My search for a firewall for 64-Bit Windows continues...*sigh*

Anyone familiar with BitDefender Internet Security? Does one have the option to only use the firewall? I don't want to use it/try it if not, as that would mean uninstalling NOD32 and that would just compromise my overall security.

I uninstalled NOD32, installed BitDefender Internet Security and then found that I can disable the BitDefender AntiVirus. I did that and reinstalled NOD32 and they seem to be living nicely together

No strange behavior from Bit Defender Firewall yet and there is no stream of popups asking to give permission to some or other windows service to access the net. Configuration seems to be very user friendly and straight forward...so far. I'll see how it fares at one of the firewall test sites like GRC

It seems pretty efficient at port blocking and stealthing anyway

This morning I got an auto update for BitDefender on Windows XP Pro x64, restarted and found my entire system frozen. I couldn't even get Task Manager up

After several hard restarts, and waiting for the system to "unfreeze" for about 10 minutes or so, I booted to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 where I had also installed BitDefender. Sure enough it wasn't long before the update came through and then I restarted and found exactly the same issue there.

Booting to safe mode in XP Pro x64 didn't help at all as the installer is not active in safe mode and I couldn't uninstall the firewall from there. So, I booted to XP Pro 32-Bit and from there, deleted the BitDefender program file in XP Pro x64 and the BitDefender Application Data folders for all the users and then rebooted to XP Pro x64.

The system was no longer frozen and I went to Add/Remove programs and uninstalled it. Removing it went well although there was a hickup or two when it didn't find some of the components. Never-the-less it completely removed it and on restart I've got XP Pro x64 back and working albeit with no firewall other than the Windows one, once again

I did the same with my Windows Server installation.

Somehow my conclusion has to be that running Windows 64-Bit of any flavor is not a proposition at this point in time, as the currently available firewall appliciations are inadequate and not bug free.

It's a pity really, because I had high hopes for BitDefender. I'll give it a day or so to see if a fix is released and then try installing it again

Actually you can use the windows installer service in Safe Mode(s), you just have to add a registry entry. Like this :

Code:

Windows Installer will not work under Safe Mode, this means that programs cannot be installed or uninstalled in safe mode without giving a specific command using msiexec in command prompt. To make Windows Installer work under safe mode you need to create a registry entry for every type of safe mode you are login into:    1. Safe Mode. Type this in a command prompt:       REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"       Then start the Windows Installer service by typing net start msiserver    2. Safe Mode with Network. Type this in a command prompt:       REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"       Then start the Windows Installer service by typing net start msiserver

Courtesy of Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Installer#Safe_Mode

Sorry to here that it didn't work out for you with BitDefender and NOD32.

Best wishes,
John!