...the folks at MaximumPC ( http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/best_antivirus_2013?page=0,4 ) and in July they gave Norton a 10. I had Norton a while back and gave up due to system slow downs. I have Norton now on my desktop system and it runs great.

As an alternative I like AVG free.

I used it years ago and didn't like it, but I'm open to trying it again.

I just remembered - Comcast gives its customers Norton for free. Glad you suggested it!

I end up with a virus that eats my hard drive.

I ran the ShieldsUp! scan with Norton installed and it passed with flying colors but I don't know how much that really means. McAfee just ticked me off royally......14 hours + for a full scan is ridiculous. It used to do a full scan in a couple of hours.

...one of the versions started using a lot of overhead and I went with AVG for a while. I've heard good things about Avast free and I used MSE for a year or so. I would read what you can on the various forums and review sites.



As I said my 2013 copy of Norton seems reliable enough.

it's really confusing. The reviews are all over the place.

I'm also not familiar with "PC Anti-virus Reviews". I note that all the reviews are for products with license fees.

There are several highly rated free anti-virus programs out there; all good enough that I don't think you shouldn't have to pay for a product.

Three that are consistently very highly rated:

Avast
AVG
Microsoft Security Essentials

Personally, I use Avast. Scan weekly using Malwarebytes (free version).

I've been skeptical of using Avast or AVG as I had family members get bad viruses while using them.

As far as I care I consider Norton about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

I mostly use MSE and Malwarebytes I got Malwarebytes on sale for $9.95 and bought several copies at the time. The subscription is forever.

MSE - is that Microsoft Security Essentials?

I have been using McAfee and I haven't been bothered with viruses but it pissed me off. I tried to cancel a scan that was taking forever and it wouldn't let me cancel it. I couldn't even cancel it using the Task Manager. I finally went in and fixed a setting and got it cancelled but it really ticked me off. I use to be able to run a full scan in a couple of hours. Now it takes over 14 hours. Yep, 14 hours. WTF is up with that?

I don't know - maybe the devil I know is better than the one I don't and I should just keep McAfee and run only custom scans.

MSE takes about an hour for a full scan on my system and what with drives and partitions I'm up to drive letter "T".

Hi,

I am using COMODO Internet Security, Avira Free and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.
They are all free and very good.

and it seems to be fine. Every once in a while it won't let us access a page that I think should be fine but maybe it isn't.