VirusScan 4.5.1 has been Discontinued

Last Modified: 27 August, 2008

This information can be freely reproduced in any medium, as long as the information is unmodified.

Vendor support for VirusScan 4.5.1 ended 30 June, 2005; see the vendor's VirusScan 4.5.1 SP1, End Of Life: All Platforms page for details (leaving our site). Hence we no longer offer antivirus software for older versions of Windows; if you use Win95, Win98, or WinME, you should upgrade NOW about upgrading to Windows NT, 2000, or XP. In addition, perhaps you'll want to think about upgrading your hardware as well: these versions of Windows need more horsepower, so perhaps it's time for a new computer.

For versions of Windows other than Win95, Win98, and WinME

• for Windows 2000, XP, 2003 Server, and Vista, use VirusScan 8.5. The U-M PreConfigured VirusScan 8.5 Installer contains the 4987 virus defs from 19 March 2007 and the 5100 engine from 20 July 2006.
• for Windows NT4, use VirusScan 8.0. The U-M PreConfigured VirusScan 8.0 Installer contains the 4816 virus defs from 27 July, 2006 and the 5100 engine from 20 July 2006.

  Here you'll find...

  The information below refers to current versions of VirusScan as well.

  The date of the current virus definitions for VirusScan
  VirusScan checks for virus definitions at a random minute each hour are performed. After installation, the autoupdate should move you to the current virus definitions, if newer (that's the 5371 ones as of 27 August, 2008).

  Other things:

  • The most recent weekly SuperDAT file—Users of VirusScan will not need SuperDATs for the most part. The current version is 5371 (27 August, 2008).

  SuperDATs

  • cumulatively update the virus definitions—usually over 200 new viruses are found each week. Since VirusScan 4.5.0 was released in March, 2000 you can see that the most recent SuperDAT contains thousands of newer virus definitions. The U-M preconfigured releases of VirusScan check for incremental updates automatically every hour when connected to the Internet, so the SuperDAT technology is rarely needed. These incremental updates usually are about 150 KB per week that the virus definitions are out of date, and when current, the network cost is very low.

  • upgrade the VirusScan engines to fix bugs and make the scanner more powerful. The U-M preconfigured releasse of VirusScan also do this incrementally—the download will be necessary only once every three weeks. The procedure will be to use a SuperDAT—these are on the order of 7 MB, but VirusScan 7 and 8 will never download SuperDATS automatically.

• The most recent Emergency Recovery Utility (ERU) Diskette image, which, after downloading it to a hard drive can generate the ERU diskette. The diskette so created can then be used to boot an infected computer and then remove non-macro viruses (VirusScan on the hard drive can be used to remove macro viruses). The current ERU uses the v. 4200 drivers from 02 May, 2002; it appears that the ERU is updated by the vendor roughly once a month.

• Emergency virus definitions—only a few that are not included in the current driver set. Do not make the mistake of thinking that these emergency virus definitions replace the need for SuperDATs with VirusScan 4.5.0! Store this "EXTRA.DAT" file in the "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Network Associates\VirusScan Engine\4.0.xx" folder—note that the folder name is really "4.0.xx"; the xx's do not represent an unknown number.

  There is no current EXTRA.DAT; the current virus definitions are sufficient.

• SuperDAT with 5.2.00 upgrade (engine) and 5371 DAT (virus definitions) for VirusScan (all recent versions)
• VirusScan Emergency Recovery Utility diskette (v.4200, from 02 May, 2002); updated when new versions become available

If you have any questions or problems using these forms, please let us know.

virus.busters@umich.edu

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This page last updated August 27, 2008