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using avg free antivirus and zonealarm free firewall--after update, now software conflcts. removed avg and installed zonealarm free antivirus but no email protection. what freeware can be used for both antivirus and firewall for general protection as well as email protection without conflict?
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So yes, this is an expected issue.
Most versions of Windows come with a basic firewall so I'd just install the antivirus and be done with this.
Agreed with R. Proffitt, having multiple security solutions on the same machine can cause conflicts; these can sometimes be resolved with exceptions, but this also can put an unnecessary load on your system.
One solution would be to use AVG Free or Avast Free, which would give you a lot more than "basic" protection at no cost. If you wanted an upgraded/more advanced firewall, you could upgrade to a premium version (otherwise use what is built in)
For email protection -- want to clarify that a bit also. The Free versions could protect you, for instance, if you attempt to download a malicious attachment from email to your machine -- this would be picked up by any number of our detection layers. However, that is different from "anti-spam" which goes beyond that 
It's also key to practice good security habits right from the get-go!
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