It’s been a long time since I used XP but like your high school sweetheart, good memories! 
Considering the security concerns, it’s probably a memory no longer in use. 
Beginning on December 1, 2018, new Avast/AVG Antivirus products will no longer be delivered for the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.
Why?
I’ve been using Avast Pro for a number of years on 2 computers Windows XP and Windows 7. Its always installed and worked. The compatibility is still Windows XP.
The only reason I use Avast is the license can be used on 3 computers. All other anti-virus software to pay again for each computer.
There are bugs in the software for the same application ETKA. I’ve reported this when the popup shows suspicious activity. The reply says thank you it will be look at for the next update.
This is total bull as it isn’t an application exe its a software update exe. I scan all files and Avast shows all clear. I have to disable Avast before I download the files and update.
If you’re using Windows XP, you need to know this.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.msg1469787#msg1469787
Downloads for Windows XP and Vista:
Installers working on XP/Vista:
https://install.avcdn.net/av/avast/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_online.exe
https://install.avcdn.net/av/avast/iavs9x/avast_internet_security_setup_online.exe
https://install.avcdn.net/av/avast/iavs9x/avast_premier_antivirus_setup_online.exe
https://install.avcdn.net/iavs9x-xp/avast_free_antivirus_setup_offline.exe
https://install.avcdn.net/iavs9x-xp/avast_internet_security_setup_offline.exe
https://install.avcdn.net/iavs9x-xp/avast_premier_antivirus_setup_offline.exe
Uninstaller - Avast AV for XP / Vista
https://install.avcdn.net/iavs9x-xp/avastclear.exe
Will still be using XP. Most of the country of England still uses XP, Microsoft was forced to continue updates to XP, so no it’s not going away anytime soon.
Well XP may not be going anywhere any time soon (as many institutions across the Globe are still on XP systems/networks) unfortunately, it certainly lacks the ‘Security Level Coding’ that’s needed these days even with MS updates.
I highly doubt that Microsoft was forced to continue the support for this by now outdated and badly compromised OS.
Microsoft saw an opportunity to make extra money by continuing with making updates available even though some security vulnerabilities can’t be updated.
The only safe Windows XP system is the one that doesn’t use the internet. For many systems that run programs supporting specific applications, that is quite often the case.
Yes, it’s still possible to get XP supported, but the company needs to pay for it.
I beg to differ. I’ve used XP online in many dark corners of the web for a decade and never once been compromised by any virus or malware. Sure I’ve had some try but none have managed to do any harm. (knock wood )
It’s all moot now as I’ve bought a new/used computer that came with Win10 but I installed a 2nd drive and an old version of Win7 and am using that instead. Just uninstalled Avast and installed Micro$oft Security Essentials. No more freakin’ nag screens and spyware type behavior!
Thanks to those that helped out!
C’ya L8r
Right, if the nostalgic people who still use xp with the Internet had had serious problems, it would be known and nobody would use it anymore.
Thanks to those who say otherwise to cite documented sources with concerns that would not occur with a supported OS.
I have been using Avast 10.4 because my XP computer doesn’t support SSE2. I recently upgraded to a computer that now supports SSE2 but it is slow.
Would the latest Avast for XP (version 18.8 ) be much slower than version 10.4?
Thank you for any information.
I doubt that there would be many (if any) who could give you a detailed answer on this. Mainly because 10.4 is such an old avast version to recall details. Plus 18.8 isn’t in massive use, with only a few on the forums using 18.8.
I still have an XP Pro SP3 system and I’m only running 18.5 on that as I has issues with later versions, I had to revert from 18.8.
The other problem is that we don’t have any details of your upgraded computer spec, CPU, RAM, HD, etc. This old XP System was pretty much top of the specs for its time and still is no slouch. You also have to cut your cloth according to your needs/means, don’t install components that you don’t actually need/want.
Hello David, what issues did 18.8 give you?
Would I be wise to install 18.5 instead of 18.8, as either one is a bit step forward from my version 10? I presume versions Avast 10 and 18 are equally effective at virus protection as I imagine they use the exact same Avast virus updates.
Out of interest, what is the spec of your PC. I moved my XP to an AMD Athlon 3000+ with 3GB DDR memory and it’s surprisingly good although can sometimes be sluggish.
It was so long ago it is hard to remember in detail, but searching this large topic would be likely to get some hits.
From memory it was things locking up and requiring a restart (to resolve) too frequently. I had to go back as far as 18.5 for it to be resolved.
One such post - https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.msg1484900#msg1484900
Another - https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.msg1486005#msg1486005
Another - https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.msg1496216#msg1496216
Its a big topic and there will be others.
David, I tried 18.5 rather than 18.8 but it gave trouble. Version 18.5 installed without problem but straight away started using all the cpu and. At the same time, it blocked my defragmenter.
I let the high cpu utilization continue for a while in case it was a first-time scan or something like that but it didn’t end.
I ran the uninstaller but it gave some unhappy messages, so I deleted the system and restored XP from my backup.
Personally I wouldn’t have gone for 18.5 would have started with 18.8 and see if that went OK rather than pre-empt any possible issue. Having gone in at 18.5 you are probably thinking is 18.8 going to be the same.
I Use Puran Defrag (only as an on-demand defrag) and no issues here with that at all. You really only need to run a defrag periodically not have it run in the background, that really could put some extra load on Avast as it could be scanning the creation/movement of any defragged files/folders.
I do a weekly drive image backup of my system and I normally run a defrag of the of the backup drive location. I rarely run a defrag on the two drives on my system as A) they aren’t massive and B) changes are minimal.
I have just kicked off a defrag for my C: drive whilst compiling this post and it has just finished, so clearly not much in the way of fragmentation. And also threw in a defrag of a Partition on my second drive and that took seconds and not much in the way of fragmentation there either.
Hello David. Thanks for the reply. I run an on-demand defragger (Raxco’s PerfectDisk v7 2004) which has always worked well for me. Avast version 18.5 seems to consider it as suspicious but this didn’t improve when I told Avast to ignore PerfectDisk.
I went back to Avast 10.4.
I use Avast only for detecting virus files (via the Avast real time “File System Shield”. Sometimes I might use the Avast web shield but not often. That’s all. I don’t want a firewall, sandbox, or anything like that.
So I’m not exactly sure what additional function I gain from Avast version 18 over what I had in version 10. Presumably both versions use the same virus fingerprint files, so virus detection is presumably equally good. Is this correct?
@Harlequin,
I know that David had some issues with 18.8 on his XP machine and rolled back to 18.5. However, I for one have been sucessfully running 18.8 on my WinXP SP3 machine without any issues since Avast stopped further version updates for XP/Vista. I suggest you give that a try, but keep v10 installer handy in case you have a problem with all v18.x.
Note it is important you use the correct version of avastclear which matches the old version you trying to fully remove.
Good luck.
Well a file being considered as being suspicious, is more a virus definitions issue rather than a Program Version issue.
I don’t know what exclusion you set or where (a screenshot of the alert might have helped) ?
I can’t say what went wrong as exclusions worked for me when I had to use them. An exclusion only excludes the actual file that you exclude not its actions, e.g. if it calls another exe/process that would also be scanned. Which is why a screenshot could have helped.
You could also have tried reporting it to avast as a possible false positive, that would not only have helped you but others who might be using PerfectDisk v7 2004 (though it is also very old).
David, I wonder if the problem may be in version 18.5’s heuristic detection because when I resumed using original version 10.4 on a backup system, I saw it didn’t have any exclusion set for that same defragger.
A screenshot may have been a bit ambitious in the circumstances as I personally was in “alarm mode” when 18.5 started using 100% cpu and I was trying to get commands understood at all by XP!
I am still not sure what I would have gained from version 18 and I only moved to it to be more up to the date for its own sake rather than to overcome any deficiency on my system.