I'm sorry, hitman, but ZoneAlarm isn't a "twist", as you put it, but an actual Firewall. I you want to make common cause with mark, benn and the other sand-based head-hiders, you'll have to delete that from your machine.
As for non-realtime virus scanning, I'm almost there myself. As it is, I ALWAYS right-click/scan everything that comes in from the outside as I receive it (which I urge you to do also), but other than that, the anti-virus--even AVG--is just getting in the way. Of course, nobody ever did that better than symantec.