The free version has worked well for me so far.

Free is fine just be sure to update before each scan
I add malwarebytes free to that for a better layered protection

As they report, the free is just fine. Be sure not to configure it for real-time. On-demand is the best way.

DA

Thanks guys

Will Super Antispyware find things that Malwarebytes miss?

Sometimes yes and vice versa, which is why I use both, additional layers of protection is the best protection.

After getting angry with McAfee's products some years ago, I made the rounds of free versions for several years. It seemed I only got "hit" by evil things when clicking through to something from a Google search, they do little or no screening of the links they provide. Most of the time the attacking things weren't too difficult to get rid of and caused no significant problems. A few times I had to go through some agony to return the PC to normal service.

A few years ago I decided to come out of my cave and try a paid product again. I went with Norton, and I''ll never go back. The current Norton suite is the most effective, unobtrusive, and easy protection product I've ever used, in 20+ years of PC experience. No product I used (and I went through most of the free things) compares favorably. It blocks attacks real time, period. NO problems. No cleanup required, it doesn't allow enemy planes to land.

My experience is simply one person's anecdote, I know that the reputable reviewers (like CNET) will say there is more equality among products, but I haven't found that as a user. Some of the free ones (was one of them Avira) have really obnoxious and intrusive periodic messages. Another time, AVG decided to quarantine a key Windows file, and doing so completely disabled the PC, it required a reformat/reinstall the operating system.

Anyhow, I'm a happy Norton user, and I consider the annual fee to be a cheap route to easy use and peace of mind.

To Sneidy--Never Norton for me!!! they have let several worms come thru and had to have the computer crashed 2 times. You are lucky.
Marie

To Marie- If your computer is crashing, there's something wrong with it. My company uses Norton on thousands of machines and it works flawlessly. You are unlucky.
Snidely

Comparing the Symantec Corporate End Point, previously referred to as Enterprise, to the Symantec Norton consumer version is like comparing apples and oranges.

DA

Norton and McAfee both caused serious problems on one of my computers when those were all removed the problems disappeared so it most definitely can be caused by them.
I sure won't won't be using either again even though I could get them free from my ISP.

yes DA different ball game.

False positives have happened on every AV program out there.

But what works for one may not work for someone else.

I easn't comparing different Norton products, please read the posts again.

The experience I described a few posts up is with Norton's retail package, which has been on 5 PCs x 3 years = 15 users years of experience. I mentioned only in reply to Marie of my company's use of Norton.

I agree that everyone has a different experience. I tried and hated the several free versions with high evals that I tried. You're welcome to use them.

RC,

Do you think the concerns where more of a conflict with installed applications, or the O/S itself?

After years of using Norton I gave up on it quite a while back. I found it too bloated and resource demanding.

Consumer Reports recommends, and Virus Bulletin reports good results with the free versions of AVG, Avira and Avast. MSE is a small step behind them.

DA

I had not realised till recently that AVG has upgraded from merely an anti virus program and now protect against allcomers except keyloggers. However from my reading it requires 10 instances running in the background against 3 for MSE.

Even Zonealarm has upgraded from being just a gatekeeper to other protection as they all fight for market share.