Bd Free Version 1.0.18.1071

I've noticed that BD Free 1.0.18.1071 has been announced but I have yet to see an update from 1.0.18.1069. When do you expect it to be released? Also, does this update fix the Logs button not working consistently?

Well, even two months and a couple of versions on, at version 1.0.21.1099, the 'Logs' button does not work consistently/properly (as observed on my Windows XP SP3).

I've found that if I right-click and 'Quit' the Bitdefender interface from the taskbar notification area, and then re-run Bitdefender from the Programs/Desktop shortcut then it works.

Note: I believe 'Quit'[ing] the user interface does not interrupt the protection services, just the user interface.

P.S. Not impressed how long it appears to take BD to fix relatively simple bugs like this.

Seriously I am surprised that they are still supporting an operating system designed in the last century. I don't mean to denigrate Windows XP but Microsoft is no longer supporting it. Since XP-SP3 Microsoft has come out with

1. Vista

2. Vista-SP1

3. Vista-SP2

4. Windows 7

5. Windows 7-SP1

6. Windows 8

7. Windows 8.1

That makes for a lot of OS that BD or any AV company would have to support with new products. BD AV Free is a relatively new product I think Windows XP users should be grateful that any current AV product release runs at all on Windows XP-SP3.

With respect, you are quite misguided.

Windows XP was released Aug~Oct 2001 (N.B. That's actually this century ).

Even now, Windows XP is still the second most widely used OS (next to Windows 7).

Windows XP still has more than double the number of users of both Windows Vista and Windows 8 combined.

Windows XP SP3 is still supported by Microsoft - it is in its 'extended support' phase, by Microsoft, until April 2014.

For what it's worth, SP3 for XP was actually released over a year after Windows Vista was (and also later than Vista SP1) - Vista was released January 2007, XP SP3 was released April~July 2008.

Many/most software vendors are very likely to support Windows XP installations for some time even after Microsoft ceases its support - simply because it is absolutely in their best business interest to support the very large numbers of its users/their customers.

XP users need not feel particularly "grateful" (as you put it) at all.

The software vendors, whether AV or otherwise, want users/customers, and it is they who should be 'grateful' for their XP users.

1. I never said it was released in the last century. I said it was designed in the last century. It was released as you stated in 2001 bit coding for it surely began before 2000 and the design even before that.

2. I used to use avast! up until about a year ago. Maybe 70% of the problems with avast 7 reported on their forum at that time had to do with XP.

3. Microsoft's current support for XP is limited to security patches which as you stated will end next April. However, XP support does not cover changes to hardware that have been made to go along with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. AV companies are writing software that is compatible with today's hardware and the latest OS. XP in out-dated and poses numerous compatibility and security issues due to 3rd party new releases not being fully compatible with XP though many run on XP. XP is a security risk plain and simply.

You are just 'clutching at straws'...

Re #1. If XP was released late 2001, then you can be sure that Microsoft were still "designing" it right up to that point, at least 1.5 years into "this century" - and of course they were still "designing" it as late as SP3 in 2008.

Re #2. It's quite possible that the majority of Avast! 7 users at that point were still using XP - and it's also far more likely that any problems were due to flaws with Avast!'s software, and not anything due to XP.

Re #3. You really don't know enough of what you are talking about - Microsoft 'Extended Support' still includes paid support i.e. "Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others)"... http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

As for your statement re AV companies and 3rd parties writing software that is not fully compatible with XP, you are talking sheer nonsense. Companies continue to write and provide software that is fully compatible with XP, and most will continue to do so for just as long as they have significant numbers of their customers using XP that it makes it worth their while to do so - just as Bitdefender do here, for both their 'paid for' and even 'free' customers - plain and simple.