Looking for new AV/Security suit

I�ll be buying my first Window 8 system before the end of the month. I think it will ship preinstalled with a 60-day trial of Symantec�s AV and security suite. I used Symantec products for almost ten years until a paid-for annual update crashed an XP system, necessiting a clean install. Moreover, by that time the product was hogging resources. I don�t want to go for it again. I like Zone Alarm�s firewall but lack faith in its AV. What to go for? At he moment I�m looking at the following:

· BitDefender
· Panda
· Eset

I�d welcome your opinion of these products and alternatives

i used to use Panda but now i use Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 and have done for the past 2 years and im very happy.

No need to pay a dime for 3rd-party AV & FW. Win8 comes with decent AV and FW. Keeping on top of software patching is one of the most important tasks you can do these days. Secunia PSI will help you with this.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/tools-for-a-safer-pc/

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/05/krebss-3-basic-ru...

I had a bad experience with Kaspersky...but it was back in 2001 on a Win 2K platform! BitDefender is gettting good write ups in the PC press

I agree about the MS security patches but is the onboard security on Win 8 really that good? It's better since Win 7 but so far I havn't gone without my extra layers

It's a perfectly acceptable freeware solution. Other software including Java, etc, still needs to be patched as soon as updates are released, not just Microsoft products.

I'm happy with the free version of Comodo Internet Security Premium which I'm using with Windows XP.

If you decide to give the download ago, as with other software always tick the box for the custom installation so you can choose what to install from the Comodo download.

Thread to read from the Comodo forum.

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

I'm happy with the free version of Comodo Internet Security Premium which I'm using with Windows XP.

If you decide to give the download ago, as with other software always tick the box for the custom installation so you can choose what to install from the Comodo download.

Thread to read from the Comodo forum.

Agree 100% with that, unless of course one has a Barclays Bank account in which case Kaspersky IS would be another "free" alternative

In reply to a post by ARD:

I agree about the MS security patches but is the onboard security on Win 8 really that good? It's better since Win 7 but so far I havn't gone without my extra layers

Works fine if you ask me. I'm running it on all my computers at home and at work - no problems.

I use MSE and Windows firewall on my Win 7 machine. Found from experience that 3rd party AV programs can have bad definition updates that list a critical windows process as a virus and breaks your machine.