I used to use Comodo as my firewall, not the antivirus. When I switched to Win 7 64 though there was noticable slows downs while surfing so I ditched it.

Really though, it's not that the free versions are actually bad, it's that a lot of them are not user friendly or designed for the people that call me up every once in awhile and tell me they have porn popping up on their computer and wondering if I can come over and fix it for them. There is only so much security software can do. I moderate a couple of yahoo lists, and sure enough someone through their own wicked wants or infected themselves will send a link to a trojan. Avast, AVG, Windows Essentials, I've seen them all catch them so far.

I downloaded Microsoft Security Essentials and all it wanted to do was turn on auto updates of every Windows program that has to do with security that comes with Windows 7. No Anti-Virus program mentioned or installed so I ditched it. I prefer to have Windows update turned to manual on all Windows programs or third party programs.

Tell them to stop going to porn sites, and the porn popping up will stop.

I never have had that happen. I guess because I don't 'peek' at those sites. (or related types of sites, like online dating and such)

Really. You only get nailed by those types of things by your own browsing habits. If you click a link in an e-mail, you could be infected. If you click OK to something questionable, you could be infected. And the virus SW may not block it if you click OK, or if the malware is too new for the scanner to recognize it.

It is all about 'safe computing' - which is a concept that seems beyond most users.

Safer computing:-

Microsoft Security Essentials is an all-in-one program.  It has anti-virus, anti-spyware built into it.  It has nothing to do with Windows Update.  I have my Windows Update set to notify me of important updates, but not to install them unless I say so.  I also only allow it to check for Windows files, no other programs.  It sounds like your Windows 7 Update options are the problem here...you should check those settings.

I used to use Eset Nod32 and Online Armor; both are excellent products.

Currently I am using Microsoft Security Essentials (free) and the Windows Firewall. I am testing them out because I switched to Win 7 64 bit and there were no 64 bit versions of the two above products (yet). Plus I did not want to have to purchase new software for them.

I have to say that the Microsoft Security Essentials has gotten excellent reviews and so far in my personal experience it has been working very well.

LMAO!!! That's good!!!

I've been using McAfee for almost 2 years now...no problems here. On the bright side......I get it free with my internet subscription through comcast. Doubt I would pay for it if I had to.

One of the reasons why I use Nod is because it is 64bit

http://www.eset.com/products/MSWin7/index.php

My setting are just fine. Even with Auto updates enabaled Microsoft Security Essentials wants to make sure it's turned on. Look at the second paragraph here in the SS.

"Enable automatic updating and Microsoft Update..."

Sorry. There is a reson I have it turned off. It loves to interrupt my gaming and other computer activities.

VIPRE

From what I've heard, as far as firewalls go nothing beats an OpenBSD box in between the interwebz and the rest of your LAN, though I've yet to try it (lack of space, time and money to do so). Still, I do use the firewall on my router, a few tweaks here and there and I've yet to see a problem with it.

Antivirus, I'm partial to Avast myself. Its relatively unintrusive, doesn't soak up resources like a sponge and on my grandma's computer at least it has stopped every virus that's tried to infect it so far, so I'm happy with it. Certainly doesn't arise the anger and desire for violence that McAffee and Norton did, last time I infected my computer with that trash.

Ohhh, and if any of you wants to browse through... err... potentially dodgy websites without risking your precious computer, I'd suggest trying out VirtualBox to run a Linux VM on your machine. Far safer and less resource intensive than running three or four AV programs stacked one on top of another, as I've seen 'out in the field' sometimes.

Hi! Just wanted to let you know that I'm on the BitDefender  team - and if there is anything you would like to know or you need help with, I can make sure your requests get to our Engineer's team. If you are still a BitDefender fan,  you can check our 2010 support knowledge base and contact info here: http://www.bitdefender.com/site/KnowledgeBase/consumer

good luck!

Been using it for a few years now the Internet Security. Just renewed for 2 more years. Has never caused me any problems.

great to hear that!

You really need to read the text below the table. a lot of firewalls did not pass the tests cause they were supposed to be use in conjunction with antivirus software, which means they did not include some critical funtions of those, which were necessary. But you should do anyway.

And they only tested rather specific problems. This is why every report gives different results. None really covers all kinds of problems.