Microsoft Security Essentials is great. And it's free.

It only works with a genuine version of Windows though so if you're running a pirated copy, get Windows Loader and "genuinize" that puppy.

I use AVG free edition its actually really good especially considering its free
I dont have any problems with it all works great
if you were considering getting a free one then avg is great there is a paid version too i dont know much about it but with the free version you get the basic protection
i think you get a 30 day free trial for the paid version if you dowland the free one so you can decide what you want.

thats what I would recommend for you there probably are some better anti virus programs that cost money but AVG has been recommended to me by people who know lots about computers, its a great choice if you not looking to pay money.

yeah avast! sucks i use malware-bytes anti malware

I used to use AntiVir but now i use avast! No problems with it so far.

I work in the IT field, and we have always been told that everyone should use more than one anti-virus program because some programs do not catch everything. For example, Norton may miss some files that McAfee might pick up, and vice-versa. For this reason, I utilize a combination of two different free programs for my anti-virus protection.

Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition

The combination of these two has actually kept me virus free for the past 5 years. I run AVG once every week (usually a Monday) and then Ad-Aware once a week (usually a Friday). I also have AVG set to scan all portable devices immediately once they get plugged into a USB port, this is a great feature of AVG that makes sure that you're not injecting a virus directly into your computer from a USB drive without knowing. I can't tell you the number of times this feature has actually found viruses on my flash drives after plugging them in, and it saved me from having them attack my actual computer.

Thanks everyone. I uninstalled Avast! in lieu of Malwarebytes and I'm pleased so far. I'll look into AVG, Ad-Aware, and some of the others y'all mentioned. Thanks again.

If you need a firewall you should also check out Comodo.

I've been using it for the past 2 years and it's been good to me.

Another AVG Free Edition user here.

you should only use 1 from what ive heard more than 1 and they conflict with eachother

Well, you can have more than one installed on your machine IF you don't have them both set to active/live protection. The way I have mine setup is with AVG set to active, meaning that it's always running, looking for threats as they occur. I also have it set to do a scan once a week. However, I also have Ad Aware installed on my machine, BUT I do not have it set to always be running. Instead, I only use it to perform a separate weekly scan on a different day. Ad Aware is never turned on, it's only on when I need a scan to be performed and nothing else, I use AVG for my active/live protection. Having two different programs scanning the computer at two different times can often find files that have been infected that the other software did not locate. However, never have both programs on/live at the same time and never have both doing scans at the same time. They use way too many resources, which could completely slow down to your machine to a snail's pace.