Symantec Antivirus activation

Hi,

I think I accidentally removed Symantec Antivirus from my Startup items. I see three executable files which could be the file needed for start up, but I'm not certain which one I should add to Startup:

VPTray.exe
VPDN_LU.exe
or VPC32.exe

Other question:
My Startup has an application called flags that runs from the Location HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
What is this? Do I need it?

 

Symantec Firewall and Startup Item questions

Thanks Halo.

I have a few other questions

Symantec Firewall Question:
I think my Symantec Firewall may have been disabled by the Malware removal procedure "Read and Run me First" at some point. Why might this be? Does windows have its own firewall? If so where do I see it? I found a FIO.exe file under my Symantec Firewall folder and I researched it because I thought that it was the Firewall. According to the site Prevx <http://www.prevx.com/filenames/2093893906508676669-0/FIO.EXE.html> it is considered Malware. Is this right, or are they referring to a different FIO.exe? Also, what is the name of the Symantec Firewall .exe file? I've included a screen shot of the .exe files in my Symantec Firewall folder for reference.

Other questions:
My Startup has an application called flags that runs from the Location HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
What is this? Do I need it?

If I removed programs while msconfig was not in normal mode, how do I check that they were properly removed and fix any errors?

 

Thanks for the advice, I just didn't understand this part:

Navigate to these keys and if any of the two are listed right click and delete then if listed as the below two keys are where unticked items from msconfig are held


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg

or if not 100% with deleting items from those locations post me a screenshot and will advise or just found this from KellyT's site

Do you mean that I should delete the following folders in the registry?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg

Or that I should delete from the above two folders anything that appears in msconfig that I have deleted from my machine?

I have included two registry screenshots of the startupfolder and startupreg for your reference. Let me know if you wanted screenshots of other items.

Symantec Firewall question:
The Control Panel Security Center says my Symantec Firewall is On even though I no longer see the Firewall Icon in my taskbar. If I used to see it at Startup in my taskbar, is there any functionality I may have lost now that the Firewall icon doesn't appear in my taskbar even though my Security Center says it is on?

 

Startup Question:
I have not yet figured out the flags.exe startup problem. I am going to start running the Read & Run me procedure on my machine. I downloaded the Startup CPL program. I also have a Startup up management program called Startup.exe Start-Up Tool ver. 1.3 by ExtraMile-TheNewTeam. Comparing startup items in both tools, I see that the flags.exe item is the only item that appears in Startup.exe that does not appear in Starup CPL. Should I stick with Starup CPL? I downloaded Startup.exe from Majorgeeks about 8 months ago.

Antivirus Question:
In the "How to protect yourself from Malware" guide at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525 It says that most of the free Anitvirus software is better because it is not as resource hungry as Norton/Symantec or McAfee. Are these free software packages as effective as Norton or McAfee though?

Frequent virus removal question:
I currently have Symantec. I fequently get virus quarantined or deleted notices on my machine. By frequent I mean every 2 to 3 hours. I've included a screen shot of one such warning. I see that there are rarely such warnings on the 2 other computers my family has, and they are also running Symantec. Do you think running the Run & Read Me procedure will help this? Or should I do something else?