Vista settings

General Topics
1

Dear Avast Forum,

I’m helping a friend with the computer (Vista) whereas I run XP (hence my lack of familiarity). Could somebody kindly provide some insight for these questions?

  • Should one disable Vista’s firewall if another firewall (eg. ZoneAlarm) is running?
  • Should one disable Windows Defender if another anti-malware program (eg. MBAM) is resident and running?
  • Should one disable Vista’s ‘anti-virus monitoring service’ if it doesn’t recognise Avast?
  • Does Vista recognise Avast as an anti-virus service? Even if it does, should this still be disabled?
    (Avast is set to automatic updates)

Thank you for your time. I look forward to the response!

Best wishes,

Avastfan1

2

Hi Avastfan1!
This is just my personal opinion :wink:

Yes. (unfortunately this isn’t done automatically…)

I’d say thats like you want… but I don’t think that WinDef is very effective… so I’d switch it off if there is an other resident anti-malware…

No - it should recognize Avast!.. if not, make it recognize Avast! :wink:

Yes it does recognize Avast! if everything works properly :slight_smile:
No, don’t disable it!

yours
onlysomeone

3

Yes.

No, it’s not necessary.

On contrary, avast should be recognized.

Sometimes, Windows Security Center stop recognizing your antivirus or firewall… So, check your system time and date and also http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=23457.msg193534#msg193534
See also: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairwmi.htm

4

No problem here. One thing to take into account is that for one reason or another this has some problems. Vista does not allow you to set up certain things such as hiding your computer from other computers on the network. This was the only thing I din’t like about switching to other Fire walls. It’s a mater of personal taste really. I persenaly left Vista’s firewall on and feel it’s somewhat adequete since I don’t go to crazy sites with my comp. I am going to try to activate the Out-bound protection in the Firewall and I’ll report on what I find.

I agree with tech. Letting it run does not do harm.

On the last two points I agree with Tech all the way. I had some issues with this recognition but they were solved with a few clicks and two reboots. Just follow the links Tech provided and it should be ok.

5

Vista firewall out bound protection is very hard to configure and you will be playing around with it forever and a day.I highly recommend vista firewall control by sphinx software.You keep vista’s firewall it just adds outbound protection.A lot of folks on this forum recommend it to vista users. ;).

6

Thank you Cod Head,

I neglected to mention that.

Cheers

7

MBAM does not detect modifications to the HOSTS file that some of the latest infections like to modify.

Keep Windows Defender updated daily through its portal:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal <== current v1.55.3.0

Exit Windows Defender then go to the portal then select 32 bit or 64 bit then Run it then start it up.

8

Doesn’t Windows Update do this automatically? ???

9

Unfortunately not that I have seen and maybe on Patch Tuesday but that is only once per month.

10

That works on Vista as fair I know, I mean, the automatic updates…

11

Try it and see.

Latest Definition Updates
Windows Defender
Antispyware: v1.55.20.0

12

There are a lot of automatic updates of Windows Defender among the Windows Updates for me.
Mine are 1.53.638.0 although… Seems it’s not released as soon as it is ready.
But for sure, I won’t care manual updating such a weak antispyware tool compared to avast.

13

Another user recommending using the portal:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1450 <== see post #8

It may be weak but I have seen Windows Defender detect malware before avast! so I consider it one of my Layered Defense tools.

avast! does not monitor for HOSTS file changes that the latest malware is using to prevent infected users from finding solutions to the infection.

14

I use the Free version and it is adequate for me.

Hi WoT brother :wink: