over the last 10 years i used a paid version of Kaspersky for about 3 years, Avira Free Edition for about 3 years as well and most recently the free version of Avast. Was more or less content with all of them - especially regarding resource usage. Avira had an annoying number of false positives for me so i swapped to Avast in the end and keep using it ever since. As a basic protection it's totally sufficient imho and no need to go for a paid version.

Used Norton back in time, then Kaspersky, Norton360 (that was a huge mistake, accidently bought a two years license. nothing like the good old Norton back i ntime was..) and for last couple of years - Avira. Both, free and paid versions are great in my opinion. Not going to even try Avast after so many infected pc's I've seen, not to mention performance.. But that's my opinion : )
Also using Malwarebytes in special occasions and HitmanPro.

Here.

Using Kaspersky Internet Security for last few years on Windows 8. No infections as of yet. Very satisfied. Norton I used only in the 90s and it was a shit antivirus already then. Used Avast which was ok but you need a separaet firewall with it. Don't use AVG though. I have seen to many pcs with it being helplessly infected.

Eitherway I recommend Kaspersky Internet Security.

To be honest with you a lot of these AV programs are bloatware. I don't know that there is a really good option. I've tried all the ones listed in this thread and they all have glaring flaws. Some quite deliberate problems as well, like the pop up ads from the free AVs.

Whatever you go for though, ditch Norton. It doesn't have a bad reputation for nothing.

I had some Avast and Windows freezing problems as well. At some time Avast stopped working and told me that I can reactivate it, but nothing happened when I tried to. After a reinstall it worked for a week or so. At the same time, my system froze regularly. In the end it was my HDD that died slowly. Avast stopped working properly because it tried to read data from unreadable parts of the dying HDD. After that I changed to Panda.

Before all that, I used Avira. At some point it stopped updating automatically. So I had to update it manually each time new VDF were released. That was a bother, so I changed to Avast.

Currently I am waiting for Panda to cause problems. With my luck, that will probably happen, sooner or later.

Don't forget to use the Norton Removal Tool.

Just install all of them, and let them all run at once. Make 'em fight it out to see which one's best!

Seems like good advice...

I'm not sure if it's still valid, but last two or three weeks ago I used pirated key found on internet to obtain legitimate license of Malwarebytes anti malware for lifetime (directly on the program). That if you don't want to pay, of course.

MBAM and Windows Defender (built in AV in Windows 10) should be more than enough to defend against common virus variants. Oh need common sense as well.

Haha, that seems about right. Hard enough to keep one of them working at near optimum/

With regards to your second point, I am not going to Win10 at the moment, hence in the original post Win/Linux. Will keep a Win 7, and Win 8.1 running but am branching out into Linux. But you are totaly right on your last point, common sense is exactly what is needed in the first instance, I mean looking that word begining with a P (well, actually either of the first two words which come to mind when talking about P) is likely to land you with a ton of computer problems first off :o)

I will have a look at Avira, Avast, then if they don't suit, maybe consider buying another Norton or similar.

To the posts on Norton being bad, yes, I know historically it lost a lot of user base for being bloated and clucnk. I have found the 360 version to be quite lightweight, and other than a message one a month, and sometimes a file removed on download have barely noticed it. So am not unhappy with it, just I have been getting it from WHSmiths for a few years as they had it for £20, now they don't stock it, so its around £30-£45 which is a bit much to my mind.

I suggest you start reading some tests for yourself. If you're not an experienced pc user, make sure to also read some tests in which items like the user interface and system load are reviewed. You usually find such tests in pc magazines and on websites of pc magazines and/or consumer organizations.

Crap like MS Essentials should neither by adviced nor used by anybody.
Of the free AVs, Avira seems to be the best in most tests.
I have gotten burned with the free versions of both Avast and AVG in the past. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
The same goes for the paid products of both McAfee and Norton.
When it comes to AVs or security in general, trust is in issue. Broken trust is not easily fixed.

As for my personal situation:
Last month after a decade of use I moved from GDATA to BitDefender. So far I haven't been disappointed by it.
Issues with GDATA and buying a new pc were a reason for me to change.
As a backup I use a registered version of MBAM. Compared to both GDATA and BitDefender it's faster in blocking potentially bad content. Partly because it seems to block entire domains.
On top of that I also use SpywareBlaster and the free version of Spybot.
Pale Moon is my browser. Flash is deactivated by default and needs to be manually activated. It has uBlock (ABP alternative) and Ghostery as add-ons.
Java is not installed on my pc.

The best anti-virus is common sense. But among the free ones, if I install one, it's Avira.

It isn't that long ago when Avira Antivirus didn't let me install Malwarebytes, flagging its installer as malware. I hope it didn't make that decision based on the name though? That is not security, that is stupidity.

Anyway, later it didn't block it anymore, so apparently Avira fixed it. Are those genuinely for removing Linux malware? Are there such on the wild?

Earlier when I saw some antivirus software for Linux, it was mainly for detecting Windows malware on Linux-based mail servers and somesuch (before they even reach Windows systems).

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