All is not lost for Windows XP users. Though we still highly recommend you upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8, if you’re unable or unwilling to do so, there are products out there that will help protect your PC.
One such product is the just-announced Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium. A paid version of the popular free anti-malware scanner that we’ve recommended for years, the Premium version will work on Windows XP (as well as newer versions of Windows) — and Malwarebytes promises full Windows XP support for life.
This app is designed to work alongside your favorite antivirus application — you might want to choose one other than Microsoft Security Essentials, as that’s also not going to be updated on Windows XP after July 14, 2015. It finds rogue apps, rootkits, fake websites and so on, which traditional antivirus apps don’t protect you against.
Rootkits, or software that hides itself while it gains administrator access, are especially heinous — and can install themselves simply by putting the wrong music CD in your drive. It helps to have an app like this backing you up.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium is a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, an antivirus application.
Anti-Malware Premium includes tools for browsers that protect from bad links, redirects, corrupt ads, and more. Additionally, the app has Chameleon mode. Often, the worst malware will try to seek out and disable your existing anti-malware apps as part of the infection process. Malwarebytes will hide its app from the malware and force a restart and cleanup in case malware tries to hijack the PC.
Until you’re able to upgrade beyond Windows XP, grab this app from Malwarebytes, and a good antivirus, and protect yourself from the big security risk that running Windows XP now entails.
