Newly installed programs wont work

Gateway MD2614u laptop. I believe I've had this kind of problem before but I'm not sure how I fixed it. I believe that I was told I had registry errors. When I install new programs they seem to install fine but won't operate properly at all. For example: WinPatrol wont accept commands in the pop up notification boxes, SpeedFan will come up but the box is mostly blank, belarc advisor will stick on processes endlessly, never generating a report. All of these will tend to go into freeze mode and may not even be closable including through task manager. Browser and everything else seems to work fine. I have used sfc /scannow and system restore tools. I also ran Malwarebytes and AVG scans just to make sure there weren't any problems there. I use AVG anti-virus and ZoneAlarm for my firewall. My desktop is all the same and has no problems like this. Any other ideas what to do?

Try by reinstalling the programme after disabling the Malwarebytes.

I have the free version of Malwarebytes. I had to search how to turn it off and they say that it is only on demand scans, it has no real time scanning or protection going on.
I had thought of the firewall and antivirus tools, but I guess I just don't want to believe that these things keep you from so many normal activities. I couldn't find any way to turn off the firewall either so I just uninstalled it and it appears that all of these programs are working correctly now. I will now have to find out how to make this work as I don't want to go without a firewall. Maybe there is a way to put in exceptions or maybe some kind of update will fix it.
Thanks for your help getting me in the right direction. I'll report back when I find what to do.

I went ahead and reinstalled Zone Alarm and those three programs now will work fine. The firewall must have been intercepting their communications outside my PC for them to operate. Must be some difference in the latest install of the firewall that allows it to work. I assume (mistake) that it updates automatically, but maybe I need to make sure on that or maybe it was just some kind of glitch. Thanks for the help.