RE: Avast/AVG Free plus Defender adequate?

I've been using Avast AntiVirus Home Edition for free for quite some time on
my Vista machine without any problems. As some have mentioned, its
compatible with Vista and they are very good at keeping it updated.

"kplumm" wrote:

I am considering uninstalling the 90-day Norton trial that came with
my new Vista-equipped Toshiba laptop. I had AVG, the free one, on my
XP machine, and have heard about Avast. I don't want to be more
worried than I need to be about viruses; would the free version of
AVG, or Avast Home Edition and, if necessary, the Windows Defender and/
or Firewall be enough, or more than enough, in place of the Norton
suite. There is Norton checking my main email account at Yahoo so
that's safe anyway.

They use AVG in my local internet cafe, at a guess the free one.
Though they have adware popping up a lot, they have a lot of perhaps
over-experimental customers and the version of Windows there is XP.
Maybe they don't update and check enough either. (I was harebrained
with my XP machine, never had virus-protection and when belatedly
installing AVG found 18 worms and Trojans, gathered over 3 years
possibly.)

Could someone summarise what problems or flaws I would be free of when
I uninstall Norton, other than the obligation to pay up after the 90
days, which I'm keen on. Having never had such a fast computer and
broadband before I don't know any difference regarding any lag it may
cause, but obviously if it's real I'd like to be rid of it, and I've
heard a lot of criticism of Norton.

I don't fully understand viruses, either. Could someone fill me in on
this: I thought you'd have to install something infected or malware-
containing, but the first time I used Norton, with my laptop plugged
in in the i-cafe, it found 2 viruses straight away - or was this a
Norton test? (Do viruses somehow make a beeline for computers that
are online and try to find a way in regardless of what we are
downloading?) Only cookies have been found since, and I keep, perhaps
unecessarily, 'fixing' these

Thanks in advance for all advice. I can spot commercial input, so
impartial comment only please.

.

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