[boomercj]

Hi,

One of your fellow staff members suggested that I come to this forum with this situation.

At the office, two of the computers - we are not networked (not my decision - don't scold me) are running both Windows 98 for our old programs which we use occassionally and Windows 2000 Professsional. We use 2000 99.999% of the time. I would assume that the hard disk is partitioned. We are on DSL and use 2000 exclusively for the web.

The question is, could/should we have an antivirus on both operating systems?

I don't fully understand the whole partitioning process anyway. I would think that if I uninstall a program on 2000 through add/delete programs, that it would be uninstalled from both OS because they share the same drive. But darn if it doesn't look like programs I've uninstalled off of 2000 aren't also on 98!

This is making my head hurt.

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Hi boomercj...

Let's see if I can do this without adding to your misery...

Anti Virus:
One Anti-viral application on the machine (installed on the Win2000 partition) will protect both operating systems as it will scan all files on the machine including the registries. AV apps couldn't care less what they scan...they look at everything they're told to look at. A full system scan would scan both partitions.

Programs:
Programs will run from the registry they are installed to. The uninstaller will uninstall these programs from the registry they were installed to. HOWEVER, some installers will scan other areas for files and registry entries and will remove them regardless of there location if they have identical syntax. If the definition of the file to be removed in the uninstaller does not contain a root specification (C: or D:) it will remove any and all files from both partitions (ie...Program Files\application\file as opposed to C:\Program Files\application\file). This is often the case with bundled uninstallers (ones that come with the application). Using Add/Remove Programs will usually only uninstall the application from the system it's run from.

Now...do you need some aspirin?

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 28 August 2006 - 09:48 PM.

[wannabe1]

Hi boomercj...

Let's see if I can do this without adding to your misery...

Anti Virus:
One Anti-viral application on the machine (installed on the Win2000 partition) will protect both operating systems as it will scan all files on the machine including the registries. AV apps couldn't care less what they scan...they look at everything they're told to look at. A full system scan would scan both partitions.

Programs:
Programs will run from the registry they are installed to. The uninstaller will uninstall these programs from the registry they were installed to. HOWEVER, some installers will scan other areas for files and registry entries and will remove them regardless of there location if they have identical syntax. If the definition of the file to be removed in the uninstaller does not contain a root specification (C: or D:) it will remove any and all files from both partitions (ie...Program Files\application\file as opposed to C:\Program Files\application\file). This is often the case with bundled uninstallers (ones that come with the application). Using Add/Remove Programs will usually only uninstall the application from the system it's run from.

Now...do you need some aspirin?

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 28 August 2006 - 09:48 PM.

[boomercj]

Thank you. It does make a little more sense........ or maybe it's just because I've had my morning coffee I can focus more. There really is no reason for us to have tons of software on 98 if we have the same thing on 2000. There's just a few older softwares that need 98. So I will carefully start uninstalling duplicate softwares from 98 to clear up space on the hard drive. Thank you for your help.

Now, what am I going to do with the dozen aspirin bottles lined up on my desk??