Avast, with their mandatory annual registration would never be my first choice. That would be a deal-breaker for most of my old customers.
However (and I probably mentioned this already) Malware Bytes is set up in Pro Mode and running 'Live' and doing fine.
I'm quite sure, that by the time Win-8 shows up in new computers, on the store shelves, we'll have a lot more of a menu of Security Software that we can use. I'm personally waiting to see if AVG will become compatible with Win-8.
I just can't bring myself to trust MS for all my computer Security needs. In 30 years, I've never seen any one program or Suite, that can fully protect one's PC. Norton couldn't do it..... McAfee couldn't do it and I just don't believe that MS can do it either.
As much as I love AVG, and I run the Internet Security version on my own PC, I still use other brands of Anti-Malware software to backup AVG.
But even those running the MS software are in a way hiding their head in the sand. (meaning no disrespect)
You can never know if you're really safe unless you install other software and do scans with that software to see if you're really CLEAN.
I have a PC on my bench right now, that I set up about 28 months ago and installed a pretty good package of Security Software, and even though I stressed that they should have me back to do a cleanup and security update every six months, they just finally called me two days ago to tell me that they had this thing coming up on their screen telling them they were infected with a virus. They were infected with a Trojan/Virus. It had disabled Windows Explorer, so even after I got the Malware off of the PC, the Explorer was not working.
So after copying all their "My Documents" folder and their saved email, I did a Ghost Restore back to when I had finished setting up the PC.
Moral of this story, is to keep all your Security Software as up to date as possible and if it can run a scan, do that at least once a week.
On the above mentioned PC I installed the very latest AVG , Malware Bytes, Spybot Search & Destroy and the brand new Spyware Blaster 4.5.
They have a teenage boy in the house who also uses the family PC, so a little added protection was in order.
On Firefox 8.0.1, I added "AdBlock+" to keep down the ad's, banners and side bars where so many "Fraud" programs live.
Sorry, I really didn't mean for this to run so long. It's just a very complex subject that sometimes requires airing.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
The Doctor