# Free antivirus for Windows 98SE?



## Airidh (Nov 17, 2008)

Does anyone know of a (good) free antivirus program which will still support Windows 98SE? I have used Avast! for years, but as from 1st June it uses a new version which won't run on W98, and so far I have not found a substitute.

(It's not practical to run the newer versions of Windows on this machine, and W98 is much faster anyway. I will probably install linux, but would prefer to keep 98 as well *because I like it!*)

Thank you.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

It's going to be difficult if not impossible to find a stand-alone antivirus for Windows 98SE or Windows ME.

An operating system older than Windows 2000 usually isn't supported, so they won't install. 

And the ones that do install, their updating and scanning features won't work properly or at all.

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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2007)

I put 98 and xp on a machine in a dual boot.
I wasn't able to find one that works with 98 anymore.
Even clamwin antivirus is requiring an newer operating system now.
After a lot of looking,I finally found a firewall though.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

When I was working on an old Windows ME computer last year, I found very few stand-alone antivirus programs that would install.

The problem I ran into after installing and testing each one was being unable to update the definition files and being unable to get a scan to complete.

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Also, with an old computer with a very slow processor and a very small amount of RAM, the install process will detect that and will prevent the install. 

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## peterh40 (Apr 15, 2007)

Try ClamAV from http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/ which I know works on 98SE.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

*ClamWin* is one that I tried last year in an old Windows ME desktop. It installed, but the scanning and updating features didn't work properly.

All you can do is try though. It might work properly for you.

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## Airidh (Nov 17, 2008)

Thank you all for your replies, although I admit I found them a bit depressing, even although I had expected something of the sort.

I will have a go at ClamAv/ClamWin; may have more success than some of you as although my machine is old, it was fairly high-spec in its day: PII 866 and 512 MB ram. I think Clam*** is not a resident shield but only scans (is that right?) but as my email is not on that machine this may be adequate.

Maybe W98 is a luxury I can't afford any more . It really isn't essential but _I like it!_ Anyway I am looking at Mint and maybe will just go with that. Hate to be beaten though.

Thanks anyway.


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2007)

If you don't need 98 for online work,just get IE6 and get the windows
updates,then disable the network adapter.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

Airidh said:


> Thank you all for your replies, although I admit I found them a bit depressing, even although I had expected something of the sort.
> 
> I will have a go at ClamAv/ClamWin; may have more success than some of you as although my machine is old, it was fairly high-spec in its day: *PII 866 and 512 MB ram.* I think Clam*** is not a resident shield but only scans (is that right?) but as my email is not on that machine this may be adequate.
> 
> ...


Believe it or not, an old computer with an Intel Pentium III 866 MHz processor and 512 MB of RAM will handle Windows XP just fine for basic computing functions.

I'm currently running Windows XP in an old Dell OptiPlex GX110 desktop with an Intel Pentium III 800 MHz processor and 512 MB of PC100 RAM.

Just something for you to think about.

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## blues_harp28 (Jan 9, 2005)

I had an old Pc running Windows 2000 - and my thoughts went towards using Ubuntu on it.
But the Bios did not support the install of any Linux operating system.

Best to check first that the Bios will support an install of Mint or any other Linux operating system.


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## Airidh (Nov 17, 2008)

Thank you all once again. I'm really grateful.

@Leroys1000. Yes, I thought of that, and have been disconnecting from time to time, but it's a bit of a nuisance, as I have 2 other computers on the network, and need to access one from the other from time to time.

@flavallee. Alas! I don't want to spend the money . Sorry, my fault, I omitted to mention that I already have a machine running XP (this one). 

@blue_harp28. It's OK, Mint is already installed on another partition on the W98 PC. It runs a little slowly, but it'll do for learning.

Probably I should give up. My reason for hanging on to W98 is that I have a few friends who are also running it, and I help them occasionally, so it's useful to be able to reproduce their problems. And as I said, I just like it, and it's less bloated and boots faster than XP. But of course these friends will probably also be hit by the antivirus problem (none of us is rich). If I was more confident with linux I would propose that to them, although they probably wouldn't understand that there's life outside the Windows (sorry!).

I'll investigate ClamWin and see how I get on. It should be all right if I'm careful, and I'm not using email on it.

Thank you all anyway.


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## Airidh (Nov 17, 2008)

Just in case anybody is interested: another approach might be to install a firewall and antivirus at the router end - a separate machine of course - I haven't worked it out yet but Untangle and ipcop-with-addons seem to be candidates. Untangle (free) looks really good, but seems to require a machine of a spec that I don't have lying around in the attic; ipcop is much less resource-hungry, but may not be free. There are probably others.


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## Airidh (Nov 17, 2008)

Odd - I had notification that neera had replied to this thread, but it isn't on the page, and I see no indication of a page 2. In a way, this post is a test to see if there is another page .

So, neera, in case you are looking: the text of your meesage was included in the notification email, so I know what is was. Thank you, I do know about AVG, but my understanding is that it doesn't support W98 either; however, since I don't remember where I read it, I will check out AVG again. I have used it in the past and it is not my favourite - it crashed one of my (XP) computers once, but any port in a storm ....

I'll get back with the result of my investigation.


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## Airidh (Nov 17, 2008)

Well, I did check out AVG, and my earlier informant was right. AVG did stop supporting Windows 98 about a year ago. You can download and probably run AVG 7.5 (the last one to run on W98) but it won't be much help if it won't update, as is now the case with Avast!. Alas.

I'll close this thread soon - I haven't forgotten. Not sure that "Solved" would be correct, but I suppose it is sort of solved, at least it will be when I get a hardware firewall with antivirus.


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