Spybot run was clear, as was CCleaner. I've ditched Firefox for now as IE9 runs everything as it should now I've binned AVG etc and installed Microsoft Security Essentials. Thanks for all replies and help, there's nothing worse than something not working and being so bloody useless to resolve it!

My concern with MS essentials is being MS, will be highly targeted by hackers and *could* share exploits with windows.

My concern with MS essentials is being MS, will be highly targeted by hackers and *could* share exploits with windows.

I have no such concern.....Famous last words!

Seriously..If its designed and run by MS..I'm confident with it

I've followed the advice on here and loaded MS Essentials today and ditched AVG. Noticed that it is appreciably faster now.

My concern with MS essentials is being MS, will be highly targeted by hackers and *could* share exploits with windows.

MS didn't develop Security Essentials themselves. They did what MS normally do, look for a good product and buy the company.

MS security dept is actually pretty good. If you get a chance to go see their UK Chief Security Advisor speak it's well worth it. Ed "the FED" Gibson is very good speaker.

Edited 19 May, 201115 yr by Aspman

I've followed the advice on here and loaded MS Essentials today and ditched AVG. Noticed that it is appreciably faster now.

Good news. The computer guys I work with know their stuff with Windows. I get far fewer phone calls from my aged P's since I put them on MS Essentials. Works seamlessly on my windows partitions with much less load. AVG followed by Avast were earlier recommendations from them but no longer.

here are a few of the programs i use eset nod32 for anti virus,ccleaner,advanced system care 4 and malwarebytes

Upgraded AVG (to 2011), IE (to 9) and Firefox (to 4) on our home desktop runnig Vista during the weekend. No problems whatsoever. Maybe AVG has fixed some flaws in earlier versions.

As to the reliability of free AV software - depending on what test you read different programs come out on top but none of them will ever block every virus with 100 % warranty. With a reasonable amount of common sense on the web I doubt whether AVG is more (or less) risky than any other.

On the other hand, there's ample evidence that MS software can give you headache...

My main objection regarding WinSE is the limited config options. In Avast I like the idea that I can disable shields that I don't need. In AVG I like that I can disable warning pop-ups for disabled functions. Couldn't find the same options in SE (maybe they are hidden somewhere behind the menus). But that's only too typical of the Windows world where a lot of things run in the background and you'll have to spend hours finding ways to disable them and save memory.