i just bought a new notebook pre-installed with windows vista. i would like to know which free anti-virus software can i download from the internet. i have been trying most software from the internet but it is asking for the activitation key which i am unable to provide because i dont have a credit card to purchase it. could someone pls recomend me trusted anti-virus programe which i can download for free from the internet.

Both AVG and Avast are free and work with Vista. http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5#avg-anti-virus-free http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

AntiVir as well. http://www.free-av.com/

Yes but Vista does not recognize the anti-virus and the Security Centre tells me that I don't have an AV. I found fixes for XP but not yet for Vista. Any ideas?

I suggest you using Microsoft Windows Live OneCar AntiVirus www.windowsonecare.com Good luck

Avast in my opinion, is MUCH better at detecting virus files inside compressed (zip'd) archives. Even AVG's complete scan will NOT detect ALL infections inside the Zip files. And if the compressed files are .rar or other formats, AVG's odds of detection are even less. Next : Detection of email borne viruses in avg is at best average. If you have Outlook Wxpress 6 client as part of Windows XP, you could easily endup updownloading and saving some common email borne viruses. Its only at the time of extraction or saving the extracted infection that AVG gives a warning ! AVG even with using the Outlook Express plugin, u could download the virus to your machine as an eml file, and it wont even warn when you open the eml file. The free Avira lacks an email scanner; that's only available in the paid version.