I'm presently using Avast! Pro 5.0 having switched from AVG last year after a program upgrade (AVG) left me with a bad taste.
I'm loving Avast! Pro 5.0 it's a big improvement over the previous version of Avast!.
One thing lacking in AVG and Avast! 4.x was an easy way to get programs to scan incoming mail for my Gmail accounts in Thunderbird.
Avast! 5.0 makes it easy by alerting the user that it cannot scan incoming mail for any account that uses ssl\tls encryption like Gmail.
It tells the user to disable ssl\tls, easily done in account settings.
Avast! then takes over providing it's own encryption thus allowing scanning incoming emails.
Avast! is a low overhead program and works quite well.
It is highly configurable.
I also use Sandboxie (paid version with a lifetime license) and have configured all my browsers and email clients to run under the supervision of Sandboxie.
In fact any program that accesses the internet is sandboxed.
Between Avast! realtime protection and Sandboxie I'm pretty well protected.
The review sites can maybe help a user choose a security solution but aren't substitute for actually trying
the various products on the users machine.
Thankfully many of the best products have free versions available.
Avast! does and it doesn't skimp on protection.
Sandboxie is also available in a free version, the big difference between the paid version and the free is the free
version doesn't offer the user the ability to force a program to run sandboxed.
You have to manually configure a program to run sandboxed.
You also get a nag screen everytime you boot up after a month of use.
The license is 29 euros and is a lifetime license for home use on an unlimited number of machines owned by the user.