Help me technically minded people! You're my only hope...

[myz_lilith]

So, shiny new computer is finally here, and plugged in, and... running Windows Vista.

Yeuwch!

Quite apart from the fact it's trying way too hard to be a Mac (and failing miserably) it appears to come with all kinds of intrusive security stuff. (For example, I deliberately ordered it without any kind of bloated Norton-type security software but there still seems to be a bunch of McCaffee stuff running in the security centre.) Generally I prefer to run trusted, FREE software - my netbook currently has Avast as an anti virus and Comodo as a firewall with a few anti-spyware things as back up. So:

a. Any reasons why I shouldn't install Avast, Comodo etc on the new machine instead of what's already on there as part of Vista? (ie there are better free ones, the ones that come with Vista are okay, etc)

b. What of what's on here can and should I get rid of, and how do I go about doing that? Deactivate things? Uninstall completely? I'm always paranoid about deleting something vital, but I know two firewalls can end up fighting...

c. Does Vista come with partitioning software, or if not what should I use? Have one big disk and want to partition it, not least because an upgrade to Windows 7 was part of the package, but as far as I'm aware you have to do a fresh install when that turns up, so that way I could just format the partition rather than the whole disk. (I think this makes sense. Does this make sense?)

I am a relatively smart non-techie (with a techie housemate who refuses to touch Vista with a bargepole, and I can see why, but I'm willing to give it a go for now) so please phrase any replies accordingly!

Comments

[blondelass.livejournal.com]

Mine came with Macaffee and I just ran it for the free trial and then let it go and got AVG instead. The rest is covered by Windows anyway so all I needed was the antivirus.

[myz-lilith.livejournal.com]

Ah! So the Mcaffee stuff might just be a tirla version then? That woul explain it.

I used to use AVG but it started to get a bit bloated and not as effective which is why I switched to Avast...

[myz-lilith.livejournal.com]

Ah, brilliant :-) I know I was entitled to the upgrade when I bought this computer, so will have to find out how to get it, fast!

I keep pondering whether to go for the student MS Office deal... reckon it's better than Open or Neo?

Might stick with Avast for now as it's also far less agravating that AVG and I know and trust it. I'm always wary that any anti-virus with a 'Windows' nametag might end up as a target for virus writers all over the globe!

[myz-lilith.livejournal.com]

By the way, did yiou see this?
http://warren-ellis.livejournal.com/601264.html

[attack-monkey.livejournal.com]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/upgrade-faq.aspx

7 is waaaaay better than Vista. I use Kaspersky, but obviously that's not free (although you can get it for £20 at the moment from Amazon).

Vista has a hard disk manager, which should do what you're after: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/

:P