Running 2 firewalls will deteriorate performance. The 2 firewalls will fight each other. However, there should be a firewall running before allowing your computer to connect with the internet. If Avast has a firewall, then one of these firewall should be disabled. If Avast does not have a firewall, by all means, run the Windows firewall, Your computer may connect with the internet during boot-up, or immediately afterward, if software settings are set to check for updates, and if your internet connection is "live" at that time.

Not on windows 8.1. Defender on windows 8.1 is basically Microsoft Security Essentials, if you were to install avast Defender I think is automatically disabled.

I'm not sure I understand the problem, Gringo. Are you saying that the recovery partition/reserve is completely gone from your system? That it was accidentally removed/deleted? Off the top of my head here are a few of thoughts. > Perhaps the hard drive is failing. If that's the case...back up your system asap and get a new hard drive. > If the hard drive is OK...the only way I know to get the recovery partition back is to do a reinstall of your operating system...from scratch. If this is required...again...back up to a disk whatever you want of your existing system because a reinstall will return your system to what it was when it came out of the proverbial box. > You can try sfc. /scannow from Command Prompt as Administrator. It might help but I don't give much hope for it. However...the end result of this type of scan might give you an answer...or a clue...as to what's wrong and why it disappeared. If you get more facts...please post them. I doubt that this problem had anything to do with Avast but I wasn't looking over your shoulder over the last several days when you've been dealing with the Avast issue. Translation...I don't know what you did before you ran the Avast tool I posted.

If you've checked the things that could have an indirect effect by choking resources - ie, you don't have too many windows open at the same time, you've cleared cache and history in the browser, your hard drive isn't near capacity and has been recently cleaned up and defragged, then you may be stuck. An old version installation of something like an antivirus program is likely to be auto-updated with the periodic check for threat profiles, which should happen no less than weekly. Meaning, you're fighting a losing battle. The old version will likely get replaced with the first update. If you can't find happiness with Avast, it may be time for you to try a different security program. A recent thread in this forum had a link to an article containing independent ratings. Good luck.