Just bought a new laptop and installed Avast. Since i am using the Avast firewall i have disabled the Windows firewall. Should i also disable the Windows Firewall Service?
That’s what I did. Just the Windows firewall service, and no other services related to the windows firewall because avast! uses some of those.
Thanks. Are there any other opinions on this? I have heard in the past that even if you disable the Windows firewall you should still keep the service running otherwise you won’t get certain updates. True or false?
You can shut the service down in win 7 with no adverse effects.
Thanks all 
Your welcome
Actually, i would suggest that you keep the Windows Firewall Service running even if you do not use Windows Firewall as i have found disabling it will interfere with sharing options, such as printer sharing on your network. If you disable Windows Firewall Service you will be unable to share printers instead you will just receive error messages and it will probably affect other areas too.
This is what Microscoft have to say…
Do not disable Windows Firewall by stopping the service. Instead, use one of the preceding procedures (or an equivalent Group Policy setting) to turn the firewall off. If you turn off the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security service, you lose other benefits provided by the service, such as the ability to use Internet Protocol security (IPsec) connection security rules, Windows Service Hardening, and network protection from attacks that employ network fingerprinting. For more information about Windows Service Hardening, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104976. Non-Microsoft firewall software that is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 can programmatically disable only the parts of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security that need to be disabled for compatibility. You should not disable the firewall yourself for this purpose. Stopping the service associated with Windows Firewall with Advanced Security is not supported by Microsoft.
Yep, good call. That is not a problem for me though as I don’t file share or printer share.
Good info, I normally disable Microsoft’s security in place of 3rd party apps
Glad to be of help
Your third party firewall should take over the tasks of printer sharing, turning of windows firewall has never affected any sharing procedures on my systems.
A good way to check is just go to services and under the windows firewall you can look to see what other system componants depend on the firewall service, on my systems there are no dependencies.