AVG Free and Windows Firewall that comes in XP should be ON

In other words.... replace Norton with AVG Free, and use the Windows Firewall instead of ZoneAlarm?

I disagree about Windows firewall. On XP this only provides one-way protection, and you need protection both inbound and outgoing. Stay with the free Zone Alarm. It is fine and is recommended by many here. Another free anti virus to consider is Avast. I have been using it for several years and personally I prefer it to AVG. Either one is good. You might want to have Windows Defender, another good free anti spyware program. Doesn't hurt to have several of those. Another for protection (not scanning) is Spyware Blaster. No need to pay for something you can obtain for free.

jenn
Don't load down your computer with to much software. You didn't say how much memory your PC had. If your using 256
that's the big reason your running slow. Look here.
Start - Control Panel - Open System Icon - General Tab -
At the bottom part it may say 256 MB of Ram or the number
can be larger if you have more.
I've always heard to only use one AntiVirus to stop them from conflicting.
hijackthis is good to post a log for others to help you when
your having a problem.
http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10379544.html
You need a Firewall.
Ad-Aware - http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/
CCleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com/download/
I use Acronis True Image 10.0 to back up all of my
Hard Drive. Parts of it are hard to understand but if you
keep trying you'll learn to use the main parts that you need.

cboy - we have 1GB of RAM (found by right-clicking on My Computer, then General tab).

We also are looking for a hard drive for back-ups and I've seen Acronis True Image mentioned a number of times but that the older version is better.... true?

Too much information, too many choices offered to us who try to keep things as simple as possible.

Thanks, I appreciate all of the suggestions offered so far...

Hello,

See the link for the Norton Removal tool, remove Norton, then install avg or Avast both are free and easy on the system, Run the ccleaner, then click Start > accessories > System Tools from there do a disk clean up and a Defrag..

Let us know how things run after and if you are still slow for boot up and opening programs..

Here is a link that might be useful: Norton removal tool

My Computer is slow, Please see the link provided...

Here is a link that might be useful: My computer is slow

zone alarm is definitely much better than the firewall that comes with xp, as said it only stops traffic one direction, zone alarm free is just fine.

after you have completely removed Norton then either Avast or AVG are the usual 2 free ones of choice, with some of the problems with the new AVG 8 many have gone with Avast instead.

All computers should have spywareblaster on them and kept updated, it does not take any resources, also good by the same company and also free is spyware guard. Both by javacool.
javacool software

and for a very good free spyware protection/scanner you can get superantispyware.
superantispyware

Avast
there on the left you will see topics for installation and how to use the registration number.

Anytime you want to know which software you can trust and which is recommended by the tech forums you can check the top lists at Gizmo's tech support site. All categories are covered.
Gizmo's top lists

jenn
About Acronis
Acronis has a newer version, Acronis 11. That's the last time
I checked. I would think it would be as good as 10.0
I also use an Exterior hard drive, Maxtor 3 One Touch.
It won't back up your hard drive. It can be set for other Items. Documents, Programs, and Desktop. Probably more but
that's all I use it for.
I store the Acronis Backup in 2 places. Acronis Secure Zone
and the Exterior Hard Drive.
I need both because of my trying out new procedure and getting into trouble. It seems I can't stay out of trouble.

Avast is a nice small AV but AVG is better, however I use both and they work well together on my XP- PC along with Windows Firewall, I have NP's whatsoever.... PC is in tip top running order...no virus's here either, but most ppl's problems are because they do not run their AV through system, they think because they have it, that's it, how wrong can they be? Just like other reg. maint. you still need to allow it to scan PC now and then..As I said before Norton is nothing short of a nuisance, and hard to get rid of like some nasty trojans leaves little bugs behind to annoy you with error messages..

I'm glad that I stopped by this forum tonight, as I have been wondering what to do for an anti-virus program.

I have been using the AVG Free Version on both of our computers for a number of years, with good results.

However, I have received a notification from AVG that the current version will be phased out at the end of this month, and that it would be necessary to update to the latest version.

Normally, that wouldn't present a problem, but I understand that the newest version of AVG is not compatible with older Windows versions, including 98, which is the operating system of one of the computers (the other has the XP Home Edition).

I didn't know about the Avast software mentioned in some of these posts, but I checked the above link to see if it is compatible with Windows 98, and it apparently is.

Looks like I'll be uninstalling AVG, and downloading Avast.

Thanks for the info!

Mee Too,

I have Avast on an old Win2000 laptop and a P3 Win 98OE in the garage. I have had no concerns with either.

Just so you know they are on an antique DUN.

DA