Annoying mcafee and desktop problems

pug_in_a_bed

Hello, if anyone can advise me that'd be great.

I use windows xp btw, but I'm having some niggling problems.

Firstly, I use mcafee internet sec. suite 6 at the moment.
Been having a problem (which is apparently a common one according to the mcafee website) where the firewall doesn't start up immediately leaving me to enable it.
Anyway, I'm hoping I've fixed that but what if I start using something like zonealarm, would I need to disable mcafee as they'd interfere? Should I also have windows firewall disabled?
I also use adaware and spybot search regularly.

Secondly, could this be a sign of a virus:
Often, not always, when i open, say control panel, it will open for a second and then shut itself.
When it does this, it can sometimes cause a weird disruption of the desktop.
It shuts and then all i am left with is my wallpaper, no icons or anything, even the taskbar is gone, for a few seconds then everything is restored. Today for instance, i got into control panel fine but when i clicked on printers it went through its whole routine, frequently producing another common effect - a barrage of swearing from me.

I have scanned for viruses with mcafee and panda online with nothing showing.

See below for the list which comes up with a spybot scan - these seem to come up every time and till now I've just excluded each (apart from windows security as I assume this is safe?): could these be interfering with my desktop?



-advertising.com
-avenue a, inc
-doubleclick
-mediaplex
-showwnd
-webtrendslive
-windows security center.antivirusdisablenotify
-windows security center.firewalldisablenotify


Thanks!

Browntoa

have you tried running your Anti - Virus and Spybot in safe mode ??

Are you using Win Xp ??

The Windows Firewall should be off if you have another one

If it's giving you that much trouble why not remove Macafee and replace with AVG or Avast anti-virus which are both free + sygate firewall (zonealarm seems to slow PC's down !)