I'm in the process of rebuilding this laptop now I've finally got a replacement HDD. I've been happy using zonealarm for years now, but it looks like the newest version they've released in the last few days now has antivirus (free) built-in. There also seem to be a lot of complaints about crashes, conflicts and incompatability. Rather than go through all this rigmarole myself I'm happy to try something new on recommendation. So what are you all using for free firewall and anti-virus?

Windows Firewall, Microsoft Security Essentials and common sense.

Failing that, Windows Firewall and Avira free edition.

Anti virus, I use avast on recommendation from people on here as avg was starting to get resource hungry. Firewall I don't bother with as I have a router.

Personally I use Clam and UFW - which doesn't help you very much

As for Windows, I usually go for MS Essentials for AV and don't bother with a firewall.

Cheers guys. I'll put some faith in MS for a change.