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General discussion

Win98 Antivirus. Asking for your urgent recommendations

by jose_luis2006 Dec 30, 2008 3:51AM PST

I have almost completed the configuration and basic SW installation for the laptop my grandson will be using. I could not afford something better than the IBM Thinkpad 390E type 2060OEG I already have. It has a PII processor with 128 KB RAM.The OS is Win98 FE (German), with all the updates I could find in the update page of Microsoft. I cannot upgrade the OS in this moment, due to my own practical reasons.

But something very important is still missing: a suitable antivirus. Right now it seems that the main vendors are no longer supporting this OS and the few that still do, such as Norman, have requirements this machine does not fulfill. And I believe that a laptop with internet access and no antivirus installed will not survive the hostile environment of the present WWW for much time, particularly in the hands of a child.

I need your recommendations about a suitable Antivirus, that could run on this Win98FE laptop without consuming too many resources. Of course I can pay for the program, it is not necessary that it be free.

I thank you in advance for your most valuable help.

Discussion is locked

9 Posts
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Re: antivirus for Windows 98
by Kees Bakker Dec 30, 2008 5:16AM PST

The minimum system requirements for avast! home edition seem to be:
For a computer running Windows

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Support beyond 2008?
by jose_luis2006 Dec 30, 2008 5:45AM PST

Thank you. I think I had not considered it as an option because they display a warning saying that compatibility with Win98 will last only until end December 2008 (that is tomorrow!). But I may be wrong so I will check again.

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Avast seemes to be OK
by jose_luis2006 Dec 30, 2008 6:14AM PST

I installed Avast 4.8 home edition and everything seems to be OK.
Thank you for your suggestion.

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"a PII processor with 128 KB RAM.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 30, 2008 5:46AM PST

Many PII CPUs came with that much L2 CACHE. Maybe you meant MB?

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Yes, sorry
by jose_luis2006 Dec 30, 2008 5:59AM PST

The installed RAM is 128 MB

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spend $50
by bigboy73 Dec 30, 2008 2:58PM PST

and find anewer PC on ebay or amazon, with xp, like an old office workstation it will save you hassle later on

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Spend ZERO?
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 30, 2008 10:57PM PST

I see such machines on Freecycle every week or two.

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Laptops for free or @ 50$
by jose_luis2006 Dec 31, 2008 2:46AM PST

Glad to know you can get hese Thinkpads for almost nothing or just nothing in your place. It's not the same here; anyway I already have one and what I was looking for was a suitable antivirus. I?ve already got Avast and it is working OK.

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Sorry.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 31, 2008 3:15AM PST

I don't want them. In fact I gifted two our recently but only slightly less than your P2 unit. Just a pair of i233mmx laptops with 64 and 96 MB ram. Both had WIFI so they vanished fast.
Bob

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