I use KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY

Avg is well known for finding "false positives". As someone who fixes computers your friend should have been aware of that, ask him what a " false positive" means, and if he does not know that from the top of his head then kick him in the nuts (and put the video on youtube for our entertainment). AVG also recently killed thousands of pc's, read it here: http://securityandthe.net/2008/11/10/avg-virus-scanner-removes-critical-windows-file/. It's also the 7th or 8th time that AVG free did that over the years. You get what you pay for I guess

Anyway, as well meant advice from someone who does know a lot about pc's, I'd suggest using the most awarded antivirus around and get NOD. Kaspersky is also great, but a bit heavy on resources. A free 30 day trial of nod can be found here: http://www.eset.com/download/free_trial_download_int.php. Good luck with it.

Mac computers/laptops. They run hella fast, and you never have to worry about viruses.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/12/mac_malware_were_we_wrong.html

NOD32 + Ad-Aware combo

AVG

Hold on, the guy that's saying we need to install anti-virus software is part of an anti-virus software firm? That seems a bit fishy.

I'm not convinced, but I also don't look up shady sites or download anything from the internet except from reliable sources.

For a compulsive porn searcher, they might want to be a bit more cautious. :P

avira anti-virus is the one to get. It is very lightweight and was rated pretty high in terms of finding virusus. Each time it updates (once a day) you get a pop up ad to upgrade but it works great. I honestly don't see any speed hit from it at all.

from av-test.com:

"In terms of pure detection rates in on-demand scanning, a beta version of GDATA's AVK 2009 topped the charts for both 'malware' (measured against 1,164,662 samples) and 'ad- and spyware' (94,291 samples), with Avira's Premium Security Suite 2008 a close runner-up in the former category and F-Secure 2009 placing second in the latter. Secure Computing's Webwasher gateway product, based on the Avira engine with some in-house heuristics, came third in both categories. "

www.free-av.com

http://www.free-av.com/

End of discussion for me.  Avira is always at or near the top and is free.  It is updated every day -- sometimes twice.

nod32

Avast!