Last night I finally had it with TrendMicro’s Intertnet Security Suite. The anti-virus software has been bothering too much and I finally kicked it off my laptop. Too often it blew when I was downloading email via POP3. It also blocked legitimate websites - without giving me an option to unblock it. The notes tell you where to go, but when I went there all options were grayed out or the feature was not even turned on so that I could not do anything about it. I understand that software needs to be updated every once in a while, but I have never had an anti-virus software requesting a reboot that often to apply updates. Another annoying thing were the weekly or bi-weekly full system scans it wanted. If you did not do that, the software showed up with a yellow warning flag. Since this is supposed to be real-time protection - why do I need to scan weekly? Does the software not trust itself anymore?

I have not yet decided what I am going to use on a permanent basis. I downloaded the free version of AVG, but I also downloaded Microsoft’s OneCare 2.0 and installed that first. They have a 90 Day Trial that you can use before buying. Too my surprise OneCare made a good first impression. It’s pretty speedy and (at least so far) not very intrusive. It seems to start up faster when powering on the laptop in the morning. I have not had enough time to test everything yet, but the weekened will give me plenty of time for that. If it sucks, I will switch to the free version of AVG. I don’t need Internet protection (website filtering, etc.). All I really care is a solid anti-virus/spyware protection solution.