i'm not familiar with firewall. i don't know what it is. please recommend a firewall program to download.
Right now, I suggest you stay with Windows firewall. Let's solve your problem first of installing a 3rd party one.
before the computer crashed i had avast as my antivirus.
Haven't you tried another antivirus before? Doesn't the computer came with any antivirus pre-installed?
my harddrive broke, the cause of the crash.
What is broke? Can't you boot/login?
can i reinstall it without going thru the license ordeal again? i did a repair with no results.
if i do a reinstall how do i completely uninstall everything?
1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
2. Boot.
3. Use
Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation.
4. Boot.
5. Install again the last version.
6. Boot.
7. Check and post the results.