Can anyone advise on PC protection?

[Boco]

My laptop came with free mcafee trial, which ended today. Will my computer melt now that it is not protected? It costs £39.99 for a year - should I just renew it or is there anything better, cheaper, or more free available?

Thank you!

[dh1]

not used a pc for years but you could try downloading either AVG or Avast both of which are free anti virus software, both good.

I always preferred AVG but am told Avast is better... it has too many pfaffy pop ups for me.

[mrspnut]

How many computers do you have, which browser do you use and is it a PC or a MAC?

We use Trend Micro PC Cillin which is about £70 a year or 2 years but it covers three computers and is fantastic.

You could use a free product or even run a weekly free set of scans from Trend micro and spybot search and destroy but after the hassle of losing loads of stuff when our very old computer got a virus and needed a completely new hard disk, I'd rather pay.

[Boco]

Main computer is a mac and has never had any problems. Laptop is a PC and I keep getting all these alarming warnings to try to get me to renew mcafee.

I'll have a look at avg and avast, - thank you.

[BadgersPaws]

With the Mac you currently don't need to worry about anti-virus software, there aren't any viruses for Macs.

For the PC you urgently need to get some protection. A virus checker is only as good as it's last update, things change so quickly that you become increasingly vulnerable the more out of date it becomes.

The free options are meant to be really rather good so do have a look into them.