Stuff "in the vault" or "in the chest"

[AnnInLa]

If you delete a virus protection program, (AVG or Avast), what happens to the things (trojans, viruses, worms) that are in the vault (AVG) or in the chest (avast)?

I have a very, very old desktop (Gateway 2000) bought in 1997, and it will not die. It is running Win98. I only use it for internet and email. (also have a laptop running XP) For years, on my desktop, I have been using AVG Free, and ZoneAlarm Free. As of this month, AVG is no longer supplying updates for Win98, so I tried to remove AVG, but couldn't completely remove it...so went into msconfig and stopped it from loading at start-up. Then I downloaded AVAST Free. With the first scan of AVAST, it found what it called a virus: Win32: Trojan-gen (other.) It was located in C:\Windows\G2FSG.exe. Now AVG had run a scan every night for years and had never found this "virus." From discussions on various tech sites, it seems G2FSG has something to do with Gator.com (targeted advertising pop-ups, etc). I visited several sites which offer free online virus scans, but they do not work with Win98. Sigh.

Anyway, not liking AVAST very much because there is no way to schedule automatics scans like I could do with AVG. But, should I wait a while to remove AVAST because of the "virus" I just put in the "chest" as it advised me to do? Also, in the AVG "vault," there are various trojans and worms. So, what happens to the viruses, worms, trojans that are in the vault of AFG and in the chest of Avast...if I remove those programs?

Is there a reliable FREE virus protection out there that does scheduled scans, and is compatible with WIN98? Someone recommended A-squared.

As long as this old desktop keeps working (it will soon be eleven years old!!) I don't want to buy a new one, can use my laptop for anything that the desktop won't do. When it finally dies, I will bite the bullet.

[IDemo]

1. Avira received the top recommend for antivirus freeware in the last Consumer Reports

http://www.free-av.com/

[AnnInLa]

2. Thanks for the link

I can't find on their site if it works with Win 98....will have to look at major geeks or other sites to figure that out.

As soon as I can determine what happens to the virus "in the chest" if I delete Avast, I will download another anti-virus program.

Thanks!

[ChiciB1]

3. Is This Better Than AVG?? I Have Windows XP, But Still Use Free AVG..n/t