My primary setup winxp sp2, has Kaspersky a/v, Kerio firewall, Spywareblaster, spybot s&d and I use Avant browser which, although it uses the Internet explorer engine, is more secure because it allows me to very easily and quickly turn activex, java and java script off globally and re-enable which one I need for a specific website for which I may need it/them.

Generally I leave them all off so websites can't try and take control of my browser by remotely loading any kind of malicious autorunning program while I'm surfing through... you sometimes don't know where a link is going to take you... possibly to a site that you arent' famililar with so it's best to protect yourself all the time.

Zonealarm is a good firewall (and free) but Blackice isn't generally that highly regarded. Kerio, Tiny, Sygate and Norton are all good too.

Another thing that can be used to secure a PC is an ad blocking/malicious site blocking hosts file. You can get Spybot S&D to add some protection there in the advanced/tools/hosts file window or there are some "home made" blocking hosts files that can be downloaded and installed manually.

From what you've said about your setup I'd recommend a good firewall like Zonealarm...
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conten..._freedownloads

Spywareblaster...

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

and a more secure browser like Firefox..

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/


Windows built-in firewall, although better than nothing, is only half a firewall.. it blocks in one direction only.. inward bound and a good firewall will block in both directions which is actually a strong line of defense since it will alert you immediately if you or someone using your computer has accidentally downloaded a virus or spyware and is missed by your a/v program and when it runs it tries to communicate with a remote destination. Windows firewall would not be aware of that outbound communication.

Another thing I like to do is to run Hijackthis and save a copy of the log on my drive so I have a baseline list of what's running on my computer to compare with in the future to see what changes have been made after I install a new program or encounter any problems.

http://majorgeeks.com/download3155.html