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On purchase, my laptop is/was loaded with norton, etc. at some time, i imagine someone will want paying for the privilege of using it. (right/wrong?) in which case, i look to avg to provide the same service at no cost. any advice please?

I have used avg anti virus, zone alarm firewall, spy-bot search and destroy and ad aware both spyware killers for years. they are all free for personal use and i have had no trouble with viruses trojans etc. avg does not slow the system down as much as some other products and zone alarm allows a lot of personal configuration unlike the windows firewall. they can all be downloaded from the following link. http://www.computeractive.co.uk/. on the home page select downloads and then the appropriate category.i also use windows defender from the microsoft site. it is safe to use two anti-spy products but never use more than one a/v as it can cause conflicts. you should run a/v and anti spy weekly. hope this helps.