Updates for PCTools antivirus 5 continue until?

[JonathanB]

Now that version 6 of PCTools Antivirus has been released for some time can anyone say for how long will updates continue to be released for version 5?

I've looked back through all the old forum entries and don't see any announcing the end of update releases for older versions eg v4. Perhaps PCTools don't announce these things or perhaps they do but then remove the announcing posts a while later?

How should users of older versions decide when or if to upgrade to the latest version? Some of the users I advise will probably switch to alternative A-V software rather than upgrade to PCTAV v6 as the routine database and engine updates for v6 are averaging 8-10 times the size that they were for v5 and as some of these users are still on dialup this will make PCTAV v6 impractical. But for those not on dialup who like the way PCTAV works it would be nice to know when they should plan to switch to v6.

Thanks,
JonathanB

[mjq424]

Hi
As far as I know, all the PCTAV programs will continue to update as they use (basically) the same database architecture.
Hope that helps

[PC-Pete]

Hi
As far as I know, all the PCTAV programs will continue to update as they use (basically) the same database architecture.
Hope that helps

Hi Matt
Are you sure? Like JonathanB I thought with PCTAV 6, there was a change in sig database format.

[JonathanB]

MJQ424,
Thanks for your prompt reply. If as you say the database architecture is basically still the same I wonder why the v6 update downloads are so much bigger than those for v5.
Regards,
JonathanB

[mjq424]

Hi Matt
Are you sure? Like JonathanB I thought with PCTAV 6, there was a change in sig database format.
Hi
I thought they did, unfortunately my archive of PCTAV installers is on my other PC which I don't have access to for testing so I can't confirm this. I do think, however, that the PC Tools servers maintain both types of database (as far as I know you can still update SD version4 databases!)
Hope that helps

[AChen]

Hi Guys,

Version 6 uses a different database format as opposed to previous versions. The updates for version 5 is still available for those still using this version.

PCTAV 6 includes incremental updates, but we stumbled across a bug, which we are currently addressing.