Windows mE

Can anyone direct me where to go regarding getting my dad's computer (that hasn't been used in a few years) running safely online? We are already connected with our home DELL Windows XP thru Charter.

It's Windows ME.

 

Welcome to Major Geeks me-too.

Well for real time(resident) security there isn't much to choose from. For a firewall you might try Sygate Personal Firewall Free. Not sure if it supports Win Me or not. If Sygate doesn't work, there is Kerio 2.1.5(this is a direct download link from oldversion.com). Both are good free firewalls but, like Windows Me, no longer officially supported.

Avast used to have a free Anti-virus called "avast 4.8 home" but it looks like they have discontinued it. They do still have avast! Professional Edition 4.8 available but it's a 60 day try before you buy, I'm guessing the price is $39.95. If you decide to try this, make sure and download the "avast! Uninstall utility" too, just in case you don't want to keep avast installed. You'll find the uninstall download near the bottom of the same page.

Possibly a better option would be to switch from Windows to a Linux OS. If you would like to check on that, post a new thread in the Linux forum listing the hardware spec(s) of your dad's computer and what you're planning to do with it. That way the Linux folks will be better able to help you choose a distro that will work best on the machine.

 

why would you need the avast uninstall if you have the add/remove?

 

If the pc's specs will support it, you'd have a lot more choices if you upgraded to just about anything (2000, XP Home).

 

ME, ouch. How much RAM?

I had reason to run ME until I got my present Win7 machine. It had 128M RAM.

Very limited choices for security without totally dogging the system.

What I chose to do was go bareback, no security at all, out on the internet.

BUT, I was not storing ANY data on it, AND I had the 98 and ME upgrade install disks at hand, figuring that if I picked something up, I would just reformat and reinstall.

Results? Did this for about 6 months, never had a single problem.

So, as long as your not storing data, AND you have the install disks, this could be a feasible approach. It worked quite well for me.

 

avast! 4.8 locks some files and registry entries that won't be removed via Add/Remove. Nor can they be easily removed manually. I've had, "MalwareBytes' File Assassin", "Pocket Killbox" and "Move on Boot" fail at the attempts, even if the avast! self defense mechanism was disabled before the uninstall procedure was initiated. The uninstall utility takes care of this.

As brandypeppy has pointed out, adding a security applications may well bring the unit to a crawl making it almost un-usable. Or they may be decide to uninstall avast! 4.8 for what ever reason. In either case, removing it entirely would be desirable as left over remnants could cause problems. There is a procedure to uninstall avast! 4.8 and avast! 5.0 that seems to work successfully every time(on XP and Vista) but it involves the use of Revo Uninstaller(don't think it supports ME).

 

Hey thanks all...I found a an XP home edition disc in my dad's stuff, maybe he never got around to it? (he's deceased.) So now I can see the (DOWNSTAIRS) computer from the (UPSTAIRS) computer, can send out email but can't receive email. (updated antiviris, spyware, Windows, etc.)

Where do I go now?