At one point, all I had was Avast Free Edition and Windows Firewall and incurred a very serious virus. Oldman, on this forum, was kind and patient enough to lead me through the process to eliminate this virus. As a result, I kept Avast, disabled Windows Firewall, and added Zone Alarm Firewall, Super AntiSpyware, and Sypbot Search and Destroy for my resident and non resident programs (all free editions). I have broadband but now my computer is unbearably slow and has been for quite some time since then. However, now I can’t take it any longer. Do I need to switch these security programs or what? Thanks
BTW, my computer hung up 3 times while typing this message.
Hi…
My initial guess is that you might have too much running in the background (loading up in memory when you boot the system up.)
To know more, what are your system specs including memory size and operating system? Are the programs you mentioned the latest versions and out of all of them, which are running in the background?
Best Regards…
Two things:
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The Windows Firewall won’t be that bad instead of ZoneAlarm, imho.
If you’re using the free version of the other two software, they can’t slow your computer. -
Is the computer really clean? I suggest:
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Disable System Restore and reenable it after step 3.
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Clean your temporary files.
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Schedule a boot time scanning with avast with archive scanning turned on. If avast does not detect it, you can try DrWeb CureIT! instead.
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Use SUPERantispyware, MBAM or Spyware Terminator to scan for spywares and trojans. If any infection is detected, better and safer is send the file to Quarantine than to simple delete than.
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Test your machine with anti-rootkit applications. I suggest avast! antirootkit or Trend Micro RootkitBuster.
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Make a HijackThis log to post here or, better, submit the RunScanner log to to on-line analysis.
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Immunize your system with SpywareBlaster or Windows Advanced Care.
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Check if you have insecure applications with Secunia Software Inspector.
Personnally, I also put OFF TEA TIMER in SB and found some relief. 
Even doing so, I don’t think the computer performance will change significantly… but, indeed, TeaTimer is not a huge protection nowadays…
Tech, you’re right, but I really feel my pc background LIGHTER with resident protection OFF in SB. Still, I still have to make my mind upon what to do of the other 4 resident protection antispyware I have ON:WD, A-SQUARE 2 ANTIMALWARE, SPYSWEEPER & ST. I feel I should only keep one or two but I’m too shy too sacrifice them (got them for free…) :-[
I still have to make my mind upon what to do of the other 4 resident protection antispyware I have ON:WD, A-SQUARE 2 ANTIMALWARE, SPYSWEEPER & SAre all 4 of those as real-time protection-are just for scanning-if so-isn't that tooooo much of an overkill and draining your system ::) ??? ;) 1 is enough for real-time with your antivirus program which i assume is avast! and your firewall ;)
Thanks guys,
Ardvark - How do I find out what is running in the background and how do I stop them. Windows XP, SP3.
Tech - Did everything you asked me to do resulting in little if any change. Hope that I sent my log correctly.
Hi…
There are two ways off hand I can think of to see what’s running. You can press Ctrl+Alt+Del to get the task manager and then click on the Processes tab. You can click on the button “End Process” to shut it down. Also, there is a program called Process Explorer which gives more details to what’s found in the task manager. You can download it here…
http://www.download.com/Process-Explorer/3000-2094_4-10223605.html?hhTest=1
One way you can prevent programs from loading into memory to begin with is through “msconfig,” (go to “Run” and type in “msconfig.”) However, I would recommend that you know exactly what you are disabling before you use this feature.
Best Regards…
Sorry for A-SQUARE2 ANTIMALWARE RESIDENT PROTECTION, it’s even more bothering than SB and I shut it off and surf more freely now. Really not impressed by A-Square 2 products… :o
The only one two that don’t interfere with useful resident protection I’m gonna keep is ST and WD. It took me a long time to come to those conclusions! 
At least! Some breath!!! 8)