Well I got the combination that made the computer chug
Windows 7 machine with 8 gig memory
Was doing fine with Clam Win and Clam Sentienel
I had added on Immunet which slowed it a tic.
Tried for the first time eset online scanner which says one time only but I was able to click and re run it plus it will do that for free once a month schedule. I wonder if the old setup for XP would still work? filename is different. XP is called app.exe while the new one is something loader
Then I added on Malware bytes that brought it to a crawl.
On a side note GUITABOB did you ever get to try a linux distro?
So much as changed since I went to the two main Puppy sites

Hello Cubbettee. No, I haven't yet tried a Linux distro but am getting ready to install Linux Mint. I want a real Linux OS--not Microsoft's Linux installation within Windows.

I agree--you have too much security. On my Win 10 box, I just run Windows Defender and keep ClamWin as a backup and let it do 3 daily scans: AppData, System 32, and SysWOW64. I use a custom list of extensions to scan so it will not take too long. It really speeds things up if you don't scan .dll files. They have to be called by an executable before they will run anyway, and Defender can spot the "evil" ones.

I also have Eset's Online Scanner and Kaspersky's TDSS Cleaner on USB and use them both a couple of times each week. Neither is installed--I just run from the USB.

Regards,

Hello Friend Guitar Bob

Oh do tell me how it goes with the linux--I was never able tyo use that on the 486 machine .
I have had malware ont he win 7 machine for quite some time and when I had to create a new ulocal user profile since the work's domain stopped allowing connection, it somehow re-activated the trial real time protection which when combined with Immunet caused the slow down as Immunet will use up 90% of CPU at certain intervals. I tell you what though, Clam Sentinel looks at Malwarebyte files as Obfuscate files or maight be dangerous and quarantine them - as they have long gobbly gook names with a .ext mostly. in app data igdump
Malware flagged only one clam file: Malware.Heuristic.1003, C:\PROGRAMDATA\.CLAMWIN\QUARANTINE\EMBEDDED-PE.1B7AFCB913.SUSPICIOUS, No Action By User, 1000001, 0, 1.0.43756, 0000000000000000000003EB, dds, 01357144, 838E9DDDA299D0F29EA2550DE04E98A6, FB5F079F83BB9EE9B2CEA22684AE05265A7828DFFA1A1E9601C0968387B32B59

I do not like Immunet. The Cisco people do not support it very well--just as they do not support Clam AV very well--they make no money from them. Immunet will also give some false positives. It uses the Bitdefender database, which does not include heuristics or machine learning that are needed to spot much of today's malware.

Check any Clam AV detections with another AV or with Virus Total online.

I will let you know how Linux Mint goes after I install it.

Regards,

I shall hold you to it GuitarBob

I'm now going to install Puppy Linux on a USB to get a feel for Linux. That seems to be the quickest/easiest way to go and learn Linux. I have the Puppy ISO--need to get installer to put on USB. I wanted Mint originally because it is similar to Windows, but Puppy also has a GUI.

Regards,

Yep you can even install it to a CD no needed instyallers, it runs right from the cd before windows boots. I have tried a few of the older versions and they have become very sluggish on my 486 (win 98 box). You can even save any settings you change (I have not done this) to a file that will load when you next boot the computer with the boot puppy

I'm thinking of wiping out Windows on my box and replace it with Linux, but I haven't worked up the courage yet!
Puppy has changed since I installed it on USB about 5 years ago.

Regards,

I can say that at first it will be very unusual to abandon windows, since all Linux and ubuntu use different codecs and you will have to install them yourself, rather than on windows, as everything happens automatically there!

I intend to set it up on USB until I get comfortable with it.

Regards,

Guitar: When I ran them from a CD on my win 98 box each showed me something different in our office network. Heck even looking at the network from windows 98 and windows 7 do show me different things : - )
If you hard drive is large enough, why not do a dual boot.
The versions I had some success with was Lucid 5.25, Wary 5.5, retro precise 5.7.1.
I found the two main puppy web pages quite confusing to navigate and I am amazed at how many linux distros there are overall let alone just within the puppy universe. It has been quite a few years since I tried them as you can see by there versions I referenced

Yes, I think Puppy is out. All of the download sites seemed to have file problems, and there are many Puppy setups now.

A dual boot would only be a short while for me, as I am sick of the constant Windows updates and accompanying problems. I'll still have my wife's Win 10 computer, but I want Linux for myself. I was very comfortable with the MS-DOS command line (long time ago!) until I switched to Win 95. I'll let you know when I take the Linux plunge.

Thnx for ur suggestions.

Regards,