Best thing to use to keep Vista secure?

Hi,

I recently found my account again. (I did register with an alt but that was banned because I forgot to remove the site advertising from my intro.) Thought I'd lost my account here, that's why I did that.

Still, I have a Dell XPS M1530 running Vista, what's the best AV to use to keep the computer secure? I don't know whether to use MSE or not because support drop for it will probably be next year but if that's the best choice, I'll go for it!

Looking for free AV of course.

Thanks.

Welcome back Cammygitl192! I now seem to be almost the only advocate of using MSE 4.9 on Vista. Many Vista users reported "black screen after login" after installing http://www.vistax64.com/windows-upd...-security-essentials-4-9-218-0-kb3140527.html, but I am now using MSE 4.9 without any such issue, and I'm certainly not the only one. It might be the last client version that supports Vista, or there might perhaps be one more before April 11. Even if Microsoft promptly cuts off the definition updates, XP diehards have found that definition updates can be manually downloaded and still work with older client versions; so April 11 isn't necessarily the end of MSE's usefulness.

As I recall, when we last communicated you were running SP1. (I certainly wouldn't recommend that - especially now that a solution may exist for Windows Update taking a very long time to check for updates; see http://www.vistax64.com/windows-updates/304544-current-tips-updates.html - but if that is what you are running, then I will tailor my advice accordingly.) If you check the System Requirements for MSE 4.9 at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5201, you will find that it still explicitly supports both SP1 and SP2. Avast is one popular alternative among Vista users, but their system requirements specify "Windows Vista SP2 or higher, except Starter Edition (32 or 64-bit)" (see https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB44#idt_100). Do not attempt to install anything without checking system requirements! I had years of experience with AVG and months of experience with Panda, and my advice is to avoid them both: They are what drove me to MSE more than a year ago. I was once on the verge of trying Avira Free, until I learned that they ended support for Vista years ago.

Use Vista with both service packs and try Avast Free.
I just go with basic cover and don't bother with a lot of what they offer.
I also use private Firewall (a free 2 way firewall) and Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit.
Once a week or so I scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free.

I have both service packs, my ISO included them.
Thanks the info!

ilikefree said:

Use Vista with both service packs and try Avast Free.
I just go with basic cover and don't bother with a lot of what they offer.
I also use private Firewall (a free 2 way firewall) and Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit.
Once a week or so I scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free.

Click to expand...

Avast is certainly high on the list of third-party antivirus solutions I might try if I become dissatisfied with MSE.

A third-party firewall is not essential. Before installing one, read Why You Don?t Need to Install a Third-Party Firewall (And When You Do).

Malewarebytes Anti-Exploit only supports certain major browsers, whereas Cammygirl192 prefers minor browsers as I recall. (Coming to think of it, I don't really know how well MSE works with anything except Firefox and IE 9.) The best defense against Java exploits is not to use Java plugins at all (I don't). It isn't clear to me whether the free version protects against Flash exploits. In any case, Flash Player is best kept on a short leash (use ActiveX Filtering in IE, Ask to Activate in Firefox, etc.), and of course it must be updated promptly.

@Vistaar Yes, I use Pale Moon 25.2.2.

I don't have Java installed, which is good, and I don't want to install it, although I have Flash because something one of my online friends made for my site requires Flash. Plus Flash has some cool web apps that don't support HTML5/etc, even my own YouTube videos won't buffer in the HTML5 player.

I use Pale Moon 26.2.2
Private Firewall I find much simpler to use than Windows Firewall

I actually only have Vista running in a virtual machine these days,(for helping clients), which is the ultimate security as if I have a serious issue I can just start again

For the last few years I have used the same set-up on any of my "real" systems - Comodo Internet Security backed up by Malwarebytes, ( I use the Premium but regular manual use of the free version is almost as good), I also practice safe surfing Think twice click once

https://www.comodo.com/#comodoonecta

https://www.malwarebytes.com/

It takes a bit of learning but has kept me "clean" for years