A/V software only works if its up to date. Most viruses are caught by signature matching, so you absolutely need the latest virus signatures to work. Some also check for "suspicious behavior" but that's hit-or-miss.

In any case, don't expect virus software to protect you...it's a last line of defense. New viruses will walk right past it (bear in mind virus writers test against virus software). If you rely on your virus software you will get hosed.

AVG free seems to work well. Have never used it, but have always heard good things about Kaspersky.

Avoid Norton like the plague, it's a pile of crap and it makes any system slower than snail snot.

Recommend Firefox or Opera for the browser...or anything but IE (including things that wrap IE's rendering engine). Ad-Block-Plus is a great idea for friefox (doesn't stop viruses, but gets rid of a ton of worthless crap). Even with firefox, you'll still get nailed if you do stupid things.

Set windows update to at least automatically download updates, and install them when they come out.

Avoid downloading stupid software from the internet. If you can't see how they're making money (i.e., they seem to be given away everything for free), it's because you're about to get f**ked. Exception = true open source software.

Avoid pirated software.

If you surf ****/torrents/warez/etc....create a non-admin user to do it. Your default Windows XP user is an Administrator...this is bad. Log out and use the other user for any such activities.

Or just get Ubuntu Linux...best OS ever.

 

If HP Tuners would just work in Linux that's what I would probably use.
Not sure if my little old laptop has a big enough HD to handle a dual boot system.

 

subscribing...need to read this at home