAfee or Computer Associates eTrust EZ AV (whatever that is). So, my question is which program is the least terrible (resource, stability, usability and effectiveness wise).
Here's the list: http://www.cisco.org.lv/univercd/cc/td/doc...1rn.htm#wp72834

I love using windows 98, but that combined with any of today's mainstream AV programs, well, they make me feel like I'm driving a Camero with 80HP, and a busted transmission.

Many thanks for the info noguru.

>>Fredledingue, I guess that since no new script is being written for 98se running no AV is not so dangerous anymore.


Well as I said above, when I trialed BitDefender 10 icons in the system tray turned black, there were lock ups and 'bidlite' in ctrl-alt-del stopped responding. Apparently, my experience was not an isolated example.

I still have a couple of 98se systems running Norton and have seledom have had any issues with them. Having said that it is the 2003 version, the last version which was not bloated. I think Norton stopped 98se support on the 2005 version.

Also add NOD32 to your list, I had issues with it but to do with a conflict with my imaging program.

Good Luck

Grisoft ducked out of AVG Anti-Virus for Win98SE after version 7.5 (December 12th 2006).

The last file is avg75f_433a879.exe

Never mind, I resolved the issue. I guess Win98SE is so old, that my university only forces me to install Cisco Clean Access for authentication, but skips all the AV/firewall/anti-spyware checks. It's there way of saying "no body cares about your OS anymore, use the internet at your own risk." YAY for ME!!! sucks to be a win2000/XP/Vista user haha! In this day and age, should I be worried that I'm using a university network with no AV or anything?

Just one more advantage to using old technology...nobody else cares enough about it to sabotage it.

precisely!

i love old tech, its fun to mess with.

i wouldn't worry about viruses so much, even on a university network

If you have safe computing habits, shouldn't be much of a problem, specially since you are in an university network, which means you are behind a router with a firewall. But I'd install an AV just in case, even if it is a little outdated (old systems, mostly old viruses )

On a university network, I'd be more concerned about other users on the network trying to gain access to your PC. In that situation, I'd consider installing a software firewall. Rule based firewalls like Kerio 2.1.5 are extremely light, even on 9X systems that are using the original hardware. If nothing else, close the NETBIOS ports by unbinding TCP/IP from the network services. Instructions for doing this can be found here.

98 can be safely used without an AV, especially if you're careful and use an alternate browser. There are more effective ways to protect a PC from malicious code that are much lighter than any AV. You can set up a default-deny security policy that allows only the system processes and user apps you specify to run. A default-deny policy is best suited to systems that are finished, equipped the way the user wants it. It's an ideal security policy for users who know their systems well, what the processes do, which are necessary for the tasks you perform, etc. Default-deny is less effective on systems that are changing often or when users like to try out new software regularly. It's not a good choice for users who aren't knowlegable about their systems.

The average 98 box has about 50 executables that get used during normal operation. It takes far less processor power, disk space, memory, etc to set up a policy that allows the necessary activities of those 50 or so necessary processes than it does to use an AV to check every accessed file, process, etc against a database of about a half a million identified pieces of malicious code, many of which don't affect 9X systems.
Rick