[cubbie1]

Got a new Vista Home premium laptop and it works great. Has norton pre-installed. I knew XP malware protections well as outlined on ur site but what do i do with Vista protections?

Do u have guidelines about what I need to add or is this PC protected.
Is the windows firewall ok or is AVG better?
Are ad-aware and spybot applicable and work with vista?

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The best piece of advice I can give you is to get RID of Norton. Everthing Norton. Remove it now!!

Now that that is out of the way

AVG is free, and works very well with Vista. As you already know from being here, a lot of your protection depends on YOU, and your surfing habits. eTrust has a one year free subscription, and it is very good, as well.

For anti-spyware, AdAware and Spybot are both compatible, as is Spywareblaster, which offers a very good immunization/protection system.

Firewalls...the built in Windows one is NEVER "enough". The bad thing is that there really aren't any good free ones that are totally compatible as of yet. Unless you can purchase one, definitely keep the built in one turned on and keep an eye out for people like COmodo to release a firewall that works well with Vista.

[Kat]

The best piece of advice I can give you is to get RID of Norton. Everthing Norton. Remove it now!!

Now that that is out of the way

AVG is free, and works very well with Vista. As you already know from being here, a lot of your protection depends on YOU, and your surfing habits. eTrust has a one year free subscription, and it is very good, as well.

For anti-spyware, AdAware and Spybot are both compatible, as is Spywareblaster, which offers a very good immunization/protection system.

Firewalls...the built in Windows one is NEVER "enough". The bad thing is that there really aren't any good free ones that are totally compatible as of yet. Unless you can purchase one, definitely keep the built in one turned on and keep an eye out for people like COmodo to release a firewall that works well with Vista.

[cubbie1]

I made a small mistake. For AVG, I meant as a substitute for Norton. When Norton's 3 months expires should i use AVG?
For Firewall, I mean is the free Zone Alarm better than windows firewall? I have a Linksys router as well with WEP.

Is your problem with Norton still as a resource hog or something else?


Thanks

[Kat]

resource hog, not always detecting things it should = not worth the money. I would definitely replace it with AVG once it expires.

Zone Alarm doesn't have a version available yet for Vista. They do, however, have a Beta testing program available for the Beta release. If you're interested in trying that, you can visit Vista Beta Testing

[cubbie1]

Amazing a free product gets better reviews...Will do. Will keep the Windows firewall for now unless you have a paid version of a firewall for Vista I should look into. What do u think

[Kat]

you can find a list of Vista compatible paid firewall programs HERE

PS

That site has a Long list of compatible programs of all types

[cubbie1]

Thanks. The list says 32 bit and 64 bit. How do i know what i have? Zone Alarm (which i used in XP) is on the list but for 32 bit only tho its beta. Do you have a favorite for Vista firewall?

[Jacee]

Open the control panel, right click on 'computer', click on properties. You'll get a 'view basic information about your computer' window.
Under System, look at 'system type':
Your version will say either 32-bit or 64-bit