[Skybird]

And I add another perspective. These security titles need, necessarily, deep-rooting system rights themselves, to tune the things and unleash the Gremlins of the Light so that they can filter traffic and sort bad buggers out and protect your system. Malware found it increaisngly hard to penetrate through this, and so its authors have come up with another method since a couple of years. That is: if you cannot get your malware onto a system and cannot attack the system, then attack the guardian that has the keys. This way, security software has become a risk in itself - right because it must have such deep rooting system rights.

This is especially true on systems where there is a strict separation between Administrator and User accounts.

You here have the reason why some of the big knowing guys of the matter say that this kind of firewall and scanner software today has become pointless, at least has lost in relevance.

So, do not spend too much tiem and money on these things anymore. Money is okay if it is within a reaosnable ammount, but do not lose sleep over it. Better protection is to store your sensitive data externally and not o your HD, have a better OS than Windows, ban things like autoscripts, Java RTE and such, and practice selfrestraint when surfing, be choosy with the sites you visit - the less sites you visit, the smaller the risk you expose yourself to a threat.

And really, consider to get rid of Windows. There is no point in criticising Explorer all the years, while accepting Windows. Explorer/Edge functionality is deeply embedded into Windows and gets used by your system for internal background tasks even if you do not run Explorer/Edge manually yourself for surfing.

I do not say: use no AV and Firewall, I even still would say get a good commercial package (if you run Windows). But do not spend to much of your lifetime with this security stuff - and do not think you are safe just because you use these softwares, and now have a fool's freedom to do strange things when surfing.