Hi Sir / Mam,

Good day!!

I have an operating system windows 2000 still in good condition with installed Clamwin Antivirus. My question and worries is until when will you support windows 2000 server?

Hello Chris05,

I'm working into a new UI to ClamWin (actually, it's a bit outdated and doesn't offer on-access protection - you must scan files manually). It's the ClamWin htmlPy UI (https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=4817). Here is an excerpt from whats there that matters for your question:

"But it has a price: compatibility with Windows versions before Windows 2000 will be broken, because htmlPy requires Python 2.6, that is incompatible with olders versions of Windows. =( In fact, no one should use Windows 9x/3.11 into a daily base. Exist better alternatives to legacy systems, like Puppy Linux, and Wine is mature enough to support the majority legacy applications. There's the ReactOS project as a open source Windows alternative (https://www.reactos.org/), that's promising (actually, it's binary compatible with Windows Server 2003). It's cool seeing ClamWin as an alternative to protect legacy systems, but it makes harder to fix bugs into these versions. Maybe we can still provide the legacy UI with ClamWin installer for these versions, or let them go. Even the UI being incompatible, sherpya builds of ClamAV (clamscan.exe, freshclam.exe) will still be compatible with these platforms, so these users can run ClamWin through Command Prompt, and (in theory) they can replace the ClamWin executables with builds from sherpya's ClamAV (oss.netfarm.it/clamav/) and keep the executables from ClamWin actual UI untouched. And sherpya provide a basic UI into his site to update and scan through ClamAV engine too. Better than nothing. =)"

I'm curious: what's your necessity into using Windows 2000 Server into a daily base? There is some legacy system you need to keep? I know that licensing sucks and sometimes we're stuck into a legacy OS because of the budget or because there's a legacy system we need to maintain. Did you already tried running it through ReactOS? (even being a OS in development, it is growing fast, there is Samba support - I just doesn't use into daily because it doesn't support printers yet, and I think it doesn't have support to my hardware, and I really love play games sometimes, XD but for a server that generally runs only a function, like a DB server, it can play very well). If ReactOS doesn't play well for you, you can try running it on a Linux (I recommend Debian x86_64) through Wine or natively (if your application is cross platform).

But, the answer you really want: The Windows Server 2000 end of life were into 2010. Sherpya probably will keep it's command line version compatible with Windows 9x and up, but we're working to provide on-access protection, heuristics, and a new UI to ClamWin (it's more than a aesthetics change), to "make it great again" - I know it is sad to admit, but ClamWin lost his 2005 glory. We need new features, principally better heuristics and real-time protection - something that would be great it available for free, principally into Windows Server environments. There's even a central management console that is on plans (https://forums.clamwin.com/viewtopic.php?t=4815). But it is hard to develop new features to legacy OSes. I tried, but I couldn't find a way to do it without newer versions of Python, that will (probably) break compatibility with Windows 2000, but we'll do the better we can. In last case, just use Sherpya builds (oss.netfarm.it/clamav/). They're the base of ClamWin. You can run it through Command Line to update and scan (you can create a shortcut into your desktop to run the update and scan or you can do it though Task Scheduler) and you'll be fine.

Hello coldscientist,

So you mean Clamwin does not support windows 2000 advance server for protection? Actually, I have SAP system 4.6 version running on my windows 2000. So i ask until when clamwin support windows 2000.

If ClamWin currently works on your Windows 2000 computer(s), it should probably work okay until ClamWin verson 1.0. If it does not presently work on Win 2000, there is not very much that can be done. ClamWin versions from 1.0 on (if any) will probably not work on legacy operating systems because they will have increased functionality that just can not be used by legacy systems, which are getting difficult to support for a small/unpaid team like ClamWin. Most antiviruses dropped support for Win 98 and similar Windows systems years ago, and support for XP systems will probably soon go away on the few AVs that still support them.

Regards,

Hello coldscientist, Sir / Mam,

My additional questions.

1. When will the new verison of Clamwin be release?
2. Considering the manual scan. Will it be still update the virus database?

Hello Chris05,

Sorry for the delay, but basically:

1. ClamWin, as stated before, doesn't have a timeline for releases, as Mozilla has for their products. It's developed into free time as it doesn't have commercial budget/purpose to do so. It may change into the future with the release of new UI and it's future abrangence: if people like it, maybe we can call attention to ClamWin and it receives the attention it deserves from community, government and people that love OpenSource. We don't have a dev team for developing a real-time scan driver right now, for example. It's a limitation harder to resolve due to ClamWin OpenSource manner, it depends from volunteers iniciative.
2. Yes, it'll receive further updates. ClamWin version normally follow ClamAV engine version. Even when ClamWin is outdated, ClamWin database still receives updates for months. You can found out if your ClamWin/ClamAV version still receives updates on ClamAV blog (they normally posts when a outdated version of ClamAV engine doesn't receive database updates anymore): https://blog.clamav.net/