Just paid to renew my 'internet security' (antivirus) license and in the process downloaded their 2007 version.

It runs terribly slow in comparison.

Check the reviews before renewing.

I re-installed 2006 and used the renewal serial number. This works. But I'd have purchased something else if I knew about the problems with 2007.

Try Avast! AV.. The home version is free, register is needed though. Free updates to the core and definition files upon registering.
It's a 10 MByte download so it'll be a slow download if you are on dial up. But it's a flyweight in comparison to what the others are.

http://www.avast.com

Thanks for the advice!

Avast looks like a winner.

After paying $45 for Trend Micro's license (it's good for 3 computers so that's only $15 each) and downloading the awful 2007 version I started looking for comparisons.

I found two very useful ones.

The first shows how effective the various software are at removing/preventing virus/malware infections.

Avast ranks better (http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82) (17th vs 27th!!) than Trend Micro (and it's free).

The other comparison is how much it slows down your computer (http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_really_slows_windows_down/5). They didn't benchmark TM2007, but Avast is much faster than TM2006 (10th VS 4th (higher is better)) and 2007 sucks.

I'm running this on a mediocre notebook celeron 1.7 gig with 512mb ram. The difference is astonishing. How they could release TM2007 without warning people is almost fraudulent.

But it seems any software you pay for has become bloatware. Ironically it seems to pay getting the free stuff.

I'll continue to run trend micro 2006 (it's installed, performs well, and has a good feature set that seems to protect teenage kid's PCs adequately) but next time the subscription expires, I'll try the free stuff first.

They are trying to do too much at once, so the software they developed is so bloated with code it'll bring all but the most hottest and latest of systems to their knees without much effort. And even then, the current systems are slowed down quite dramatically.

I'm just sorry that you got caught by that trap... May I suggest that you contact them for a refund, and make it quite clear as to why you are doing so?

Visiting TM's support site, they acknowledge (http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1033903&id=EN-1033903) there is a conflict with spybot causing extreme performance problems.

Spybot's people (http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?p=58078) see the same problem.

Tried Avast on one machine. The improvements over even TM PC-Cillin 2006 convinced me to use it. At this point I'll stay with avast. The cost factor (Free!) along with improved performance give it an advantage.

The only disadvantage I see with avast is the free version does not include a scheduler to perform unmonitored scans.

They have a built in module that will run when your screensaver is operating. All you have to do is open your display properties/screensaver and select the Avast! Antivirus option and configure your regular screensaver in it.

D'oh.

OK activated this. It's a clever feature, although I wish it had a scan 'frequency' setting. My desktop typically sits idle for hours each day so it's scanning itself daily.

I'm feeling a bit guilty over badmouthing PC-Cillin as much as I did. Still they did a poor job beta-testing if they didn't catch the conflict with Spybot. Not badly enough to try the work-around on my machine.

The kids' machines may get PC-Cillin 2007 (assuming the fix works) though, as they're running 2006 now and I have yet to encounter a problem. Prior to PC-Cillin 2006 I was spending hours each month de-lousing their machines (adware/spyware). I also like PC-Cillins URL filter. You can set this to prevent access to adult sites, hacking sites, etc. It wouldn't let them look at Victoria's Secret (or even Macy's lingerie) though. A bit of overkill.

I may use avast and see how long it takes them to download something awful. That'd be the true acid test.

yeah I tried restricting their user accounts, but that was too restrictive, they wound up needing the administrator account more often than not.

Avg for free is the best antivrus I have used so far. Not to mention it's free. My customers love it.