the free products like Avast free are generally superior to the bloated intrusive big name products. I use and recommend Avast free, the only gripe I have with it is the loud update announcement that apparently can't be turned off. I also use avast! Antivirus. It's great! The update announcement can indeed be turned off. I'm not at home so I can't tell you exactly, but if you have merged the program and database icons into one in the notification area like I have, right click it and choose preferences or options or whatever they call it, I can't remember. There is an option in there to turn off all sounds. I also highly recommend not using the confusing, default skin (select "minimal" during installation…after installation, there's an option somewhere in the same place to turn it off.) With these three settings and automatic updating, avast! is the least intrusive, simplest, most pleasant free antivirus software there is, in my opinion. If you need paid antivirus (corporate), let me push NOD32.