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Then I had to manually update the anti-virus software, after which it shut down again and went back to the taskbar, necessitating another three clicks to get it to scan the system. It rebooted fine and placed a program icon on the system tray, but I had to click it to get it to start.

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It said I needed to reboot Windows to complete the process, so I hit 'OK,' but then it launched a full system scan that was abruptly curtailed by the reboot it had requested. Grisoft's AVG Personal Edition: Installed, updated, scanned and uninstalled without incident.īitdefender 8, Free Edition: After installing this program, I could see why they were giving it away. A second uninstall attempt using Windows 'Add/Remove Programs' got rid of it.Īvast 4 Home Edition: Installed, updated, scanned and uninstalled okay.

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Overall, I'd have to say my testing definitely showed that the free security tools performed better on Windows 98 than did paid or trial versions of retail software.Īntivir Personal Edition Classic: Install OK system scan fine. I have grouped together the ones I tested under categories below, along with notes about installation or runtime issues.

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That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of software titles that appeared to work well with these older systems. (In all likelihood, installing anti-virus or other security software on a compromised 98 or ME machine will result in the dreaded ' Blue Screen of Death.') I did not test how well the tools warded off malware installations or other online attacks, so please bear in mind that even if a piece of software installs and runs fine on a stock install of an operating system, it may not perform the same way on a system that is already infected. I tested each tool by itself, with no other software installed except the operating system and any available security updates. Thirdly, I tested each of these tools for several things, including whether they installed and ran well after a reboot, and whether they uninstalled cleanly (without kicking up a big fuss, leaving behind random files or disturbing other system functions). If I receive enough of them I will put together another post like this pointing them out.Īlso, while ME and 98 (and SE) are not identical operating systems, they are close enough in their genetic makeup that it is probably fair to assume that if a program plays nice or fails in Windows 98, it will probably also behave the same way in Windows ME, and vice versa. If you know of other security tools that work well with these older systems, please either drop me a line or leave a note in the comments section below.

#Windows 98 virtual machine download free for free

Most of the tools listed below are available for free online or through a 60- to 90-day trial period. First, this is by no means a comprehensive list of security software that works on Windows 98 and ME. After installing all of the updates and rebooting for the nth time, I was itching to install some security tools.īefore I go any further, I should note a few things. For whatever reason, the third time I visited WU did the trick with no crashes, and I was able to download two dozen critical security updates. Then I ran a Google search for 'IE 6 and inurl:' and was able to download IE 6.0 with Service Pack 1 directly from Microsoft's site (not from Windows Update).Īfter installing IE 6 and rebooting, I visited Windows Update and - GAH! - the browser crashed again. I then restored the virtual machine to its original state (a fresh install), and opened up IE again, this time halting the auto-redirect. The fresh installation of Windows 98SE came with Internet Explorer 5.0, a woefully outdated and insecure version of the browser that initially gave me some serious problems trying to download patches from Microsoft's Web site.Īs soon as I opened up IE, the browser automagically redirected to Windows Update, after which IE promptly crashed. Given what I heard from a number of users who said they planned to keep using those systems indefinitely, I promised to circle back with a look at which security tools still play nice with them.įor this project, I installed Windows 98 Second Edition on a ' virtual machine' using VMWare Server, which allows you to run multiple operating systems within a host OS. Last week, I blogged about Microsoft's plans this month to end support and security patches for Windows 98 and Windows ME.