Personally, I found Avast too clunky and too resource intensive (no where near as bad as Norton or McAfee, but too much for my taste). I liked AVG for a while, but now I'm trying out Microsoft Security Essentials. So far, it seems to work pretty well without leaving to large of a footprint.
10 years ago I would've recommended that everyone should be running some form of paid internet security since the free ones just weren't up to scratch. These days it's the opposite - the average user really doesn't need to pay anything to get adequate protection.
Personally, I found Avast too clunky and too resource intensive (no where near as bad as Norton or McAfee, but too much for my taste). I liked AVG for a while, but now I'm trying out Microsoft Security Essentials. So far, it seems to work pretty well without leaving to large of a footprint.
You know, I thought that too (because of the word Microsoft in the title) but I installed it out of curiosity when I was doing one of my OS format/reinstalls. I don't know, I kinda figured it would be another Norton (or maybe even worse) but I'm actually impressed with it. Go figure...
I've been using the free version of Avast for a few years now on multiple pc's of mine and I've installed it on other people's pc's that I've worked on and never a problem. I'd recommend it.