Also, with avast, if i uncheck show avast tray icon, does it still start up and protect my computer when i restart? And is it a leave it and let it do its thing program or do i have to manually do everything?
Let's first take one thing at a time there. While PC Tools generally has some good programs no one has really had a chance to even look it over since Vista has only been out for several weeks. With the option to not show the icon in the system tray that removes the option to right click on that hidden or visible for options. You can right click on the taskbar itself and choose the hide option in notification area to set it to "always hide".
Avast and Spyware Terminator are obviously two different types of programs. One is mainly an antivirus program with some IE filtering while ST is an adware/spyware remover. That places those in two different catagories.