Security slowing down my PC

[Vakas]

My PC is all up to date with updates& patches etc and I have all the security software to keep it protected it's just a matter of it slowing down my PC.

I have the following installed to do various jobs works fine but do I really need it alll and if not what can I take off?

Tuneup Uttilities 2008
Spyware Doctor 5.5
Registry Maestro 7
ZoneAlarm Security Suite 7

I also noticed when I upgraded Microsoft Office 2003 to 2007 It did slow down

Thanks

[BOB IROC]

Well security software definately can slow your PC down a bit as they all need services running in the background that take away Ram. Usually a memory upgrade can help alleviate that. Can I ask what Operating system you are running and a bit more info about your computer specs like processor type/speed, Ram. Other things that can slow do your computer are things like "bundled apps" that include things like tool bars, free little programs that are advertisement driven and such. Also if your hard drive space is getting low then that can slow the PC down too. You can try running a disk cleanup to clean out old temp files and a defrag to help speed it up and be sure that your computer does not have an underlying spyware or virus infection despite having all that security software.

[CeeBee]

IMHO the built-in firewall is better than 3rd party ones. Reason is it kicks in the moment network is initialized, while others kick in later, leaving a window of opportunity for malware.
As far as spyware goes, best anti-spyware tool is *you*, I prefer having S&D resident in the background as a failsafe, but that's all.
Any piece of software that stores settings in the registry (and most do that) *WILL* slow down your machine more or less - your registry gets bigger and bigger data stores take longer to process...
Also different antivirus tools take more or less resources from your PC. In my *personal* experience best security/speed/price balance is given by AVG, but if security is your main concern then Symantec AV Corporate seems the best to me, I've had ZERO infections with it in 8 years in a corporate environment, at the cost of taking more resources than other AV solutions... and $$$
I hear Kaspersky AV is very fast and good but not cheap either, however I recently read about it getting bad grades for detection... Maybe the scores are indeed dependent on the company that sponsors the test...