Yes, McAfee is an incoming and outgoing firewall, although you can change a setting so that you're not notified if a program attempts to access the Internet (but that's not advised). Basically, the built-in Windows firewall is better than nothing at all, but not by much. If you want real protection, get the McAfee, especially since your ISP offers it at no cost to you. Until you get the McAfee installed, you should at least be using the Windows firewall. But as soon as you install McAfee, you should disable the Windows firewall.

Routers are pretty good firewalls but for an added closed door, most people turn on the computer firewall too. fwiw.. I've configured many computers for family and friends without firewalls,,, so a couple of days were certainly no problems. One computer here Was online 24/7 for years that ran lan server duty. mail, DNS, Time, WWW server, etc... no firewall, no problems ever. It got junk mail on its mail account name that was never ever used online. Computer was only used by guests and me occassionly for browser duty when I screw up and need a driver or something.

Sorry, I was talking about an XP desktop. I managed to get it installed without having to accept their search and toolbar. I went to the website forums and there were complaints about not being able to install without accepting their terms. Someone posted a way around it and I tried it and it worked. When you run the installer, if you do not check the two boxes for the search and home page, the 'accept' button will not work. If you try 'custom install' it still won't work without checking the two boxes. At the bottom left of the screen, under their name, there is a small dark line which says 'skip offer'. I never saw it as it is almost the same color as the background and tiny. A nice person, on the website discovered it and posted the solution. Worked perfectly! I hope this helps anyone trying to update to the latest version. Thanks for all the help, Jane

When you try to open Microsoft Security Essentials and you got the message âÂÂWindows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.â then your computer is probably infected with the ZeroAccess rootkit. The new variants of this rootkit will alters the junction points for Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender. Causing either program not to be able to be accessed, reinstalled or uninstalled. The ZeroAccess rootkit is a dangerous threat that has been circulating for several years. SophosLabs has recently seen the number of machines infected with Zero Access increase sharply as there has been a proliferation of samples appearing in the wild. You need or should to go to a Malware removal forum, where log files can be looked at, or take it in for repair, or return it to factory defaults. I would suggest you Google Zero Access rootkit. Just to become familiar with it . This is also know as a back door Trojan. You might want to Google Backdoor Trojan. The link I have provided shows how to remove it, but you will never understand the log files that get generated or find then difficult to understand, that's why I suggest getting help at a forum. Here is a link that might be useful: malwareremovalguides