Okay, I'm Back. Decisions (possibly) Made, Advice Needed

I’ve been making the rounds on Comcast Forums, 2p2 (a poker forum, their tech section is especially helpful to gamers, they REALLY like Commodo), here - and reading some reviews.

McAfee Firewall only goes bye bye in 8 days.

I need to upgrade Vista to SP2 (manually, due to compatibility issues).

Want non-integrated products, want to keep using Avast. (Of course, met some folks espousing on Kaspersky AV and Zone Alarm Pro - but many negatives on the ZA pro).

Have decided on Outpost Firewall, and upgrade to Avast 6 free (not using all the modules).

If I download Outpost first, will it recognize Avast 4.8, and not download the attached AV and other components?

Or, should I upgrade Avast first, then download Outpost - and go from there?

Won’t have time to upgrade to SP2 until after this transition.

Suggestions welcome.

You will need to update to SP2 first then do a clean install of avast 6.0.1125 after removing 4.8, now your able to install outpost which will detect avast and automatically disable the feature’s that are not compatible.

Follow craigb’s advice on the order to do this. You can get all your ducks in a row first, download all the applications and SP2 that you will need and do the whole process off-line.

Edit: incorrect reference to XP removed.

  • Outpost Free Suite 7, which should still provide good protection, http://free.agnitum.com/. Whilst this is a suite, when you install it, it detects avast and asks if you have it installed, answering Yes will mean it doesn’t install the antivirus, anti-spyware and web control modules to maintain compatibility.
Should you choose Outpost.
- Outpost Exclusions - Whilst Outpost would have you exclude its folder from avast scans, I don't feel that is required, if outpost is running in its compatibility mode with no anti-spyware and no web control modules running.

Personally other than a single file exclusion I don't believe you need exclude the Outpost folder, I haven't in all of the time that I have been using avast and outpost together and that is many years.

This is the file and path that I have in the File System Shield, Expert Settings, Exclusions section, C:\Program Files\Agnitum\Outpost Firewall Pro\wl_hook.dll (easiest it to copy and paste this full path). This file is as its name implies a hooking tool that outpost uses to monitor activity also and is the only file where I ever had any issue with avast.

David, it’s a Vista system, not xp…so no SP3 :wink:

Apologies, I just saw the dreaded SP2 and jumped to conclusions ;D

I’ve decided to upgrade to Windows 7. 2 day shipping from Amazon. Guess my weekend is filled. ::slight_smile:

My suggestion first install Outpost Firewall 7.5 RC without antispyware then install avast.

Working great for me

this way you will get Web Control of outpost which helps in blocking activeX, referrer, Ads, and many many more things.

don’t forget to include outpost’s “program files” as well as" Program Data" folder in avast realtime exclusion list.

So you choose
You could have waited for Windows 8 shipping next year

Regards
Ashish Singh

Thanks for suggestions.

Personally I would always install avast first and have Outpost detect its presence. When you install Outpost Pro, it detects avast and asks if you have it installed, answering Yes will mean it doesn’t install the anti-spyware and web control modules to maintain compatibility.