MSSE is a decent, free AV product if you keep your systems patched. As the commenters of the original article said, this test is not valid because they used unpatched systems.
IMHO, Comodo is among the best.
VM use and system restore points are your friends.
Of course it is. *smirk* And Outlook, Outlook Express, and Hotmail are just innocent victims of circumstances as well.
System restore is your friend? Maybe, but not mine. It let me down countless times.
Now I use Acronis with 2X day full system backup plus weekly, plus data only backups. Restored my system many times with it to different HDDs. Prolly still $49.95