3 - 12 month trials

Maybe this is old news? If so, go ahead and lock it or something

I just visited Microsoft's site, and it says:

So if you wanna try before you buy, this certainly should be enough time to evaluate the software.
Scroll down: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/downloads/default.mspx

 

It's old news in that these extended trial periods have been available through the link on the Microsoft website for quite some time, but it's always worth a BUMP

I did the F-Secure 6 month trial on one of my Windows machines which is just about coming to an end. I certainly can't complain for the price, and I might try McAfee next

Ned

 

Good.
12 + 6 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 30 months or 2.5 years, having the best AV scanners for free, when I try them one after another.
I hope I can re-start again

 

I can't comment on the others. EZ is also there and offers a year trial. I didn't care for it and ditched it after a month. Panda's offering doesn't have the TruPrevent technology, so I think it's an older version. Norton, which I'm now running, is the 2005 version.

I downloaded f-secure, but something happened (maybe because all I have is dialup and it's a big download). It was corrupted.

These aren't mentioned on the ms website, but I would take a look at Panda's new 2006 Beta/purchase offering. For $24.99 you can download the beta (good for another week or two) and when the final is released, you get the final release and the year license. The Platinum $29.99 I think has more features but I'm told is heavy on resources.

The Titanium for $24.99 is pretty light and has firewall, antivirus and antispyware and I don't know what else. Both have the TruPrevent technology. If I had thought about it, I'd probably have chosen this over Norton. Both also offer the free 2006 beta, but for the couple of weeks left isn't worth the time, in my opinion.