Avast is the only AV provider I have found that is still providing active updates.

https://www.avast.com/windows-xp-antivirus

dergrunepunkt wrote on 2023-01-09, 20:47:

Which antivirus would be best to protect a fresh installation of Windows XP?

None

Limited user, common sense and a VM to test cracks and similar stuff

sudowin works great to help using limited user
https://sourceforge.net/projects/sudowin/

user is best av.

And at least SP2 installed before you do anything with it.

zandengoff wrote on 2023-01-09, 21:23:

Avast is the only AV provider I have found that is still providing active updates.

https://www.avast.com/windows-xp-antivirus

That link would only give you the same online installer of Win7+and CANNOT be installed on WinXP; you have to look for 18.8.2356 (build 18.8.4084.0), the very last Avast engine for WinXP. Alternatively, you can use AVG 18.6.3983.0, which is "lighter" and consume less resources on a low-end computer (e.g. Intel Atom-powered).

I keep a set of WinXP software (Firefox 52.9.0 ESR, LibreOffice 5.4.7.2, GIMP 2.8.22, FileZilla 3.8.0, Audacity 2.0.6, and the two antivirus software above) so my WinXP builds can perform >80% of basic tasks we perform on new computers.

Warlord wrote on 2023-01-10, 00:29:

user is best av.

a super user, maybe.

theelf wrote on 2023-01-09, 23:13:

None […]
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dergrunepunkt wrote on 2023-01-09, 20:47:

Which antivirus would be best to protect a fresh installation of Windows XP?

None

Limited user, common sense and a VM to test cracks and similar stuff

sudowin works great to help using limited user
https://sourceforge.net/projects/sudowin/

I understand where you are coming from, but I got a WinXP installation trashed in 30min w/o doing anything clearly stupid but doing google searches and downloading stuff from "reputable" sites.

dergrunepunkt wrote on 2023-01-10, 12:49:

I understand where you are coming from, but I got a WinXP installation trashed in 30min w/o doing anything clearly stupid but doing google searches and downloading stuff from "reputable" sites.

If your XP is patched to SP2 at least, and you are surfing at least from behind a simple NAT router, the above won't happen, plain and simple.

And if it is not patched, and you are not behind a router - you should not be using this computer at all, plain and simple.

Common Sense 2012 Pro 😁
(this includes backups and turning off remote arbitrary code execution by default in your browser aka JavaShit, which also doubles as an ad blocker since Big Advertisement seems unable/unwilling to do plain image banners without having you do the work for them, and triples as an hefty speedup because the same dispregiative applies to most websites nowadays)

... supplemented by Virustotal if you're not sure about something AND can interpret it (= can recognize heuristic detections, which are generally worse than nothing, and vested-interest results like the trojan Windows Defender claims to be in a library for the 1st Xbox inside the 2020 leak)

dergrunepunkt wrote on 2023-01-10, 12:49:

I understand where you are coming from, but I got a WinXP installation trashed in 30min w/o doing anything clearly stupid but doing google searches and downloading stuff from "reputable" sites.

Well that doesn't happen...

Panda Av still works with XP SP3.

I'm afraid no antivirus can truly protect XP anymore.
It's too old, has too many security holes..
Things like Heartbleed, Meltdown, Spectre etc. will still be threat.

Thst being said, installing an antivirus has at least a social or ethical value, even if it isn't effective :
The good intention not to harm others.

I think that's something honorable, at least.

The title of this thread reminds me of that old malware from hell. I never had it on my computer but I had several tussles with it on co-workers and relatives computers. The owner of one place I worked had actually paid them, but that didn't help. After trying to scrape it out of there, I finally gave up and formatted and reinstalled. Fortunately, it was his Call of Duty computer so no important documents were lost.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-01-15, 20:40:

The title of this thread reminds me of that old malware from hell.

Man I remember those days, 2007ish I think? we had one customer that must of lost a PC every 2 weeks. But then this was back when everyone was still local admin.
As you say it was easier just to swap out the PC with a spare, give the infected one a clean install of windows and programs ready for the next person to get caught out.

Most data was safe on the network anyway, IE history been the "most important" stuff that was lost