new laptop advice

blackswan2

right I have a new laptop with Windows 7, have uninstalled Norton, disabled Defender and installed Avira and Malwarebytes.

Any advice on further actions to take appreciated eg. install Zonealarm ?

Cheers.

closed

yes, don't install it, and think about backups

blackswan2

any further advice appreciated, cheers.

gonzo127

we as far as firewall's go the included firewall in windows 7 is not bad and should be alright for most people, the third party firewalls are generally better but do require more user input

as for ZoneAlarm free firewall - it has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride on how good it is, the latest version is actually quite good http://download.cnet.com/ZoneAlarm-Free-Firewall/3000-10435_4-10039884.html - NOTE some people are still have issues with window 7 64 bit so do a bit of your own research before installing it as there are other good third party firewalls such as comodo which are worth a look if you want something above the included one in windows

will children be using the laptop? if so it might be worth looking into k9 web protection which is free parental controls software

blackswan2

happy to stay with the windows 7 firewall if that is good enough - although I am wary that Microsoft supplied solutions like Defender and automatic update can be very resource hungry (32 bit Windows 7 by the way).

I shall look into k9 as well, thanks.

boatman

Not sure what else you need but i use openoffice, ccleaner, Foxit instead of adobe, K-lite for music, all on http://www.filehippo.com/