I post this partly as an answer to: http://www.computing.net/answers/wi...

It's mid-2008 and all the AVware that once supported Win9x are falling away and don't support it any more. I went on quest and I've found that Bit Defender Free v10 is free and supports Win98. I had to look in the FAQ's to find the OS list. To start off go to this URL:

"http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Downloads/browseEvaluationVersion/1/42/".

The registation is simple but you will get a link sent to you by email for the download permission. (This URL here may D/L without trouble:

"http://download.bitdefender.com/windows/desktop/free/final/en/bitdefender_free_v10.exe" It will D/L the full program (~30mb) and not just an installer."

Next you'll need the update file (18mb). This is availible at the web site as a direct D/L at:

http://www.bitdefender.com/site/vie...

I needed AVware because I'm a PC hobbyist who uses Win98se often to run older equipment, etc. Old 98 may be funky and finiky but if you're up on it's foibles it will run nearly everthing there's a driver for. Also, some devices will work with Win95, ME and 2000 drivers on a 98 platform. Further, on a 256mb Athlon 1600 system it loads very fast, spyware and AV included... unlike some other OS's we can name. The last MS installer update and the networking update ver 1.4 are helpful if you are online.

Finally, I have older friends who have no/slow web access. I have to load their installs and updates for them via CD, ZIP or flash drive.

Happily Spybot and Adaware haven't yet pulled the plug on 98 and I hope they will consider continued updating the definitions, if not the main programs. When you D/L these wares, leave a note saying thanks for keeping the support going. Might help all of us in the long run.

There are millions of good 300mhz+ PC's scrapped daily when half the world has none. Do something about it!

Note that: "Also, some devices will work with Win95, ME and 2000 drivers on a 98 platform." should read: "Also, some device drivers from Win3x, Win95, ME and 2000 drivers will work on a 98 platform."

There are millions of good 300mhz+ PC's scrapped daily when half the world has none. Do something about it!

The thread you referenced is over a year old. The free Win9x/ME anti-virus choices were covered recently in another thread:

- AVG Free 7.5 (until 12/31/08)
- Avast! Home Edition 4
- BitDefender 10
- ClamWin 0.93 (no realtime scanner)

http://www.filehippo.com/software/a...

"And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

I ref-ed the "old" thread because it came up when I was searching for free Win98 antivirus-ware comments on several search engines and it talked about what I wanted to see. I don't consider a year-old thread about a 10 yr old OS to be irrelevant. However, since I didn't want to reserrect it, I started a new thread more inline with all that I did want to discuss.

Which thread are you ref-ing? A search in Win95/98 came up with 4403 "antivirus" hits here. "140" for Avast and "1135" for AVG. Seems like we all have alot to say/ask on the subject.

I stand corrected concerning Avast.

The current ver of AVG is 8.x and 7.5 wasn't availible to D/L when I checked yesterday. Ver 8 doesn't support Win9x. Yes you can continue to update 7.5 however, which I do on one PC. Strangely, they sent a note saying they wouldn't support 9x after July 1st. Did they roll it back to Dec.?

ClamWin doesn't have a realtime scanner (yet?), which disqualifies it in my eyes. I do hope it works well otherwise.

There are millions of good 300mhz+ PC's scrapped daily when half the world has none. Do something about it!

Ad-Aware 2007 does not run on W98.
The old Ad-Aware SE had "manual" definition file updates available for quite a while but these now cause Ad-Aware to fail (error message).

I too have read that AVG 7.5 will continue to update until the end of 2008. Avast still runs on W98, as already given.

SuperAntiSpyware will run on W98.

some other bloke...

AVG Free 8.0 may be best it includes
the Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware all
in one.I have not had any problems with AVG 8.0 ,excellent program.

street1
But AVG Free 8.0 will not run on W98 and AVG 7.5 will be dropped at the end of the year.

some other bloke...

Thanks for the heads up Derek.I have not ran
Windows 98 for a spell and overlooked the system requirements for AVG 8.0.