Norton is a system pig and their subscription rates are, well I wouldn't pay them. When I use any virus protection at all (rarely) I use Avast. The personal addition is free. You will get a license good for one year. When it expires go back to their website and get a new license. No subscription costs. And its a good reliable product. However. I work with computers ALL DAY. This is my job, and its what I do for fun when I get home. I run NO virus protection at home (other than an occasional check scan). I have had a grand total of 2 virii infections in the 11 years I've had/used a personal computer. TWO. And the first of those came from an infected MS DOS install disk (way to go MS!) Avoiding virii is NOT hard folks. Don't use MS Outlook OR Internet Explorer for ANYTHING. Period. Don't open email attachments unless you have specifically requested the said attachment. Don't follow links from random forwarded email ("click on this to see a cute kitten!" yeah right.) Don't download screen savers/etc advertised in flashing images on websites. And for the love of little green apples run FIREFOX with adblock and java script stopping enabled. There getting off my soap box. So. Avast if you must but know that a constantly running virus protection package is NOT strictly required. You can avoid 99.9% of virii by simply using some common sense. Remember ALL virus protection is out of date. By the time these security companies discover a virus in the wild and update their databases to protect you against its already been running loose for hours, days, maybe even weeks. NO amount of virus protection is 100% effective, you MUST protect yourself as well. (You wouldn't wander around alone in downtown Detroit at 2AM just because you had a bottle of mace in your purse, right? Same idea.)

Thanks raven. I looked at the first link you provided and I don't see anything that resembles what I had. So I still have a question. As I recall what popped up on my screen was something that looked like it came from Microsoft, said the computer was infected with a virus, and warned not to shut the computer off. It told me I should click to start the antivirus program. The first time it happened--when I fell for it--I assumed that it would run Windows Defender. My question is, then, does Microsoft ever do this? That is, if indeed I get a virus in the midst of searching the web, is there ever a legitimate Microsoft warning that pops up telling you not to shut the computer down and to click to run a scan? If not, then there's no problem with trying to find out what's legit and what is not. With whatever I got it was truly hard to tell. Thanks!

I'm facing the same dilemma. I have two machines I don't want to trash. They were expensive and I put the best in them, 6 years ago. They run like a dream and I have no intention of dumping them. I also don't have the money to replace them. I pisses me off that I am forced to deal with two computers which have no issues at all. On the other hand, I also have an Iphone and IPad. I'm not crazy about Apple and how proprietary they are. I prefer Windows because everything runs on it. I don't want to deal learning a new operating system, although Windows 8 seems to be a challenge. I have a Windows 8 laptop collecting dust in the closet. I will have to deal with it eventually, but my XP machines keep me grounded and don't require the time and energy to start over. My gut feeling is Windows 8 will be another Vista. MS is going to have to make some major changes to Win8. People who work for a living are not happy with the new operating system. I want to wait this out. Apple is a slim possibility, but I would rather wait to see what Microsoft does in the near future to improve the 'workability' of Windows 8. Jane

LOL, I know THAT kind of bungalow. The problem seems to have corrected itself. The red shield is no longer there. I wonder if takes until the next scheduled scan, or something, until they are in sync. I'll try to pay close attention next time. nearandwest, I'm not sure when I last ran a full scan. Maybe I'll do that tonight.