We know that Windows 98SE is slowly (or not so slowly)losing support in the big wide world

what protection do YOU have on your win 98se computer and for how long do you think it will be 'supported' and update?

Actually, Windows 98 is basically a dead operating system. There are a lot of people still using it yes, but you should really think about upgrading. At LEAST to windows 2000 where there is still some support, even though it is not much of a jump. In all reality, you can get a new dual core PC from companies like J & R for about 300 even. This includes a 3 year warranty and it comes with Vista installed. Now dont get me wrong, if I was to recieve that PC I would instantly reformat it with windows XP cause everyone knows that vista is going to suck until they come out with some service packs.

Live for today, buy a better pc, or go to a pawn shop and purchase windows 2000 for like 5 bucks.

but does not answer the question of what thsoe who ARE running computers ON windows 98se platform use for protection and security ; hense question directed AT such users to pool information on what we DO use and how useful we find it

Well, IF i used windows 98, I would pray to god that I could find software that will work with it! lol, I think sometimes the only options you would have would be norton or Mcafee *shiver*.

which is why this thread is asking those who DO use win98se what they DO use for protection etc ; I too have an XP machine but am 'caring for' my win 98se one and wish to pool information from other 98se users

What protection are you talking about Ruby, anti-virus, spyware, adware, webbrowser or something else?

I've been using Win98SE for the past 8 years and apart from anti-virus I've had no additional protection. I've used Uninstall Manager for the past 5 years and nothing gets into my hard drive without I know about it. I would recommend Uninstall Manager to any Windows user.

ANY programs that you use ; which antivirus and which other protection? (preferably free ones )

I used to use McAfee Anti-Virus for many years but I had problems installing the updates each week. About six months ago I downloaded AVG Free Edition 7.5.484, installed it and it works great. In fact it works better than McAfee, it found a virus that McAfee couldn't and its free.

As for the other protection I haven't found that I needed anything.

I used to use McAfee Anti-Virus for many years but I had problems installing the updates each week. About six months ago I downloaded AVG Free Edition 7.5.484, installed it and it works great. In fact it works better than McAfee, it found a virus that McAfee couldn't and its free.

As for the other protection I haven't found that I needed anything.

Sorry for the double post but my browser was acting slow so I click again and it posted it twice. Admin can you please delete this second post, thanks.

in Septemebr of this year avg 7.5 support vanishes so an alternative hopefully free av will be needed

I dual boot 98SE & XP but I run 98 as my primary OS. Why? Because it is simple and solid. Easy to fix when it breaks
I think it is the best OS Microsoft ever made! They took what they learned with 95 & just made it better.
There are still a suprizing amount of people running it. Out of my client database 41%.
Not everyone can afford to upgrade at Microsoft's whim.

For protection I use AVG, Spybot Search and Destroy, Zone Alarm 6.1.774 and SuperAntispyware 3.9.
As a tech, and a business owner, I am wondering what to do for my customers when AVG pulls support for 98.
I am hoping that the definition updates still work but no more program updates.
That would be the best case scenario

For a word processor I use Word for a quick letter. But if I want to get anything serious done I use a product called AMI PRO. It was Windows very first native word processor. Handles graphics and a lot of other stuff better than Word.
I bet I am about the only one left on the panet using it daily too!

For an office suite I use Office 97. It does everything that I need it to do and then some

In many ways the older products were better. If it does everything you want why change?

I have also seen CCleaner suggested for use on computers; does anyone ON win98se use it and how 'safe' is it?

and Avast antivirus at present is compatible with win98se but for how long? I do NOT wish a return to ...do I dare say it..Norton

Hi,All. Am running ME with Symantec Corporate from work, ZA free that hasn't been updated since last ME update (still seems to be working),Spybot, AdAware SE Personal,and DK Lite. Looked at CCleaner - no ME ver. available - and searching for replacements for ALL of the above (without much luck). Soon will have to eat peanut butter for a couple years to by a new box as this old one doesn't have enough (speed, memory slots, etc.) to run newer stuff - even LINUX. Got Open Office, seems powerful, but I don't need much. Good luck finding stuff that doesn't pay the corp.s a big profit ! There may be some good stuff out there, but haven't found it. All the Best ! Bob C.

but what are you running on a windows 98se machine?

Sorry, I'm not ALL here (ME), but shouldn't this all be compatable with 98-98SE also ? And we're all just as orphaned by MS and most others by now? Will be watching this thread hoping to pick up some ideas/answers to keep my box alive too. Thanks from...

haha!
I second that shiver

I've used CCleaner for a couple of years. Its very good and safe for cleaning out your rubbish.

Choose which version you want too.

Then also have a Forum for CCleaner, Recuva and Defraggler all made by the same company and they are free. Recuva is an excellent program if you've deleted files of a drive and wished you hadn't. Defraggler won't run on Win98SE.

Another nice thing about CCleaner is you can save certain Cookies that you use frequently e.g. Forums that you log in to. It also has a registry checker to see if files are where they should be and if they are still there.

You won't find CCleaner in Freeware Replacements For Common Commercial Apps because it uses the registry for some actions. They class it as a registry cleaner.

I wouldn't play around with the Registry section unless you're an advanced user. Even then I suppose something could go wrong

XP, ME, 98SE (which still rocks!): I use AVG as antivirus on all of these. My 98PC isn't on the 'net anymore, but I had an older version of ZoneAlarm on there which did the job. I never had any problems with spyware\intrusions in any case.

Well that's when you do a Scanreg /restore

have we forgotten that Windows 98se does not come packed with a system restore facility?

so

what programs ARE windows 98se users using?

Ohh
Can that be done with 98?

I have two spare computers, one with ME and one 98SE (had a 98 pc but it died). Both of them run under a proxy server on a XP computer that filters everything so consequently I don't need antivirus on the other two. I used Spybot and ZA but I don't know if they still support. CCleaner works on ME and I recall having it on the 98 pc.

Yes it can.

You can do it on Win95 if you know what you are doing. I don't mean Scanreg /restore either.

Win95
You make a Backup folder in Windows and copy System.dat and User.dat into that folder. There are also two registry backup files of a similar name but you don't actually need these. You can make sub folders if you want to store different backups.

Then you need an old DOS program call Dosshell which I think you can download somewhere. And put all the files in your Windows\Command folder. Start your computer up whilst tapping F8 to get the DOS menu options and select Command Prompt Only (not sure if the Only bit only refers to Win98, I haven't use Win95 for 10 years). At the C:\ just type Dosshell and enter. Dosshell is a DOS file manager so you can see all files and folders on the drive.

Find your Backup folder and copy your System.dat and User.dat files back to Windows folder and do a restart.

You can make backups to the Backup folder once a week or when ever you feel the need.

That sounds cool. Thanks for that KeithUK I will find that useful as I might be buying my friends old Windows 95 PC. better yet she might give it to me
I really wanna learn about the older OS's because I inly got to use them as a kid and i only used them for games

Scanreg /restore (and scanreg /backup fwiw) work on Windows 95 and Windows 98.
The Windows Registry Checker shouldn't be confused with system restore, which is available from Windows ME onwards.

I wasn't sure if Scanreg /restore was on Win95 as I said I haven't used it for 10 years.

Well I had a problem with AVG so I decided to join their AVG Free Forum.



AVG.7.5

click on then click over cookie handling, now select "prompt" under 1st party cookies/ then under third party select block all(hte bad ones)"".
this is your first defense in staying virus free. it may be a pain every page you view it asks you if you would like to accept a cookie, SOME TIMES YOU HAVE TO!!!!!! like accessing your mailbox or certain sites cannot connect to your cpu but don't worry just undo everything I told you(or go back in and instead of going to advanced click on "SITES" and add the site in there you would always like cookies to be accepted from.
2. go to start/my computer and right click on your hard drive(s) go to properties and thenclick disk clean up. this is going to remove a lot of unneccassarassbs your cp builds up.
3. after doing that I would definitely download CCleaner, Panda is a good free anti-virus program, superanti-spyware, spyware blaster, SPYBOT SEARCH&DESTROY(you have to have this program the teatime feature will not let anything happen to your computer unless you click ALLOW CHANGE, but if you didn't do anything that would cause a change to your registry I would suggest click deny change.
4. do not be afraid of CCleaner it removes a ton of useless junk from your registry i have never had a problem with that program. first ananalyze windows, then run cleaner, then click on registry and scan then fix.
5. Before doing any of this it is wise to make a bootdisk for you computer by simply inserting a floppy then go to my computer then right click on the floppy drive select FORMAT then click on the box that says make MS-DOS bootdisk click that and you now have a genuine bootdisk for your cpu which can get you out of nasty situations.
6.how to back up iwn 98
click start/run and then type in "" that will start your system restore which will undo any system you have made in case of an accident.
You also want to do some searches on how to speed up your poor little thing, like deny indexing, get rid of the beeps your cpu makes on start up.
If you feel you do have a nasty virus that won't leave download Hijackthis.exe and post a log in the hijack this loin the appropriate forum on this site.
do not get rid of anything in the log unless you know or have been instructed to delete it. Pretty soon you'll be on your own. I run hijackthis look at it and I know exactly what is and isn't supposed to be in there. When you download or add new software/programs to your cpu there will be different items in the hijackthis log.
Hopefully some of this information may help you.
sam F 3

Sorry the beginning of that started by saying If you aren't familiar with how to keep up your computer just do some search queries.
I would start by understanding your system. And how to stay virus free with relying on 12 hour virus scans to (not) get rid of a virus/adware/malware. Go to start/control panel, then click on internet options(switch to classic view if you can't see it) now click on the privacy tab/ then click advanced.

CCleaner have there own forum if you want to check out problems. I joined 10 months ago. They also have Recuva and Defraggler forums.

has anyone on win 98se got (hopefully free)spyware terminator on board?

Hello ruby1,

I have used Spyware Terminator before, but there's something about its behavior on my PC that makes me suspect that it could have its own internal 'spyware' at work. Their site no longer supports Win98 with their current version (which I think is 2.1.1.314) and they do recommend that you stick with the older version 1.9 ...

"If you are using an unsupported operating system (Windows 98/ ME), you may want to use Spyware Terminator version 1.9. This older version uses the current database and provides comprehensive protection, but no further development is being done with this version."

Here is the link to the 1.9 version that I have used on and off for the past year ...

Spyware Terminator 1.9.3.142 [3.32 MB] (Last Version That Works Well On Win98SE)

http://www.filehippo.com/download_spyware_terminator/?2811
(FYI - the link shows 1.9.2.142, but after you download it, you'll see that it is 1.9.3.142)

http://www.filehippo.com/download/7bc4f249...8065d/download/

If you decide to use this program, I highly recommend that you disable the 'sptcontmenu.dll', as this is the annoyance that makes me (and many other users, from what I have read on other forums) wonder if this program is trying to "call home" or interject its own spying technology on to my PC. Basically, it tries to put something into your right-click context menu, although when disabled, it can no longer do this. I always hate it whenever any program puts something in my right-click menu, without giving me the option to easily remove it. I have emailed support at spyware terminator about this and they told me they would put an option for easy removal in their next update, but they still haven't.

There is a free app called ShellExView, which will allow you to disable the sptcontmenu.dll without any difficulty. Here is the link to that program ...

ShellExView (by Nir Sofer)

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.zip

Best of luck trying this program, but I have decided to get rid of it, as it kept making my system light come on at weird intervals, which made me wonder what on earth it was scanning my HDD for.

I'm still receiving update support on my 98SE from SpywareBlaster. Last update to it was on
the 3rd of June.

Windows 98 is a graphical operating system. Any Internet Service Provider that requires client software to be installed should be avoided at all costs. If your Internet Service Provider requires you use their software, get another ISP if possible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Krissy Harris

Personally I hide my 98SE machines behind a hardware firewall.

I uninstall any software I don't use, including portions of Windows, and I'm ruthless about this.

I install only the security upgrades that actually affect me (why update ftp.exe when I've deleted it?)

I stay familiar with my system's normal operation, using Nir Sofer's tools and SysInternals' tools, among others.

I inspect installers and programs before installing them - not just for malware, but because the occasional installer will ignorantly cream a 98SE system file and try to replace it with an XP one. I recommend Universal Extractor, but there are other tools.

I update any software that interfaces with the outside world, such as browsers or downloaders, regularly.

I disallow my browser from doing ALL KINDS of things others consider normal (browsing with "no images"? Sure, if I distrust the site, or I just feel paranoid about website hijackings this week.)

I do my mail on the web, where it takes extra special work for me to download malware - even html or images.

With these precautions, I've had the luxury to just go and search for an AV program when I decide I want one. I've NEVER "needed" one for my own machines, except to find out exactly what was IN that package I wasn't supposed to be able to save instead of running.

And this process worked even back in 2001 when I went through that binge of downloading cracked software and keygens. I couldn't USE the stuff, sometimes didn't even know what it did, it was just like "that's THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!". Saved "StarDialer" to the desktop a lot, never ran it once. Got about fifty pieces of malware for each working keygen. Ended up never using a single thing, losing it all in harddisk crashes EXCEPT the things that got saved to my malware collection.

Anybody NEED old versions of StarDialer that run on Win95?

The last year has seen software drop 98SE support left and right, so any recommendations go out of date quickly. Even software that wants to continue support finds that some crucial library or framework had a different attitude. The next time I need a malware scan, I'll probably look at one of those "last version to support 98SE" sites.

On the other hand, I just manually removed a malware package from a new used Win2K computer (containing a whole collection of malware), uploaded it to Jotti's, and had half of the scanners, including some well-rated ones, find nothing. And this is an installer that I could tell was a problem by just reading, in plaintext, the list of files that it was going to install - if it WASN'T a rootkit or zombie, it was an impressively powerful remote administration/monitoring package. What THAT says about modern malware scans, I don't know.

So judging my computer security by what software I use is rather like judging my diet by my fork collection.

I would be more interested in what JOBS people use what software for, and how they decide what jobs constitute a security sytem. Do you scan internet traffic? Do you firewall? How do you manage mail? Can you even be mailed files that you have to scan, or do you have to download them first? Do you whitelist? Do you blacklist? Do you use a router/firewall? Do you know what it blocks and allows?

Believe it or not my son still has Windows 98SE on his Dell. He runs AVG (free) and is very happy with the protection it provides.

Are you aware of this ?AVG 7.5 withdrawn (ends as from this week end )and sadly AVG 8.0 is NOT compatible with win 98se either

I thought is was the end of the year but it appears that the AVG 7.5 Paid version will be supported until 31/12/08.

http://freeforum.avg.com/read.php?8,136697,backpage=,sv=

Well we will have to try Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1229

I am still using Windows 98SE. I have AVG 7.5. Maybe will have a new computer by the end of the year, who knows.

I also have spybot on my computer and adaware. Usually I have not problems with my 98 while I am using the net with dialup. However, these last couple of days have been different. So, am going to go to one of the boards and say what my problem is.

I am not new here. Just have had to be on so seldom, that have forgotten the name that I used last time I was here! But, hello everybody again.

A

I said the other day that AVG were stopping support and updates for 7.5. On Sunday 31st I did and update as normal then Monday night I didn't bother. Last night I thought I would try an update to see if I get and error not available, not supported or what ever and it updated without a problem. If there were problems then I would install Avast!

So have AVG had second thoughts until the end of the year due to so many complaints? It still says 31/08/08 on their link above.

check this out

Thanks Ruby.

Yes I did an update last night without any problem so they appear to have extended the dead date to the end of this month.

Gave up M$ along time ago , but when I did use it I used Anti-Vir AV, Sygate FW , Adaware and Spy-bot S&D and A few others I can't remember. Some of these are availble here http://old-versions.net/

Yes but the newer vesions of AntiVir are only for WinNT AntiVir Personal 7.00.03.02 is still for Win9x.

Where as Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1229 still says all Windows versions at the moment.