Upgrade to XP?

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Should you upgrade to XP for safety?

With Microsofts decision on the 11th of July 2006, to end support for Windows 98, 98SE, Me and XP with sp1, I have seen several people worriedly asking in magazine letters and forums, if they should upgrade to XP, for safety reasons.

The advice given by magazines, is always to upgrade. But it's in the magazines interest, to advise readers to continually upgrade their systems and software, thus maintaining the readers interest in computers and encouraging the purchase of magazines. Can the magazines advice be trusted?

Certainly the safety of Windows 98/Me has not suddenly diminished with the removal of Microsoft updates.
Safety is only compromised if a very serious new security hole is exploited by virus/trojan writers.

But viruses are just programs and like any other program, they will only run on systems that they are designed for. So a virus written for XP, will not run on 98, unless it has been specifically written to run on both systems. If you check on the latest virus releases, you will see that the vast majority do not run on Win 98/Me systems, simply because virus writers target the largest audience, XP.

The second security problem, is theoretical security holes in operating systems, these are often publicised by security companies, but are rarely exploited by malware writers, as the conditions necessary to compromise your computer are usually too unusual, or too convoluted, to be a practical attack point.

The final reason given to upgrade is that essential software such as firewalls and antivirus software no longer works on Win 98/Me. While this is true of quite a large amount of commercial software, perfectly good freeware options still support 98/Me. For free antivirus software, try:

AVG -- (I use this) -- http://free.grisoft.com/
AntiVir -- http://www.free-av.com
Avast -- http://www.avast.com/
AOL -- http://www.activevirusshield.com/

You can read more about these antivirus products and find other antivirus protection on my Freeware -- Antivirus page.

Firewalls are a little more tricky, there are only a few freeware ones remaining and most are rather user unfriendly (in my opinion) to use.
My personal choice is the free version of ZoneAlarm, however this now only works with XP.
But firewalls are not like antivirus programs and do not require frequent updating, providing they block all your computers ports and monitor out-going traffic, they are doing the job. So it is okay to use an older version of ZoneAlarm.
Personally I use version 5.5.094.000 which works reliably with Win 98se/Me and XP and passes the Shields up test at grc.com, with flying colours.

You can find older versions of ZoneAlarm here:
http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html

If reinstalling Win 98se and you need updates, there is an unofficial Win98se service pack that contains all the system updates, you can get it from here:
http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html -- 16.7Mb download.
My brother has successfully used this, with no problems.

So as you can see, there is no immediate need for panic, as long as you have a firewall and regulary update your antivirus software, you should be adequately protected.
You should also practice safe surfing and not open unexpected email attachements, bit this applies to all operating systems, not just older ones.
You will only need to reevaluate your position if a serious security flaw is exploited by virus writers, but should this happen it will be reported in the computer press.
In the meantime keep on enjoying your aging (or classic ) operating system.