Before going on about how my PC environment is set up in the workplace, I just want to link to an excellent post by Samer over at Freeware Genius. In that post he gives a very good overview of three of the most popular freeware antivirus applications: Avira Antivir, Avast! Home Edition, and AVG. There are those who feel that at this point in time Antivirus apps in general are ill-equipped to protect users from the current crop of malware in the wild (and are consequently nothing more than useless drain on precious system resources). While there is indeed a lot of truth in the skeptics' contention - with so many new kinds and variants of malware popping up everyday, it is impossible to put together an all-encompassing database for AVs to refer to - very good Antivirus apps still are able to provide a layer of security that manages to protect your system from at least a significant share of the existing malware. As long as one keeps in mind the limited kind of protection afforded by AVs - and supplements it with other utilities as part of a well-rounded security suite, not to mention responsible computing habits - there is a lot of value in keeping one installed in your computer (most especially if you use Windows).
I personally use and recommend the excellent Avira Antivir especially now that an Anti-spyware function has been integrated into the free edition.
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