Win 2000 anti virus on non internet PC

[penguin32]

Hello,

I need some advice on anti virus sofware for an old machine.
I have an old Athlon 64 which runs win 2000 Professionaland has never been connected to the internet. I have installed win2000 SP4.
I use it for work critical data, stuff I wouldnt want to loose. It doesnt get much new data, mainly new pics from a camera and the odd document on a memory stick. I realise these memory stick transfers are vulnerable.
My other pc is for the internet and has avg free installed.

Is there any AV software that supports win2000? I have tried downloading onto a stick, then copying across AVG and Avast but win2000 comes up with an error message about the files being not 32bit progranms.
Am I going about this the right way? what would you do?
Should I connect to the internet and install antivrus software?
Or?

 

[postmortemIA]

malwarebytes might work, but bit older version. Windows 2000 system files (Win32 API) are older than what most programs need as minimum. You'll never get any modern software working with it.

 

[matricks]

It's mostly pointless to run an antivirus, as you won't be able to download newer definitions. I think you will have to rely on Common Sense Security 2015, which has limited availability.

I would be very careful about what you do on any computer that these USB drives you use for transfer interact with. Some notable high-severity issues are MS10-046 and MS14-063. MS10-046 is confirmed to apply to Windows 2000, but it is not mentioned in the article since Win2000 was past end-of-life. Not sure if MS14-063 applies, it might, or it might not - I guess too few people use Windows 2000 to verify that.

 

[lxskllr]

I wouldn't worry about it. If you must, scan removeable media on a modern machine before plugging it into the 2k box. I use a 2kpro vm on Xubuntu at work, and don't use av.

 

[corkyg]

I wouldn't worry about it. If you must, scan removeable media on a modern machine before plugging it into the 2k box. I use a 2kpro vm on Xubuntu at work, and don't use av.

+1. If it is not on the Internet and you are the sole person using the machine, why bother?

 

[Elixer]

Hello,

I need some advice on anti virus sofware for an old machine.
I have an old Athlon 64 which runs win 2000 Professionaland has never been connected to the internet. I have installed win2000 SP4.
I use it for work critical data, stuff I wouldnt want to loose. It doesnt get much new data, mainly new pics from a camera and the odd document on a memory stick. I realise these memory stick transfers are vulnerable.
My other pc is for the internet and has avg free installed.

The rule of thumb is, for work critical data is ALWAYS, keep multiple backups.
That will mitigate your chance of loss.
However, since you are running a real old kernel, it is unlikely that a new virus being injected from a USB drive could cause damage. Yes, there is a chance, but, how many people besides you have access to this machine?

If you still want to use this machine the way you do, and since you haven't specified anything that requires you to use win2k, I would install linux instead, it should take up less resources, and, if you do ever decide to hook the machine up to the internet, you would have security patches available.

 

[penguin32]

Thanks for that guys.
I will stick to Common Sense Security 2015 and pay attention to what I download to my win2000 pc

 

[corkyg]

If you are not Internet connected with that machine, how can you download anything? Just curious.

 

[ctk1981]

http://www.clamwin.com/

 

[penguin32]

Hi Corkyg
by download I meant transfer by mem sticks, compact flash, cd and DVD
my mistake.
ctk1981 I wll take a look at clamwin.

 

[John Connor]

I use Immunet on my XP netbook. It might work in 2000. http://www.immunet.com/main/index.html

 

[Bart*Simpson]

If you are not Internet connected with that machine, how can you download anything? Just curious.

That was my thought.

Intel still runs Win 95 machines for station controllers in a couple of the Fabs and they don't use antivirus because the machines never connect to anything. Works fine for them.