I use it...

It's a lot better then McAffee in anycase.

Doesn't use nearly as many resources so your computer will run a lot faster.

I use NOD 32, it's fast and it doesn't use up a lot of resources. I don't think it works in Vista though.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Left the thread for a little while here so-

Selenis-  Thanks for helping me clearify nortons antivirus from norton's ghost. Guess that got missed.

To what you said above, backup drives can hold more than one copy of everything.  I have a back up saved for every week for the last month (I just delete the oldest ones once a month or so).  So if you end up installing or saving a version with a bug just delete it and reinstall an earlier version? 

To the original poster. As someone who has to have a working computer all of the time for business, I'll say it again.  A back up harddrive is the only "100%" was to make sure you don't get screwed.

I have tried my share of anti-virus, spyware, and other programs, and at some point they were all beaten by the newest bugs. I view them as unreliable, and as system resource hogs that interfere with the functioning of other networked programs (like the one I use for work). 

If you do use one, for God's sake please don't pay money for it, and just know that you are not really safe from losing your data.

where can i get it?

can i get at download.com?

@11 http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

I've used avast and it isn't bad for freeware. If you really want to protect your computer I say just cough up some money. I hate Norton though. It really slows down your computer. Mcafee is a bit better. Kaspersky still is the best imo. It doesn't slow down your computer as much and is highly rated. Look it up, every major site ranks it as the best and it is also the cheapest. I seriously think people just go with Norton cause they are familiar with the name.

My follow up: Depending on the software you use and how you set it up, you can have Ghost/Acronis make multiple backups of your HDD. You are restricted to the side of the HDD you are backing up to.

If you use the computer for business, I would recommend buying an antivirus solution. No antivirus software is virus immunity, but the paid ones have a better chance of keeping you protected. The top 3 antivirus makers are bitdefender, kaspersky and eset nod32. You should be able to download trial versions on thier websites. Also, If this computer you are protecting is for a business, you should not be carelessly browsing the internet anyway, so your risk from infection should be fairly low.

Avast rules. I never get any viruses since I installed it.

It does, I'm using it on Vista right now. Works great.  I like it a lot as well since it has such low overhead.

I used to have an older corporate version of F-secure which was a good low-resource antivirus too. The version I had didn't work with vista and the new ones are much more bloated =/

I've heard Avast gives a lot of false positives and then totally misses other things...

Overall NOD32 gets my vote!