Hej DavidR !
"OK with win2k, XP or Vista the resident protection for your Browser/s and email program are transparent so you don't have to do anything with the settings"
..Very Fine, then ...!
By default, the windows firewall in Vista doesn't have outbound protection enabled, if you do enable it there is no help in configuring the outbound protection. Vista Firewall Control, check out this topic for some user friendly help for the Vista Firewall, Outbound protection,
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=30234.0Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (sensitive or otherwise, user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.
... Thanks for that usefully link, glad you told me about it !
"There are many skins for avast"
... So I see ! ... I´m surpried