I mentioned that some anti-malware programs can help because they may prevent attackers from gaining entry through some of the security holes that are known to exist in Windows.
Many vendors support very old versions of their products. At the very least they provide signatures to customers running ancient scanners. If enough people continue to use Windows XP then those vendors will support them to some extent, even if they don't continue developing new detection and prevention technologies for Windows XP products.
Below is a list of anti-virus companies and the level of their stated commitment to Windows XP users. The following data is for consumer products only.
'Foreseeable future' means 2016 or later.
| Vendor | July 2015 | Mid-2015 or later | Foreseeable future |
| AVG | X | ||
| Avira | X | ||
| BitDefender | X | ||
| Bullguard | X | ||
| Checkpoint (ZoneAlarm) | X | ||
| ESET | X | ||
| F-Secure | X | ||
| G Data | X | ||
| Kaspersky Lab | X | ||
| Lavasoft (Ad-Aware) | X | ||
| McAfee | X* | ||
| Microsoft | X** | ||
| Panda Security | X | ||
| Symantec (Norton) | X | ||
| Trend Micro | X | ||
| Webroot | - | - | - |
Last updated: 04/02/2014 1325 GMT
* Opinion, based on historical behaviour of this vendor when dealing with end-of-life operating systems.
** This support is available to users who install Microsoft Security Essentials up to April 2014, after which users will be unable to download the software.
Any vendors who are not represented above can contact me for inclusion in this chart. I will also be happy to update the above positions should they change.
The information above is based on publicly-available press material and discussions between myself and the vendors in question.
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