Question : Recommendations on security software for home computer running Windows XP Media Center

Fellow Experts,

I have a three-year-old Acer box (AMD Athlon 64 processor), running Windows XP Media.  It had been running fine until the past few days.  With the help of some Experts here, I was able to back up my data files, and I went through a system restore and just finished applying Windows updates (so I am up to SP3).

The system restore, of course, wiped out my security software, and rather than just reinstalling what I had, I figured I would ask the Experts here for recommendations.

I suppose that I am in need of anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall protection.  If I am missing anything, please let me know :)

In the past I have used:
Zone Alarm's free firewall
Ad-Aware
Spybot Search & Destroy
ewido anti-malware
Norton Anti-Virus (it came installed)

I am open to your suggestions--I am an Expert in the Office apps and databases, and not in this realm.  Free apps would be nice, but I am willing to pay for good products.

Thanks in advance,

Patrick

Answer : Recommendations on security software for home computer running Windows XP Media Center

I've used AVG (free personal edition) and a combination of malwarebytes and HiJackThis for quite some time and have had great results. I simply don't get hammered with malware or viruses.
AVG: http://free.avg.com/
Malwarebytes: www.malwarebytes.org
HiJackThis: http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis/download
You can get a brief overview of Hijackthis here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial42.html
I also used a fee based antimalware suite called spywaredoctor.
Now it does it's job but it is system resource intensive. It seems as it's always reaching out to it's parent site searching for updates. Sometimes it's overprotective as well. To the point of when I attempted to use MSCONFIG Spywaredoctor popped up with a notification of malware.
I would suggest that no matter what tools you decide to use you place them not only on your hard drive but on removeable media as well. Some of the malware that's out there now is pretty viscious. To the point of disabling USB ports, etc. making it hard to load software at times. If you have it in two places it just makes your life easier.
David