[Bungleau]

Not the case for anything in my list. They can fix, repair, and protect, free of charge. You get additional functionality if you upgrade to the paid version, but they don't hold you hostage.

One note on what I wrote earlier: I don't mean to imply that the answer is hardware firewall over software. The *real* answer is both, to cover both sides.

As for Startup options that you want to stop, good ol' msconfig lets you do that pretty handily... along with a number of other startup features (like customizing system.ini, services, and others)