[Darthchaffinch]

Hi, I have a cruddy lenovo Vista laptop which has all 3 of the above installed: I installed Zonelarm firewall and Avira but didn't realise ms secrurity essentials was on it. Obviously they are having a little tif now which is slowing this beast down even further. Also zonelaram seems to have upgraded itself to a fully blown security suite with antivirus and maleware protection! I also have Ad-Aware installed.

My question is should I totally disable (or uninstall) MSE, and reinstall zonealarm so I just have the firewall function, leaving Avira for antivirus and Ad-aware for maleware?

I'm keen on keeping Avira as this evening it picked up a trojan where as the other 3 progs didn't!!

[chrisjr]

You should only have one AV program resident in memory. So uninstall whichever programs you don't want. You can keep Ad Aware as long as it is not resident in memory all the time and is only run as and when required.

Another anti-malware program to consider is Malwarebytes which is pretty decent. Again you just run it as and when and can install it quite happily alongside Ad-Aware.

[Darthchaffinch]

Originally Posted by chrisjr

You should only have one AV program resident in memory. So uninstall whichever programs you don't want. You can keep Ad Aware as long as it is not resident in memory all the time and is only run as and when required.

Another anti-malware program to consider is Malwarebytes which is pretty decent. Again you just run it as and when and can install it quite happily alongside Ad-Aware.

thanks chrisjr; MSE doesn't seem to want to be installed?!?

[chrisjr]

Depending on which version of MSE you have try these

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2435760
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2483120

[LION8TIGER]

Once you have got rid of MSE you could also remove Zone Alarm and just use Windows firewall which is fine for Vista, you really don't need Adaware, you'd be better off using Firefox with Adblock + and then it won't be an issue. Malwarebytes as mentioned is well worth having.

[barky99]

I'd be getting rid of adaware & mse --- avira more than enough for resident anti-malware cover & zonealarm maybe even slight overkill --- windows firewall probably strong enough most of the time

[Alan F]

I would recommend starting with your protection again.

Run the manufacturers removal programs (not just Windows Uninstall) for ALL anti virus programs that you have ever had installed and uninstall Zonealarm.

Reset Windows firewall to default settings.

Install MSE, and make the 'quick scan' a daily occurance.

Install Malwarebytes (free) and carry out a monthly 'belt and braces' quick scan.