Hmm I was looking at some test results and I think Nod32 Avast and AVG are all about the same, and Avira is a little bit ahead. But eh could be crappy test results. XDI have also been using AVG Free Edition (I know it's not the best AV prog out there but it's free, fast and seems to do a half decent job for a free one..I've had no problems at all with it.. NOD32 is definitely the best though and also works very well with Windows 7, it however, is not free..
I am currently using Norton Anti Virus 2009 without any problems however i am suspected it is slightly slowing down my 64-bit system on bootup, other than that everything seems ok
I had been running a paid version of AVG 7.5 but they suspended support on April 30, no more definition updates.
I can use AVG 8.5 (they provided me with a new license key) but it is a resource hog in Win 7 so I've been avoiding using
it in Win 7. Well AVG forced my hand ( I only had a few months left on my 2 year subscription) and I'm now using Avast! Pro (paid).
Avast does the job with much less impact on my system
than AVG 8.5.
Awhile ago Lavasoft Adaware pulled the same stunt with their Adaware SE product (quitting support) and offering Adaware Anniversary Edition as a replacement. I had paid for a license several years ago and was very happy with their product. The new Adaware (paid version) has a activation feature (hardware profile generated during install) similar to the activation scheme introduced with XP.
This would have prevented it's use (except as the downgraded free product) on my XP install (on the same HDD).
Installing and activating the paid product apparently generates a unique hardware profile key that isn't usable on other windows installs even on the same drive. The free version works just as well.
I have Windows firewall and defender turned off depending on my NAT router for firewall duties and Spybot S&D's
resident protection and Spywareblaster's host file protection to guard against spyware etc.
I use Firefox and an Add-on called WOT (Web Of Trust) to warn me of unsafe sites while surfing.
There is a IE version.
Finally I use common sense.
ESET Smart Security
free AV sucks.