Life after EOS for WinXP
It's probably fair to say that come EOS for XP, I'd got most of what I needed on my Win7 system and I moved to that pc unconsciously. It's the system I use most so letting the XP system sit as an 'active' archive didn't ruffle any feathers.
However.. I had cause to switch it on a couple of days ago to try something out (FSX related) and walked into the MSE warning that my system wasn't protected.. click here to fix the problem. Clicking 'Here' takes you to Win8 upgrade. Well.. that was helpful
'OK' I said to myself.. time to do something about this. I remembered one of the contributors here mentioning AVAST as an alternative so I found their site and downloaded the latest 'basic' version. I have to say that the basic version doesn't do much.. on a scale of 1-10 when compared with it's payware alternative, it scores a healthy 1!!! No matter.. the WinXP system isn't going to be doing a lot these days so basic cover is all I need. I have Malwarebytes Pro installed on it so that should cover a lot of what AVAST doesn't.
The install routine started and moved quickly to step 2 of 4. Step 2 of 4 seemed to be running for a hell of a long time during which I was being offered other 'must have' software. The 'Decline' button on this additional stuff appeared to be greyed out leaving no option but to accept.. if I wanted AVAST installed.. or so I thought. After the 3rd bit of software had been accepted.. a 4th was offered (note, the install was still on step 2 of 4) so I thought I'd try the greyed out looking Decline button. It worked!! Bu99er me
Meanwhile, MWB was taking exception to these new progs (the 3 I'd unwittingly accepted) and it's Quarantine Folder was filling fast
Knowing now that the greyed out 'looking' Decline button was just a ruse, I hit a couple more until Step 2 of 4 moved to Step 3 of 4!!
Eventually.. AVAST installed and updated then.. it started warning me that IE was unsecure and I should install Chrome. I declined the offer and ran an initial scan. It found a few things.. all but 2 of which had come down the line with these other 'must have' bits of software. The 2 that had been there for a while were known about and are the installer/cfg tool for the FSHeliCH Alouette2! Meanwhile.. MWB was telling me it had detected a shed load of stuff so I let that quarantine what it had found and ran another scan. After an hour.. all was peace and quiet. AVAST had shut up and MWB was happy nothing else was lurking.
I had cause to turn the XP machine on again today (it runs the printer which is networked) and I've lost another hour of my life. AVAST came up with a new box telling me that 3 bits of software (FlashPlayer, Firefox and WinRAR) were unsecure and needed updating. I let it run update for FlashPlayer (towit I had to dodge Chrome again) and after this had happened, it told me there was a new version of AVAST so I updated that. Thinking it was all over, an 'Almost Finished' page came up telling me to install Chrome. At this point, I gave up and installed Chrome. Having done that, MWB popped up and suggested I do another scan as it had detected unsavoury software so I let it scan and 3 files were found.. all of which are now in quarantine. Exhausted, I turned the XP machine off.. over an hour having elapsed and all this so I could print 2 rosters
In future.. I think I'll let it die.
ATB
DaveB
