[Petruchio]

Thanks in advance.

My desire is to complete the switch to new software before I go back in the hospital next week.

[rabscuttle385]

AVG Anti-Virus

ZoneAlarm (or the integrated Windows firewall)

[silentreignofheroes]

AVG

http://free.avg.com/

[KoRn]

I like AVG for antivirus. Antivir is good too.

Both are free.

[Redbob]

Check AVG Free; regular updates, no-nag settings, works good.

[Racer1]

I use AVG anti-virus and Comodo Firewall Pro. Both free.

[ozark hilljilly]

I feel your pain.
I’ve used Trend for ages. Liked the fact it was quick, non bloated and simple. Not any more. It’s just as bad as Norton as far as being a hog. Once it runs out in Aug. I’m done with it!!

[the_Watchman]

Our desktop support folks at my work site incorrectly installed Norton several years ago. This installation interfered with keeping the signatures up-to-date. As a result, I just got hit by a virus two weeks ago. I have since rebuilt the laptop after formatting the disk.

I had some interest in using data files from the infected disk, so I made a copy and scanned it with a healthy, updated Norton at work and my AVG installation at home. They both found the same infected files. This gave me some degree of confidence in my AVG.

I made a disk partition copy of the infected disk using a live knoppix boot. Then I used an outboard “SATA/IDE to USB” adapter to mount the copied drive on the machines with the healthy virus detectors. I use the same adapter to copy data from the backup disk. Even though all infections are supposedly cleaned, now, I will not use any executable files from the copy of the infected disk.

[kingu]

The absolute best free anti-virus I've found is Ubuntu 8.10 - once I got rid of windows, I didn't have such problems. But assuming that you've got some special attachment to Windows, I'd push for AVG if you must have one installed.

If you use Firefox with Ad Block Plus, though, I think you'll eliminate all casual bugs that float around, and the only thing left to worry about is stuff downloaded from unreputible places.

[JSteff]

AVG and/or Avira
Comodo or ZoneAlarm
Ad-Aware and Spybot. Spybot includes the abiliiy to “inoculate” your system and replace the Hosts files which will help to assure your system will not “dial out to get any/or more nasties if you get infected.

[JoeProBono]

[NonLinear]

1. Zone Alarm or Sygate Personal Firewal - either is fine
2. Dump IE, and use FireFox
3. NoScript (addon to FireFox)
4. AdBlock Plus (addon to FireFox)
5. MalWareBytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/ antivirus
(I’m checking out AVG even as I type)

Life is good.

[TomGuy]

I’ve had a similar history with virus programs.

Trend Micro,
Norton,
McAfee,
even AVS

They all become glutware and cause the computer to run slugglish.

Recently, I dumped AVS and went with Avast. I do have a couple of features turned off that would normally run in the background.

Otherwise, Avast seems to run with fewer resources than AVS did.

I recommend Avast.

[TomGuy]

Comodo.com firewall is one of the strongest. It passes the grc.com stealth test.

You can still find the older editions as standalone. They now put their firewall as part of a package.

[Nateman]

I don't feel your pain.