wherein Liz asks for help with antivirus protection and other computer security

[edenfalling]

My computer has been glitching and crashing these past two weeks, and one of the crashes or system repairs wiped my Norton antivirus and internet security programs completely off the hard drive.

I have heard that Norton is not the world's most efficient (or memory-efficient) security program around. It's also kind of expensive.

But I don't like having my computer unprotected.

So.

Does anyone have recommendations for good security programs? I am currently running Windows Vista (yes, I know, but I couldn't get XP when I bought the computer and Windows 7 wasn't out back then, and if you can give me advice on the feasibility of changing operating systems without losing all my files, that would be great too...) on an HP Pavilion. I am also pretty much programming-illiterate, so if you recommend anything much more complicated than "go here, click this, pay that, and the wizard will set it up for you," I am not going to use your recommendation.

Also, please do not comment just to talk up Apple and/or Linux, because frankly, I do not give a damn about the evils of Windows or the superiority of open-source or anything else along those lines. (Like I said, programming-illiterate.) I just want functional antivirus software.

All advice is greatly appreciated!



ETA: Thank you to everyone for all the advice! I am currently trying out the free versions of avast and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware; if those don't work out, I will look into the other options you guys pointed out. *crosses fingers that these programs don't get mugged by a system restore like the Norton did*

Comments

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

I have been very happy with Avira, the free version. I also recently added Spybot Seek and Destroy, free version, after I was unable to keep a pop-up malware attack from hitting (the Avira pop-up to block it kept popping up, but each malware pop-up was nearly instantly up as well, and I accidentally hit the OK on the malware pop-up instead. D'OH!).

I have the hated Vista, myself. And I do have the Microsoft Security Essentials, too- this machine came with Norton and MacAfee trial versions installed, but by the time the trial was over, I was not willing to do anything but uninstall the resource hogs and leave it to Microsoft. I seem to recall there being lots of pop-ups from Microsoft about everything, when I was using Security Essentials only. Now I still have that installed, but nothing seems to trigger it past Avira and Spybot.