Agree just leave AVAST for now since you have it on and it is running well you are good there with an active Antivirus program. What I suggest people do with Avast is to set up the scanner in screen saver, go to your screen saver settings area and select Avast screensaver from the list, in Advanced you can select which screen saver to have it use while Avast scans. Save your settings then anytime your pc goes to screen saver it will start scanning, when it is interrupted it stops then starts where it left off the last time etc, works great. As Zep said AVAST is constantly scanning so you really don't have to do scans like you do with others. I would go with the windows firewall it is a decent firewall. But if you want to use zone alarm since you have it that is fine but you do have to turn off the windows one like zep gave directions for. You have the same programs I use, malwarebytes, superantispyware, spywareblaster, update weekly and do scans. That first AVAST scan does take a long time to run and yes windows 7 is a large program so you will have a lot of files to scan. You are applying a very good layered protection on your pc. Just remember to also use the secunia software inspector to keep all programs updated too.

From my experience with W 7 & 8...I would google Classic Shell and see if it is compatible with W 8.1, if it is I would go with it. I think every computer I have had except ME has been faster than the last one. Classic Shell is a great software that converts the W8's into a computer more like the version we are use to. My Acer laptop is very fast and the monitor part moves to comfortable positions for your vision, especially if you have mid range vision. It converts from a laptop to a tablet, a very large tablet.

Support has been, or will be dropped for all versions of XP except for service pack 3. However, XP remains my favorite windows version. My wife moved to Vista on her laptop and hated it. She now has Windows 7 and says it is an improvement over Vista. Some day, I plan to move to Windows 7 and skip Vista. This requires a complete clean out of the system - reformat of the disk. I dread that move, and expect some applications and hardware will no longer be compatible. If certain applications become incompatible, I'll resist the move as long as I can. These would be applications that are too expensive for me as a retiree to replace. I have an old finite element analysis program that is no longer compatible. To buy a new version is $16,000 the last time I priced it, so that will not be done unless I land a consulting job that needs it and can pay for it - not likely in my remaining life. If you are having difficulty in finding your pictures, use the "Find" command to search your hard drive. If your disk has been subdivided into logical drives, you may have to search each logical drive. The find comamnd does not need the entire name of the file to find it, just part of the name will do. It will, of course, list all files matching the same fragment. For example, if you searched for all occurences of *.jpg, you'll get every file having extension " jpg", not necessarily an efficent thing to do. Suppose you have the followiong files: 1998 Joey 1.tif 1998 Joey 2.jpg 2000 Joey 1.doc You could locate all these files by searching on "joey" and very likely would not get many extraenous hits. File names that contined the string, joey, would also appear such as jumpjoey.tif . Recommendation: In the future, create folders with meaningful names in which to store your images. That way, you'll know where they are. Folder names such as: Vacation Jun 2000 Year 2001 pic Year 2002 pic 110Canon 111Canon are examples. Tip: Its a good idea when you set up a new computer to set aside a data drive for documnets and images. If you have one hard drive, a logical drive could be created on it. You would have 2 logical drives: one for the system files and the other for your personal files. I have 2 physical hard drives in my computer which becomes a natural thing to do. This separates your data from the system and application disk, and makes for more efficient use fo the "Find" command. On first pass, you need to search only the data drive, and if not found there, search the other drives. System and application files are humungous these days and requires much needless search time.

the reason for many of the security forums and teams no longer recommending anything by IObit is due to their theft of property from various well known companies including but not limited to malwarebytes. Our thought is if they are capable of this type of obvious theft do we really want them as a security program on our pc. The fact they are based in China and not susceptible to the same laws also comes into play. They have been put on various black lists also. It becomes similar to do we let the wolf guard the hen house. Do you really want a company that is ok with that type of behavior/ history on your pc supposedly protecting you. The choice of course remains with the user. Forum that is from the WOT site for a little info on it. There are many articles out there on the subject IOBit Steals Malwarebytesâ Intellectual Property REVO is a very good uninstaller program that is free, another installer program recommended is free AppRemover