firewall and HIPS programs

Hi all I could use a little advice I run win 7 with Shadow Defender , No Av and windows firewall, I wish to to use a firewall or a firewall and HIPS program, as i dont have a AV, so is Firewall with HIPS better or should I use FireWall and seperate HIPS ?

I dont have any Expance with firewalls or Hips and am hoping someone can point me in the right direction ,

 

I prefer to run a Firewall with built-in HIPS. Good ones include OnlineArmor, Outpost, Private FW.

There are several good stand-alone FWs; example: Look'N'Stop (my personal favorite). There are only a few full-scope stand-alone HIPS. Malware Defender is probably the best of the lot.

Look'N'Stop + MD would be an awesome duo indeed.

IMO the only *theoretical* advantage of running a stand-alone FW and a stand-alone HIPS would be that a malware would have to kill 2 security apps instead of only one. In other words, I view it as primarily a matter of choice with little if any protective difference between the 2 approaches.

 

Thank u very much bellgamin, I will use Malware Defender ant i will try out both
Look'N'Stop and Private FW. as well , thank u for your advice.

 

What version of Windows 7 are you running? 32 or 64-bit?

 

running Windows 7 ultmate 32 ,

 

And CIS with Defense+.