Does the XP install still work?

[davexnet]

Hello - long time since I've been in this forum.
I have an XP install I rarely use, opened it today and it tells me avast free has expired.

Booted safemode, ran avastclear, rebooted normal mode and reinstalled avast.
Seemed like it worked, untill I rebooted and it tells me it's expired again.
It's version 18.8.2356, installed automatically via the web install.

I see Bob3160 has the full install of 18.5.2342 in his google drive - should I install this version instead?

This is what I see, after install and after reboot




Appreciate any info

[DavidR]

Essentially it would expire every year as the free version has a 1 year free license.  However, it should (if memory serves me well) renew after a period a week, possibly more.  That is how old versions of Avast used to work.

The problem is you are asking a question which most people simply can't answer given the OS and antivirus version. 
As many will have a: never have used (and still running) XP or avast 18.5 (or 18.8 for that matter) and b: it is frozen in time and protection may not be sufficient threats.  Any bugs for the OR or Avast would still be in play leaving you at risk.

The images of the User Interface (UI) you posted looks like a more modern version than 18.8, though that too is a test of my memory.

[davexnet]

Hi DavidR, yeah it seems strange, seems like it doesn't want me to use the free version.
I noticed it doesn't prompt me to create an account or anything like that.
 
Last time I played with this it was many years ago, I could have sworn I had an account associated with my
email userID.

I'm going to try Bob's version to see if there is any difference

[DavidR]

The free version basically only had a one year subscription - but what the message is saying in your screenshot indicates 3 years which is wrong/invalid.

You should already have an Avast account (that is/was usually linked to the Avast Forum) - If you go to the User Interface via the Avast tray Icon - right click > Registration Information > Go To Account.

I honestly don't know if dropping back even further to 18.5 would make a difference or not.  The installation file would have to be the off-line installation file.

[Pondus]

I have an XP install I rarely use, opened it today and it tells me avast free has expired.

Why not install another OS then ?

https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=324963.msg1710917#msg1710917

[rocksteady]

Avast 18.n on XP indeed comes up saying "expired" but no way of selecting the free version to go forward. I assume that is what is being encountered by OP and discussed here.
But: the defs are still being updated and the product still seems to function from my (now infrequent) experience of Avast 18.5.
Just put up with the tray icon showing a "red x".

See: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.msg1705524#msg1705524

[davexnet]

Hi All - I had some success.  This PC is primarily Windows 10, that's where it is 99% of the time,
but I maintain 2 really old XP partitions (for the old software and more) as well as a linux partition on the same PC.

On one XP partition I installed the web version and it downloaded and it installed 18.8.2356.
On the other XP system I tried Bob3060's install (18.5.2342) from his google drive.
Installing Bob's proved to be unacceptable, despite changing "program update" to manual,
avast updated it to the latest version pretty much as soon as it could.

After booting XP, the icon initially showed good, then after about 20 seconds it had a red "X" on it.
I opened up the avast interface and the screen was going berserk, flashing between different screens 4 or 5
time a second. (I wish I had had my phone handy and took a video)

I left it up and watched it, and after this rather bizarre display for about 15, 20 seconds, It stopped then everything
seemed normal and the red "x" disappeared.

The Subscription tab now shows that I am registered (even though I haven't entered any credentials)
Where has it picked it up from?  Some secret place in the registry?
It still shows 1095 days remaining.

Weirdness happened on both XP's, but successive boots since yields no further trouble

[davexnet]

Something still not quite right, still get X in the icon, but after a minute or two, seems to clear.
See this in the log:
[2024-07-25 20:39:05.171] [error  ] [av_pp_prov ] [ 1088: 1204] Exception: Unable to open the license file 'F:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AVAST Software\Subscriptions\license.avastlic'!

[2024-07-25 20:39:44.609] [error  ] [licensing  ] [ 1088: 1820] Unable to determine the default license file location with error 0x00000002!

[2024-07-25 20:40:41.296] [error  ] [AlphaClient] [ 1088: 1324] Communication with http://alpha-license-dealer.ff.avast.com/common/v1/device/switchtofree failed with code 268435459: 'HTTP request failed. CURL code: 7, HTTP status code: 0'.

Should all this businnes be going on for the free version ?

This is what happens if I click on Status/sign in
https://youtu.be/mVIF3XT6Xzk

[DavidR]

As I mentioned before - I'm still uncertain about this 1095 days remaining in your first image - the free version should never be more than 365 days as the registration/subscription has to be renewed every year.

There are Paid versions which you can purchase licenses for up to 3 years.

Also the:
'F:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AVAST Software\Subscriptions\license.avastlic'!

One this is a strange installation location I would expect it to have been loaded in the C drive default location.
This may account for this error message - [2024-07-25 20:39:44.609] [error  ] [licensing  ] [ 1088: 1820] Unable to determine the default license file location with error 0x00000002!

A google search for this error 0x00000002! returns many hits, but it is generally related to a printer error (likely to be  Printer Driver corruption) so I don't know if this is pointing to the license file/location being corrupt.

[davexnet]

Hi David - thanks for responding.  I thought that was the default location in XP?
Here's an image showing files/folder with "avast" in the name.

I'm running the web install,"avast_free_antivirus_setup_online.exe" (as can be seen in the image, 258KB).
I guess there's no full install for this, for some obscure reason (of which I can't remember the details)

Regardless, I'm surprised it's in this state.  Any attempt to sign-in fails (see the video)
but I don't know what that means in the big picture.


At this point I'm going a take a full partition backup (it's only 12GB) and try AVG free!

[DavidR]

When I had WinXP and Avast Free it was on a PC system with two physical drives and Avast was installed on the Primary Drive C: partition.
So I have no idea how yours got on the F: partition.

[Cluster-Lizard2014]

I think it may depend how the dual boot was set up.

With any dual boot system you can choose where the secondary OS is installed.

If you do it the MS 'suggested' way so you get a dual boot selection screen on the PC's normal boot it gets complex as XP is notorious for replacing the primary OS bootloader if it is installed on the same drive as the primary OS in the wrong way.

A different way of doing it was/is simply to install the secondary OS to a separate HDD/SSD with the primary OS HDD/SSD physically disconnected. Essentially you have two separate PCs in the same case. You'd then reconnect the primary HDD/SSD and away you'd go. 

Then once done, because you would not have a dual boot drive selection screen, you had to do that from within the BIOS boot drive options, typically pressing F12 during boot up.

On booting XP it still had a habit of interfering with the primary OS, particularly Win Vista and Win 7, like wiping their restore points which, contrary to some of the web knowledge still out there claims, had no solution. Otherwise a dual boot system set up like this works OK.

This is a bit of a guess but what I'm thinking may be going on here is that AVAST was installed, as it needed to be, when the PC was using XP but for some reason it installed in Documents and Settings rather than the secondary OS's "C:\" drive Program Files (x86).

It looks as if it is effectively installed like it is a portable version, which it isn't.     

[davexnet]

I'll see if I can explain. Originally the HDD had a single install of XP, on the c:\ primary partition.
Then I installed another XP on the same HDD in a logical drive, drive f:\. Each could be booted and each saw the drive letters as stated.

XP doesn't care, it's quite happy to have another drive letter rather then c:\ for its system partition.
It takes care of all the symbolic references, they resolve to the proper drive letter depending on which XP is booted. For example, when XP C is booted, %appdata% resolves to c:\Documents and Settings\userid\Application Data
and when XP F is booted %appdata% resolves to F:\Documents and Settings\userid\Application Data.
%windir% resolves to F:\Windows when XP F is running, etc, etc.

Then I installed windows 10 in another logical drive, same HDD. 10 insists that its system drive, as known by itself must be C:\.
When 10 is booted, it sees it's own system drive as c:\, F remains F and it sees the other XP as d:\.

This doesn't make the slightest but of difference to the XP's - when they're booted,
their drive letters are still good, as each sees it.  The drive letters used by a particular OS install are stored
in the registry for each system (and they don't have to be the same).

I've had it this way for years, it works perfectly.

In any case, this recent problem had been duplicated in both XP 's.
These old avast installations both expired on the same day, which seems odd,
but it could be just a coincidence.

Disk 0 is data only, but it also has the Linux Grub boot loader in it's boot record.
Disk1 contains both XP's, Windows 10, the 10 boot loader and a Linux system at the end (no drive letter from within XP).
Notice that from within XP, it sees the Windows 10 partition as k:\

Disk 1 is the default boot disk as designated in the BIOS, so if I turn on the PC it boots directly to Windows 10
via 10's boot loader.

If I want to boot either XP or Linux, I hit F11 during the BIOS POst, and select disk 0 from the menu, which invokes GRUB.
From there I can choose XP (either) or LINUX. 

It may be unconventional but it works great.
(disk layout as seen from XP F)


And this is the disk layout as seem from within Windows 10, notice some different drive letters