If you want a free AV, MSE is ideal for those who are not computer literate as it works completely in the back ground and updates with windows updates.

As good as most other free ones and OK for those running Vista or W7 but does slow down XP.

As far as the free ones are concerned Avast has the lightest foot print however there are some problems over the latest update Avast7 but I expect they will be sorted very quickly.

I ran MSE and Avast on two identical machines running XP and Avast was better.

Haven't tried the same experiment for Vista or W7

Nontek

I was just going with the way it worked for me using XP.It was really bad and I had to remove it.

Now it maybe entirely different in W/7 but if it was that good microsoft would sell it not give it away free.

I have always been of the opinion of any free anti-virus and a paid for version of any anti-malware program So I would go with your selection MSE and MalwareBytes Pro which can be bought on Amazon for £12.99 for a lifetime use.

Hi buteman - I was not being critical, just commenting. I have only moved to Win7 since last weekend having just bought a shiny new laptop from Novatech, prior to that was using XP (actually still have XP on my desktop). I also run MBAM Pro on my desktop - it is on its last legs, so will be scrapping it soon.

You do know me in my old guise as Technotiger!!

Technotiger

Well my goodness it is nice to see that you are still about.Never recognized you with the different name.

You helped me out lots of times in the past often wondered where you had disappeared to and you have been here all of the time.