Privatefirewall completely nuked my 64bt W7!

Most Excellent

 

This pretty much sums up the installation of any third party firewall with an aggressive HIPS.

To eliminate any conflicts with existing realtime anti-malware of any form, the firewall should be the first piece of anti-malware software installed. Many individuals install/uninstall anti-malware with realtime features and don't run the vendors "clean" tool and the result is residuals. Many of these are hidden drivers that interfere with the third party firewall HIPS processing.

It is also worth mentioning that PF is a firewall app designed for commercial installations and as such does not have the "intelligence" included to check for apps that might conflict like for example Kapersky IS has.

PF is now freeware and as such only so much can be expected from the vendor.