Anti Virus

[pazuzu]

I want to get a good anti virus software for my comp.

What's the best and which ones should I avoid?

Thank you.

[Yalius]

Avoid any you have to pay for.

Use Avast, AVG, Avira, or Microsoft Security Essentials. All free.

Each has their strengths and weaknesses. Avast is a good all-around program, AVG is a little more comprehensive but with a heavier footprint, Avira is probably the best at detection but a little technically-intensive to use, Microsoft is dead-simple to use but a little short on features and info.

[pazuzu]

Thank you for the advice.

I'll check those out...

[Segnosaur]

In addition to anti-virus software, I'd suggest installing or activating a few other things on your computer.

For example, you might want to run regular scans with software like ad-aware or malware bytes. Both are free and fairly well respected (and malware bytes did help get rid of an annoying virus I had before.) A firewall is a good idea too (Windows has one built in, or you can download Zone Alarm.)

For my browsing, I've started to use Firefox 4, with 'No Script' add-on installed. It can be a bit annoying when browsing new sites, but after I got hit by a trojan downloader I feel a lot safer.

Edited to add: Just be sure you don't have more than 1 virus scanner active on your computer at a time... they can conflict with each other and really mess things up.