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looking for real world XP AV experiences


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V.T. Eric Layton

I ran XP/SP3 from around 2001 till about 2013 on my main system (not as primary OS since '06, though). I used Norton originally. Hated it. Went to AVG and then later Avast! The last 4 years or so, I ran MS Security Essentials.

 

I NEVER experienced any virus issues on my XP installation during all of this time. Maybe I was just lucky. I used a bit of common sense, too, I suppose. Anyway, that's my real world AV experiences.

 

Currently I'm running Win 7 64 with MS Sec Ess. No troubles so far. :)

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V.T. Eric Layton

So, what's wrong with running the 32 bit MS Sec Ess on Win XP 64? As far as I know, any 32 bit app should run on a 64 bit Windows without any troubles. I'm running quite a few in my Win 7 64 installation on this machine, actually (older games).

 

Or is it that you would just prefer to have a 64 bit AV for your Win XP 64?

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So, what's wrong with running the 32 bit MS Sec Ess on Win XP 64? As far as I know, any 32 bit app should run on a 64 bit Windows without any troubles. I'm running quite a few in my Win 7 64 installation on this machine, actually (older games).

 

Or is it that you would just prefer to have a 64 bit AV for your Win XP 64?

Lil Bambi is correct about this.
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Running a 32 bit application in a 64 bit OS would not hurt anything.

 

However, if you have more than 4 GB of RAM, MSE would not be able to see anything there.. right?

 

Adam

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Hello,

 

Most anti-malware programs make user of device drivers which have to be the same "bittedness" of the operating system, e.g., a 32-bit operating system requires 32-bit drivers, and a 64-bit operating system requires 64-bit drivers.

 

As far as I know, most of the commercial and free anti-malware programs support Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition, or at least all the ones besides Microsoft do.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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Guest LilBambi

I have a feeling you may only think you are running MSE 32 on a 64-bit Windows.

 

If you are running MSE 32 on it, even if 64-bit hardware, it's likely running 32-bit Windows 7??

 

The times I have tried to put 64-bit on 32-bit, or vise versa, it complains loudly.

Edited by LilBambi
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Guest LilBambi
reply to photofinish

The 32-bit version of MSE's installer won't run on 64-bit Windows, it'll exit with a message telling you to download the 64-bit version.

 

In general with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of applications on 64-bit Windows, the difference is performance. When 32-bit applications run on 64-bit Windows they run on a compatibility layer known as "Windows on Windows" or WoW64 »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64 See also »msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library···85).aspx

 

The impact might be very minor, depending, but there's no good reason not to run the 64-bit versions of applications when they're available.

 

From @BBR

 

I don't think that Microsoft has changed that policy. Because of this, I have downloaded all available versions in case I need it for clients.

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V.T. Eric Layton

I have a feeling you may only think you are running MSE 32 on a 64-bit Windows.

 

If you are running MSE 32 on it, even if 64-bit hardware, it's likely running 32-bit Windows 7??

 

The times I have tried to put 64-bit on 32-bit, or vise versa, it complains loudly.

 

You definitely CANNOT run a 64 bit app on a 32 bit operating system. However, most 64 bit operating systems are backward compatible with 32 bit apps. Anyway, my Win 7 Enterprise 64 bit better D***** well be 64 bit. That's what I paid for, anyway. It says it is. Win 7 64 installs apps to two directories: Program Files and Program Files X86, the latter being a 32 bit folder. I'm definitely running MS Security Essentials on both my main and laptop Win 7 Enterprise 64 installations. It works like a champ on both.

 

Now, as far as this working on XP 64... I dunno. :(

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Hello,

 

Microsoft Security Essentials supports 64-bit versions of:

Unsupported are 64-bit versions of:

Under Windows 8 and newer, Microsoft Security Essentials has been re-branded as Windows Defender (which was formerly the name of Microsoft's standalone antispyware program for earlier versions of Windows).

 

Interestingly enough, both versions of Windows RT come with an installation of Windows Defender, and it receives virus signature database updates just like it's x86/x64 big brother does. Realistically, it's probably there more for intercepting malicious Flash, HTML, Javascript and the like, but if you were to ever plug in a flash drive infected with an Windows (x86/x64-based) worm or some other infected .EXE, I suspect it would catch that, too.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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Guest LilBambi

I don't know, but it may well be a good idea, to consider uninstalling the 32-bit MSE, Eric, and install the 64-bit version.

 

As Aryeh noted, "Most anti-malware programs make user of device drivers which have to be the same "bittedness" of the operating system, e.g., a 32-bit operating system requires 32-bit drivers, and a 64-bit operating system requires 64-bit drivers."

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Guest LilBambi

'Bittedness' may not be generally 'important' other than regarding speed, but when it comes to Antivirus software and drivers...I wouldn't mess with that at a time when the system needs to be at its peak performance ... removing malware/viruses/trojans/worms, etc.

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V.T. Eric Layton

I don't know, but it may well be a good idea, to consider uninstalling the 32-bit MSE, Eric, and install the 64-bit version.

 

 

Maybe I need to clarify here... I never said I installed a 32 bit version of MSE. I was just going by what was being said here in this thread, that there was no 64 bit version. I downloaded the proper version that was available on the MSE website.

 

This is from the MS Downloads page:

 

mse_downloads-022114_zpsfe9d1d2b.png

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Hello,

 

This is not something specific to anti-malware software. Programs which directly access the hardware, for example, some types of other software (tape backup, disc mastering, defragmentation...) may require 64-bit drivers if a particular interface isn't accessible via the drivers provided inbox by Microsoft.

 

In the case of anti-malware support for Microsoft Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition, one has to factor in the costs of building, testing, verifying, maintaining and support software for a market that has a very miniscule marketshare--a very slim fraction of a percent.

 

Additional information about 32/64-bit compatibility can be found in Microsoft Knowledgebase Article # 306819, "Release Notes for Windows XP Contained in the Relnotes.htm File" in the section labeled Windows XP 64Bit Edition Only.

 

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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