johnhook

Rocetmal,

You can do an in-place install of XP over your existing copy if you elect to install to the same locations (i.e DO NOT re-patition or re-format your drive). This should not mess with installed programs or your data files.

I agree that the built-in XP firewall isn't very robust. Norton AV/Internet Security products work well when they're installed - although they do tend to hog up system resources and slow things down, especially on startup. The other problem I've had with Norton AV/IS products is that they rarely uninstall, re-install or upgrade cleanly. I've had to download NAV cleaning tools from Symantec's support site to force uninstalls after several unsuccessful attempts to uninstall, reinstall or upgrade Norton security products.

I've been using McAfee Internet Security and find that it's less problematic when it comes to uninstalling. It also doesn't bog down the system like Norton did. I'm told by other "Geeks" out there that NOD32 Antivirus is the way to go for many reasons. Haven't tried it yet - but many folks out there swear by it.

The bottom line is that you really need a good antivirus/firewall suite - especially considering you're in a college environment where you're at greater risk for malware infection, hacking and intrusion attempts. Microsoft operating systems are extremely vulnerable to malware because they've got so many built-in hooks and APIs which allow integration between the networking layers, operating system and applications. Make sure that you're running XP Service Pack 2 and are installing all of the security updates from Microsoft as they are released.

If you're worried about losing data upon re-installing Windows - you should do a backup of all your data (documents, music, favorites, etc.) to a flash memory stick or CD-R/DVD-R BEFORE attempting the in-place reinstall of XP.

- John