Spybot 2.0 Beta requires WinXP or greater to install/run

well I did get a chance to install and run Spybot S&D 2.0 beta under WinXP and Vista. it was okay for the most part.

attempting to install and run it under pre-XP versions of Windows is another story.

i get this error message when attempting to install Spybot 2.0 beta under Win2000 SP4 during the early setup stages:

Attachment 7726

that's so disappointing for those using Win2k or older editions of Windows.

also the spybot2.chm help file in the beta mentions win95, 98, 2000, me, xp, vista and does not even mention windows seven (uh-oh, some win7 users could be outraged by this, heehee; is spybot 2 even compatible with win7? i'm sure it is but its help file doesn't even say about it). hopefully that help file gets updated bigtime when the final release of spybot 2 comes out.

and Microsoft improved UAC (user account control) in windows 7, making it less annoying than in Vista. I hope the Spybot help file also contains info on Win7's UAC feature as well.

So for now, Spybot S&D 2 beta can only be used under WinXP, Vista, 2008 and Seven. not sure if the final release will support pre-XP versions of Windows.

Wait, is installer only showing this error? If it does, try to transfer all files from XP but in portable mode and try again.
It is supposed to be compatible with 9x, as I've tested with Alpha on 9x and 2k, 7 and 8.

Windows 2000 isn't in the "9x" series; rather it's "Windows NT 5.0"

also I imagine that if it is compatible with "9x" (Windows 4.x) and with XP and later (NT 5.1 and later), then it should be compatible with Windows NT 4

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Originally Posted by lewisje

Windows 2000 isn't in the "9x" series; rather it's "Windows NT 5.0"

also I imagine that if it is compatible with "9x" (Windows 4.x) and with XP and later (NT 5.1 and later), then it should be compatible with Windows NT 4

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... Didn't I've said already that it was supposed to be compatible even with 9x? Then it is compatible, but installer has possible bug.

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Originally Posted by Tom.K

... Didn't I've said already that it was supposed to be compatible even with 9x? Then it is compatible, but installer has possible bug.

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it's definitely a bug with the spybot 2 beta installer.
either use an "older" installer that is fully 9x compatible or program the new installer to also install the spybot 2 beta files on w9x/nt5.x versions of windows including win2000. the spybot team needs to check their setup installers carefully next time to see if it works on the supported versions of windows including win95/98/me/2000/nt4.

oh by the way, i'm pretty sure that spybot 2 beta is fully compatible with Windows 7.
I just don't know why the spybot 2 help file does not even mention Win7.

I guess it's just leftover from old help file.

Well, it's a bit between those positions. The short version:

There no longer is any support for Windows 95, 98 and ME, and it won't work on these. There are just too many downsides in supporting these Operating Systems that would inhibit better support for newer ones. Supporting these is like implying that users could be save on these. If they are, then because these are no longer targeted by malware ;)

The long version:

9x and ME are more than a dozen years old, have nearly no security concept on OS level at all, do not support system services, do not have Unicode support (unless with Unicode extensions, but that's a difficult story).

Windows 2000 is another story - it's currently prevented by the installer, which is not a bug, but a security precaution. As part of the NT series, we can fully support Unicode on it, it has a security concept, supports system services. As far as we know, it runs, but it's, well, unsupported currently.

The problem with 95 to 2000 is mostly with modern development environments, and partly with a few useful features introduces with XP. Development environments do not support older OSes. Even with Delphi 2006, we had to make patches to the shipped files to be able to create backwards compatible apps. And that was five years ago. It's a similar story with Visual Studio.

Whether we patch the runtime environments in question again is a difficult question. Right now, the focus is on stability, performance and detection power, not on supporting those 0,05% (which still makes me feel sad to not be able to support them right now).

Topic help file: as is usual, and admittingly bad practice, that one has only been updates with the most necessary additions in the past months, it needs to be polished a lot before a release canditate (maybe not before the next beta).

Could you just then mind to offer 2.0 Unsupported Release for Unsupported 9X/NT? It could just be used to get compatible scanning?

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Originally Posted by PepiMK

9x and ME are more than a dozen years old, have nearly no security concept on OS level at all, do not support system services, do not have Unicode support (unless with Unicode extensions, but that's a difficult story).

Windows 2000 is another story - it's currently prevented by the installer, which is not a bug, but a security precaution. As part of the NT series, we can fully support Unicode on it, it has a security concept, supports system services. As far as we know, it runs, but it's, well, unsupported currently.

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I can understand not supporting win9x/me/nt4. not supporting win2000, pepimk? that may force win2k users to switch to alternative anti-spyware softwares that still support minimum of win2000 (Lavasoft Ad-aware 9.0, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.50, SUPERAntiSpyware < the latest versions of these kinds of software still can work under win2k as I've recently checked myself).

I hope by the time Spybot 2.0 reaches either RC or final, it can install & work under at least Win2000 SP4.

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Originally Posted by Tom.K

Could you just then mind to offer 2.0 Unsupported Release for Unsupported 9X/NT? It could just be used to get compatible scanning?

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I highly doubt that pepimk will do that, Tom.K.

There needs to be a note on the beta download links that it will not install on Windows 2000 computers, I uninstalled the stable version and download the beta version and tried to install it only to get an error that it will not install on Windows 2000 which means I had to go back and reinstall and update the stable version, a lot of time wasted and here I was trying to help make sure there were no bugs in the beta version.

I have always thought that the release of a beta version of a program was to check for programing bugs over a large array of systems. From what I understand from your post that Spybot Search & Destroy runs on Windows 2000 but someone has decided not to let the installer install it because of a "security precaution", is there a problem with Windows 2000's security? I thought thats what Spybot Search & Destroy was for to make Windows more secure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PepiMK

Windows 2000 is another story - it's currently prevented by the installer, which is not a bug, but a security precaution. As part of the NT series, we can fully support Unicode on it, it has a security concept, supports system services. As far as we know, it runs, but it's, well, unsupported currently.

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Thats like saying yes it will fully run on Windows 2000 but we are not going to let anybody install it. I think thats just mean and its also sad, and to think I used to recommend Spybot S&D to everybody.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PepiMK

Whether we patch the runtime environments in question again is a difficult question. Right now, the focus is on stability, performance and detection power, not on supporting those 0,05% (which still makes me feel sad to not be able to support them right now).

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I think the percentage of people using Windows 2000 is far greater than the 0.05% quoted. What was that number based on, the number of Windows 2000 computers that visit this site?

You guys can't be serious about wanting spybot 2.0 to support Windows versions older then XP SP3 right?

Personally I would encourage the spybot team to support nothing older then XP SP3 and even then it is probably not worth it (and if you are still using anything older the XP SP3 then you should be prepared to either move to something newer or pay through the nose for a product and support that does) as even Microsoft who make Windows is dropping support for XP (that includes SP3 versions) on 8/04/2014 and Windows 2000/SP4 has passed all support.

Seriously people move with the times a little, Windows 7 and Server 2008/R2 are much better than XP and 2000 and threatening the spybot teams with things like "but product xyz supports it so should you otherwise I will switch to them" should be seen by a good thing by the spybot team as they will get rid of supporting those worthless operating systems and be able to spend more time and effort into making spybot 2.0 better that product xyz and not be held back but something made over ten years ago.

TL:DR stop being a tight arse and buy Windows 7 and get with the times or use another product.