essentials used to receive definition
updates automatically however that
feature no longer works as it was
discontinued along with Microsoft's
support for Windows XP there are
definition updates that can be manually
downloaded and installed from Microsoft
of the page we have download links for
various products that Microsoft develops
we can click the 32-bit option next to
security essentials and save the file
now let's open it
not a valid win32 application from what
i have read about this issue there is
speculation that the registry hack we
used to get security updates from the
POS ready version of XP causes this
problem as interesting as it would be to
get security essentials to accept it
definitions update from 2020 for our
purposes security essentials is just not
while it is technically free it won't
protect our PC long term there are some
bonus features like parental controls
what is here under privacy protection
webcam access that's interesting I don't
have a webcam on this PC but that could
be worth testing at some point let's try
to update the virus definitions the
update says it is successful and
Kaspersky shows it's up-to-date but it
doesn't show any information on the
definition update itself like when it
was from perhaps the last definition
update was from 2014
you don't know however we can safely
eliminate Kaspersky is an option now
let's take a look at Avira this
antivirus software won numerous awards
and had excellent reviews between 2008
and 2016 the version we are installing
took a decent amount of time to locate
an installer package for it is version
14 which as you may have guessed is the
last version that supported Windows XP
according to this the license expired
January 30th 2017 this pop-up window in
the lower right corner of the screen
should have some text and graphics on it
but it never loads I'm curious if that's
because it's trying to pull from a web
resource that no longer exists
unfortunately it doesn't appear to be
possible to update the virus definitions
on this version of Avira I think we can
do better on to the next antivirus
program let's try installing AVG my
experience with this antivirus program
is that you have to set an exclusion for
software you want to use at least
software with internet or network
connectivity arguably that is more
secure to choose what software has
connectivity but it's also a burden
having to set so many exclusions we are
protected we now have the world's
largest threat detection network on our
side and we can brag about it click
continue
let's skip the first scare here we are
at the dashboard for AVG let's try
updating AVG and see what happens
according to this the program version is
18 and it was released in November of
2018 I'm skeptical that there is a
better option for XP we know that the
antivirus definitions are current so
it's time to put AVG to the test open my
pal or your browser of choice
in the address bar type in E I see AR
dot o-r-g from here we can download the
i-car antivirus test file this file is
simply a string of text that should
trigger antivirus software to flag it as
a threat
this method of testing is far safer than
using an actual virus AVG does not
disappoint on to the next test in the
address bar enter a MT s o dot o-r-g as
you can probably read from the text on
this page this resource offers a series
of tests that can be done to confirm
that security software is working
properly let's test a VG's ability to
detect potentially unwanted applications
scroll down the page and click the
launch test button now save the file
when it finishes downloading we can open
it this dialog box indicates that AVG
did not block executing the file or
otherwise warns us that it is a
potentially unwanted application click
yes then click no apparently we have to
click yes again on to the next test
let's try drive-by downloads scroll the
page and click Launch the test the idea
here is that I didn't click a download
button or anything that should have
triggered a download to start simply by
accessing the page the download begins
my pal is preventing the file from
downloading automatically which is nice
I can't say that AVG is working in this
case but my pal is definitely protecting
the PC so we are in great shape now for
phishing pages let's launch the test
unfortunately AVG is not protecting us
on this front if he questioned the
legitimacy of a login page you can
always enter the wrong password on
purpose the real site will only accept
the correct password the fake website
will accept anything you type in the
password field for the last test we have
compressed malware this is testing a
VG's ability to detect a virus within a
compressed file the connection was reset
this may be the correct behavior in this
instance after trying multiple file
types and different pcs I get the same
response which is good because that
means we are protected all in all AVG
works great especially considering its
installed on XP which hasn't had
official support from Microsoft since
2014 next up we have a vas as of 2017
Avast is the most popular antivirus
vendor on the market and had at that
time the largest share of the market for
anti-virus applications notice down here
at the bottom of the installer there is
a check box with a check mark already in
it for installing the Google toolbar I'm
not a big fan of bundling software like
that
so let's uncheck that box from here we
want to click customize so we know what
components are being installed there is
a rather large list of components
available for Avast on the face of it
that is a lot for free antivirus
software
if we had just clicked install all of
these components would have been
included let's leave it that way and
proceed this splash screen looks oddly
familiar isn't the same as a VG's yes it
is because EVG technologies is a
subsidiary of vast here in the interface
if we click around our links to those
various components notice that a
majority of them have an orange lock
symbol in the upper right corner of the
tile this indicates they can be accessed
with a premium subscription according to
a vasts website the last version for XP
is version 18 no new features will be
made available to that version however
there is no mention of the date
definition updates will be discontinued
I located a post on msfn from November
of 2018 confirming that Avast version 5
was still getting definition updates at
that time this is good news hopefully
version 18 will continue to receive
definition updates far into the future
back to looking around the UI
this component here does not have a lock
symbol on it for updating drivers let's
try this and see what happens we have to
install a separate program okay
let's run the scan it finds two drivers
that are out of date if we click the
little I symbol over here it should give
us more information okay the installed
Audio Driver is from 2006 that date
looks familiar
that is the date used for all of the
compatibility mode drivers the new
version it recommends is from 2008 that
is probably from Intel directly let's
try to update the drivers this program
does not indicate it requires a premium
subscription but it is behind a paywall
that is disappointing
on the plus side it does locate an
updated driver and it gives us a version
number that may be somewhat helpful in
locating the updated driver manually on
the landing page when we open avast here
is this smart scan let's run it and see
what it does okay it found some
potential issues with the registry these
are probably a result of having
uninstalled all of those browsers from
the previous video just as I expected
repairing the issues is also behind a
paywall
we know that Avast and AVG are similar
but let's put a vast to the test just to
make sure as we did before we can try
the potentially unwanted applications
test same result here Avast does not
block it now we can try the drive-by
download tests again we can save the
file and as we could have guessed Avast
would detect the threat next up we can
run the phishing test Avast is also not
protecting us on this front as we can
see with the compressed file test this
happens with Avast
too it is unclear if we are actually
protected or if this is an issue with
the website itself so what is the
verdict you can't go wrong with either
Avast or AVG it's personal preference
the silent mode in Avast is great it
prevents pop-up warnings and other
notifications on the other hand AVG
doesn't install a bunch of components
that are locked behind a paywall
now we have a good idea of what
antivirus software we want to use and
some more tools for how to stay safe
while browsing the web in Windows XP
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