When I got my laptop last year, first thing is to delete the
whole Norton security suite. It eats up the CPU a lot. I relied 2-3
months on AVG Free but then switched to Avast Free. AVG and Avast
more or less the same security level but I just prefer Avast's
interface. So far on my com, Avast has only caught trojan horses
through real-time protection and no other threats through
scans.
For firewall, ditch the built-in windows firewall and install
Comodo Internet Security (also free), but when installing, choose
just the 'firewall-only' option since you would already have other
anti-virus & anti-spyware.
trojan horses by downloads?
Anyway, you wont be so lucky to scan out the trojan everytime,
every product has its flaw. You might want to use Sandboxie in
conjunction with avast.
I don't agree with you on this part. For a majority of users,
windows firewall is sufficient.
it provides full inbound protection, so unless you require outbound
protection, it is best to stay with Windows Firewall.
I would say that comparing 'firewall-only' OnlineArmor's free
version performs better.