I have a Dell desktop machine, about 5 years old, with a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 and 256MB RAM.
I've been running Win2000 from the start with very few problems, but (thanks to the new iPod/iTunes requirements) I had to join the new century and upgrade to XP several months ago. I bought a legit XP+SP2 upgrade package through amazon, and the upgrade seemed to go very smoothly. No problems afterward, except that the Windows automatic (or manual) updates have not worked at all. I've tried all the steps listed on here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822798 but nothing has helped. Until I get these updates installed I think I have security holes and I've had to get help to bail me out of a couple big malware problems (thanks to the folks at Safer Networking for that - here's my latest thread: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=25100 ). After going through those steps on the Microsoft support page, the first thing I see failing to install is "Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130)" - so I'm wondering if that may be causing the other update failures as well.

Hi Connery

Have a look at this thread, it may help you also.

Link

And of course:



Regards Abydos

Wonderful, that did the job! 92 updates later I think I'm in business here.
Thanks a ton for clearing up months worth of trouble in about an hour.

Now I just need to get my AV software up to date. Need to decide whether to renew my Norton subscription or if there's something better to install. Any recommendations?

Hi Connery

Glad that you got it solved

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As for recommendation regarding Anti-Virus, I personnally wouldn't pay for Norton's.
There are better ones out there for less price and even some freeware ones.

That said, any recommendations on my part would first and foremost take into considerations
the available resources your machine have. So if your machine handles Norton well enough, and you have no troubles
with it, I shall not be the one to discourage you from using it.

256Mb RAM aint alot. Recommended to run windowsXP without faults are minimum 512Mb worth of RAM.
So you might wanna look into the possibilities for putting some more RAM in it.

My choice for Antivirus would be:

Freeware

AntiVir personal (Have no personal experience, but it have an easy interface, even for the "novice", and covers a wide array of threats, lacks some features the other two have)
AVG Anti-Virus (Easy to use, takes some resources during scans, otherwise very little, offers only protection vs. Virus, but does that really good)
Avast (More complete anti-virus. Have some protection against spyware aswell, but can be a resource hog, where 256RAM won't cut it
in my experience with it, but offers really good protection)

I won't recommend any non-freeware anti-virus. The reason for this, is that it may be viewed as advertisement. But there are some really good ones out there. I'll link you a few pages where tests have been conducted by pro's, and let the results speak for themselves.

Anyways, be sure to investigate the resource needed for any programs that you might wanna purchase.

here's the links:

AV-Comparatives
SunBelt Blog (With Andreas Marx test-results)

If you have any other questions about security-programs feel free to ask away. Its a jungle ot there of 1000's different products, and second opinions are always good for considerations. I am sure lots of people here have their favorites for various reasons, and any opinion is valueable.

Regards Abydos

This post has been edited by Abydos: Mar 31 2008, 04:54 AM

Thanks for the links and recommendations. I figured recommending AV software might be a sticky issue, but worth a shot. The links should help.

I have one last windows update that's being sticky - downloads and says it installed when it hasn't so it keeps telling me to install it. Think I might have gotten infected again according to Spybot S&D, so I'll try to get that cleaned up and see if that gets this last update working, then get on the AV stuff. And yeah, and I figured adding RAM would be a key next step too. Gotta get on that.

Thanks again.