It had put things in my registry to reassert itself constantly on my computer. Uninstalling the program proved even more difficult than it was for AVG (another terrible choice). Eventually I ran out of patience and tried to remove it. The popup notifications I wasn't getting started appearing more and more frequently. For god's sakes don't download it! What a nightmare I had. Just wanted to retract my earlier recommendation for Avira. Thomas Swan from New Zealand on July 17, 2014: So thank you for this extremely helpful article. But I could do better, most especially as far as backing up is concerned. Well, this is something that has been on my mind for several months now, and I'm relieved to find I follow almost all the precautions you suggest. SheilaMilne from Kent, UK on September 02, 2014: Ronald E Franklin (author) from Mechanicsburg, PA on September 02, 2014: It's close to WinXP with some minor differences and works really well on my old pc, although the minimum RAM requirement is 512MB and I have 503MB (couple of dead cells) but it still works great for me. I started with ubuntu and ran that for a while, but eventually I ended trying a bunch of different linux OS's and finally found LinuxLite 2.2, which I am very happy with.
So anyway, I researched linux for a month, then it took me a month to figure out how to get it into my computer. My sister has a laptop with windows 8.1 on it and I just plain don't like it. I decided that I wasn't going to go back to windows because I felt like they had played a dirty trick on me. I had researched linux OS's for a month before I had to switch. Hello Ron and thanks for the tips! I would just like to say, WinXP was microsoft's last good operating system. J_R_Monnier from NATIONAL CITY, MI on January 17, 2015: Hopefully they've learned from their travails with Win8.
I do look forward to seeing what Windows 10 looks like. From a usability standpoint, it hits a sweet spot Microsoft has yet to match in later versions. But be prepared for app vendors to begin dropping XP support as time goes on. If you decide to go this route, be sure to do a thorough check to ensure that the download site you choose is safe.Īny apps that will continue to be used on your WinXP system should be upgraded and kept up to date for as long as WinXP-compatible updates are available. The good news is that a Google search reveals several non-official sources from which WinXP versions of these tools can be downloaded. And MSE is no longer downloadable from Microsoft at all. MSRT can still be downloaded from Microsoft, but only for Windows 7 or above. The problem is that Microsoft no longer supports them for use with WinXP. These apps can be quite useful in making your WinXP computer more secure.
The Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) is a free utility that checks for malware that may already be installed on your computer and helps remove it.
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is a free app designed to provide real-time protection against malware getting onto your PC.