http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/support.mspx And, Windows Vista is an operating system made by Microsoft which contains a built in malware protection tool called Windows Defender, which can also be downloaded and run as a stand alone service for Windows XP. Windows Defender is a part of the Vista operating system, so it cannot be removed without risking total failure of the operating system. Hence, for Vista users, Defender should be disabled if it's services are not needed. In Windows XP, the stand alone install of Defender can be uninstalled normally. http://www.ehow.com/how_4881875_uninstall-windows-defender-manually.html

Thanks, Zep and Raven. I had a hard time finding the free ZA download, but managed to avoid the other stuff in the end. Oh, yeah, and I can see that ZA is going to take some getting used to. Lots of things in Program Control that I don't know what to do about, though when I can find time to go through all the tutorials Raven gave a link to, I hope I will begin to understand. But meanwhile: (1) Will Firefox need to be "allowed" under "Server"? If I don't allow it, what might I miss out on? (2) Should I allow Sys32\svchost under both Access and Server? I have no idea what it was allowed previously, though presumably access was allowed. (3) Under Firewall>Advanced, I find "Disable Win Firewall," which I assume is good, now that I have ZA, but what is "Filter traffic over 1394"? No idea at all what 1394 is or what checking this box might do. Only these two boxes were already checked. I will leave them checked until I hear to the contrary by one of you. All help along this line is appreciated!

With the wealth of programs for internet security it is about the same as picking Ford, GM or Chrysler as a best vehicle. There are a number of long running anti virus and malware programs that stand up very well. Normally I tend to shy away from the new guy on the block. Note above that Jane_ny uses Live Onecare and seems very happy, I have used and worked on computers that use Windows Defender. This appears to be the best of both. The firewall should not be an issue, it has been used on all Vista models and there have been no big write ups about it being defective. Note too Mikie has been using this since beta and if my memory serves me he mentioned installing this back in the spring or early summer. Like Zep I installed it on my Windows 7 computer just today so I will see what it does for me.

That .etl didn't show up when I did a search. When I downloaded MSE earlier, it asked if I wanted to replace the file, I said yes. So a little while ago, I downloaded it again and had it sent to my desktop. Uninstalled the old, reinstalled the new one, then restarted. That alert didn't show up, but everything else seem to be running slow. I never had any of the other freebies installed on my computer except CA that came free from cable company. It still shows in add/remove but nothing's there. I used something you guys told me to use to remove the program in the first place before installing MSE. I hope this has taken care of my problem. Will let you know if it comes back next time I restart. Shirley For what it's worth, just in the time it took me to type this, my pc speeded back up to normal.