Anti-Malware Progs That I Have Known And (More Or Less) Loved
Avira, avast!, AVG Free, ClamWin AV. Avira was the cleanest and most user-friendly; avast! was the most comprehensive. These days I'm sticking with Windows Defender/MS Security Essentials, mostly to see how I like it and because it seems to be less of a resource hog than 3rd-party solutions - so far it's worked out fine for me, but should it fail me (or if MS screws it up at some point) I'm ready to return to Avira in a heartbeat.
BUT, I also use Sandboxie for all my web-browsing and email-erm, -mailing, so even if I get something I just close out all my sessions, wipe the sandbox and begin anew. So far, nothing has gotten out of the sandbox!
Anyway, I haven't paid for anti-malware since the '90s, or used a commercial package since my last free trial of Norton AV in '05. Commercial anti-malware is a waste of money. But one must install something; I have a friend who, in the past, always put off installing anti-malware, and I can recall at least 2 occasions when he spent the better part of a day recovering from a virus that pretty much any AV prog would have stopped (ditto one occasion for another friend).
