Have to agree for the most part that if you are careful about your surfing/downloading habits, viruses aren't a problem. But I've tried virtually all of them over the years due to having other users (kids) in the house. After I built/networked PC's for all, MY computer didn't require anything more than a firewall. I had to constantly service the kids until they got wise enough to chill out on downloading every music player, weather bug, "free"ware. Still, I could never understand why I'd (in some cases) pay for AV software only to have it completely shut down if I didn't pay an annual "tax" to keep my license. Seems to me that what I bought was mine, should have kept working at some level. Nevertheless, I still have no way of knowing what's on a disk/flash that I receive and prefer to validate it's contents with a scan before opening it. I'm looking forward to giving MS latest offering a spin; I've used MS products since the '80's and figure that it will integrate more seamlessly with what my modest needs are without the huge footprint that all the others offer. We'll see......