reinstalling windows XP , need antivirus ,firewall + advice

[spinna]

hi OCUK

im gonna reinstall windows XP on in my PC tonight (i know its friday but im working tomorrow)
so i fancy trying some new programs for a chance , ive been using mcafee antivirus and firewall for a couple of years now (used to use norton ) and i want to try some differant software,
i think im gonna go with NOD32 for my antivirus but im not sure what firewall to go for what do you think guys ?
also any tips on what to do after a fresh install would be great , maybe some recommendations for good software to install , media players things like that.
do i update windows before i install my antivirus etc ?

 

[Atari]

I normally do it like so:

Reinstall Windows - disable all the other crap like system recovery etc.
Install AntiVirus software (NOD32)
Get Windows Updates
Install other drivers (gfx,sound etc)
Then install everything else (Firefox, Winamp, Adobe Acrobat, Flash Player etc)

Finally, apply a nice theme/skin to Windows.

 

[MichaelHo]

hi,
also planning to do a fresh install sometime soon.
Are you going to fdisk ** drive before u install xp?
ive never fdisked my drive before, is it necessary?

 

[manveruppd]

McAffe is mcawful (tiddy-boom), it slows any computer it goes on to a crawl unless it's Deep Blue - you'll notice an improvement immediately. I'm a fan of AVG for my anti-virus, and I'm using Kerio for my firewall (version 2.1.0.5 though - I had some problems with newer versions). AVG also do a firewall but I've never tried it. I've tried ZoneAlarm, and didn't like it.

 

[SiriusB]

If you have more than one partition or have a USB pen then I would seriously suggest getting ALL your software downloaded onto it before you begin your reinstall of XP.

This way, once you have XP installed you can install everything without the need to go online more than necessary while you get your system sorted.

I found a really good video tutorial of how best to set up a brand new Windows XP install here: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34836

It shows you the best order to install your drivers and also shows you that you should defrag your HDD in between installs. It is quite long [and the music is terrible] but it is definately worth a look. Should point out that you may not be able to do all the tweaks Angry_Games [vid's author] carries out. If you are confused by anything, just skip it and carry on watching

As for useful apps:

VLC - awesome media player and its free
Winamp - again awesome I use it in preference to VLC for my music.
FireFox - excellent browser. I recommend FasterFox and Tab Mix Plus extentions for it.
WinRAR - compression software and its free to use
TuneXP - lots of registry tweaks to make Windows XP perform better - easy to use.
PowerToys - a range of apps that may or may not be incredibly useful to you

SiriusB

 

[spinna]

thanks for the info guys ,
ive installed NOD32 antivirus and Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall as well, so far so good
also installed the VLC player
gonna check out FasterFox then install some games