"But firewall, browser, silverlight, media player, photo viewer, sidebar, ... . Big or small, not a whole lot of quality there."
I know it's the cool thing to hate MS, but actually, as someone who has built computers for as long as I remember I like the non-cool camp for integration and lack of issues. I use my workstation for exactly that - work, and I get more issues with 3rd party applications than I ever do with MS's. I use WMP as my default media player - once I install the "mediaplayercodecpack", Great stuff. Photoviewer does its job admirably, I don't use the side bar - it's disabled as default in Win7, it's a gimmick alongside anything else like it. And as for IE10, just like IE9, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and I have had less issues with that as I have done with Firefox in the past - fact! (look at the NIS and Firefox issues in the main thread, proof of point?).
Now, as far as free firewalls go, there is nothing wrong with Windows' built in firewall. It also does its job. A firewall is not an overly complex thing that needs a third party badge placed on it to do its job. Alas, all the cool kids think otherwise though. At one time, Norton was given the same bad name - and still has a bad reputation from some yesteryear products that I believe is now unwarranted - I think the same now definitely applies to Microsoft.
"Don't say Office". I'm afraid I will say office. Office sets the bar for office apps - saying otherwise is so out of touch, and its market share shows it obviously competes fantastically. I've yet to see another Office Package to take its place anywhere in the Power Industry. The power of macro's and visual studio integration in MS office is exceptionally powerful and useful, hence the reason it's used in industry and my line of work. Open Office - or the Libre fork if you so wish to compare - doesn't touch it. Its Database app is hopelessly inadequate and buggy when you get far enough into one, and formulae support, as needed in my line of work, more or less doesn't exist. Have you better suggestions? And what 'bloat' do you refer to? Or should I get some more of that cool aid? It might appear bloated if the most you use it for is high school work or your shopping list - but let’s be honest, that's not its target market.
We'll need to agree to disagree on the MS front. But I doubt you could suggest alternatives for office that would integrate with the systems I use, or support the documents correctly that I need (the Issue of formulae support is a noted issue here - from EXPERIENCE). So "In each niche area, you can usually find a high quality substitute product" simply isn't applicable, or really even required, here.
But I digress, this post was over the fact NIS takes over the management and refuses to give you the choice. It was interfering with my apps and gave me a right 8 hour headache yesterday - hardly reasonable for such a great brand. I was hoping to find help in turning off NIS firewall, and re-enabling Windows firewall. This is a completely unnecessary restriction. You are correct, AV would suffice, and I should have purchased just that, but I got a good deal and didn't realise that NIS takes over your machine and treats you like a toddler - and doesn't even offer you the options if you are bold enough to think you can go without the nappies (diapers). Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I didn't foresee the issues I had with NIS firewall, hence the need to disable it and return to MS Firewall, and I don't have the inclination or time to fiddle with something that is more of a hindrance over Windows' own firewall.
And thank you for your unwarranted, and entirely opinion based, non-helpful contribution - it's similar to the condescending posts I read on NIS issues before I posted my own thread, that I had indicated I wanted to avoid - hence this rather brutal reply.