I recently switched to Vista Ultimate. I have used Avast! for several years in XP and for about a month in Vista too. It is one of the best and free, to boot! After finding several adware and spyware items in my old XP installation (which means that Windows Defender is not that great!), I did some research and decided to go for a full suite in my new Vista installation. I chose Norton 360. I stopped using Symantec products years ago because they were bloated, badly designed software. However, I have to say that I'm impressed with 360. The only negative aspects I can think of are: 1) the internet backup, slow as molasses (it's been going on for about half an hour backing up 1GB of data and it's still at 20%); however, it is not that important because I have my own HD backup; 2) the browser phishing toolbar (big and ugly, but can be hidden). The important components of the suite (antivirus, antispam, firewall) are top of the heap in ease of use and they are as unobstrusive as the reviewers say. I recommend it highly!  |