With regards to MSE, even Microsoft admit that its not much good

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Admits-That-Security-Essentials-Is-Just-a-Basic-Anti-Virus-Product-386213.shtml

Thanks a lot for the contributions everyone. Some very nice suggestions there. This is all taking a lot longer than I thought, including an odd 200 Windows updates.

How come people are using 7Zip instead of Winrar? I have personally always used the latter.

I admittedly don't care much about antivirus software, but that's mostly because I'm pretty abstinent about internet usage. I don't go to potentially harmful sites or download potentially harmful things. My computer's never had any noticeable problems and I've just never had a reason to install anything else.

No one likes buying software that should be free, and no one likes dealing with the annoying pop-up reminder after 40 days every time you open an archive.

Daemon tools is still great for emulating games like the original Diablo. From my experience, you really have to be careful when you install it.

If Microsoft has it's way you can kiss all types of emulation goodbye. I wish I knew some decent CD cloning software, but sadly I so not.

I have used these for many years, and they work great! Nope, they install spyware without asking. So if you installed Daemon Tools (since version 4.something) you have spyware on your machine. This includes the Lite editions.

7zip is nice because it's free and you can do many simple tasks with a "right click" contextual menu.

edit:
The lack of nagware and ability to perform most tasks with a right click from windows explorer allow 7zip to fade into the OS. I never hesitate to install 7zip on any windows box I use.

Yeah, and Winrar is nagware, but still has the context menu

Alcohol 52% and Avast for me too.

edit:

I regulary run a Malwarebytes scan too.

Avira is good free Antivirus. Though, I never install a fully resident scanner as it sucks up resources. I just install the explorer integrated scanner and, post-install, disable any services associated with it. Then I accept it as my responsibility to manually scan any potential executable files prior to running them. All this takes is a bit of common sense and safe computing habits. A full-time resident scanner would be maddening to me.

Also, Malwarebytes is another good free manual scanner worth having on your PC. Spybot is a good third option. I have all 3 installed at all times on all my PC's. Never count on a single piece of software to do it all.

MagicDisc is what I use.

Alcohol52% - for moutning, imaging, bypassing cd/dvd-based DRM systems

BurnAware Free - for occassionally burning cd/dvd
Avira - antivirus
Sandboxie - to create test enviroment for applications
Foxit Reader - for PDFs
7zip - all-purpose packing/unpacking

here a list a freeware (whithout crappy third party stuff inside) -> if there is one they warn you ^^

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-cd-emulator.htm

there are plenty others sections, this site is great ;)

Can someone explain what is this spyware in Daemon Tools Lite that is installed? I know there is a toolbar but it's optional. I searched but couldn't find a definitive answer that stated "it has spyware/adware installed without your permission and this is it".

For antivirus I use Avast Free (http://www.avast.com/en-eu/index) and Malwarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/). It seems to work ok.

As it happens, when I yesterday ran Malwarebytes on my older XP machine, this time it recognized some older DaemonTools installation files as malware. :) I haven't installed Daemon Tools on that PC (but the free Alcohol), but I happened to have some older DaemonTools installers lying around on the hard drive.

Funny thing though, I think I ran a Malwarebytes scan on that same PC some weeks ago, and I don't think it considered DT as malware back then? So is this a new revelation to Malwarebytes?

MS Security Essentials doesn't seem to mind DT...


Some mention Avira Antivir, but I stopped using and recommending it to everyone after I had to clean one PC from a ransomware trojan (called "Security Sphere 2012", ie. it was a fake "antivirus" trojan), which Avira apparently failed to catch and prevent. Avira still seemed to think everything is fine, when the trojan was running amok.

Getting rid of that trojan was a real bitch, lots of overlapping manual steps needed in safe mode, editing files manually etc. Malwarebytes was also unable to get rid of it, but I think it at least recognized it.

Idk, maybe it isn't malware per sé but a potential security leak, Malwarebytes can be pretty paranoid at times.
You could always upload it to Virustotal if you don't trust it.