Never pay money for something that should be available from your quality retailer or manufacturer for a nominal price.
Also, use "the Google" to search for reviews of any software you intend to install on your computer, and I mean ANY software. Do the searches, before you install anything.
There are hundreds of computer security and anti-virus anti-trojan, anti-bad-stuff to be purchased on the internet, or elsewhere, from TV commercials, etc. Most of it is just made-over junk, six months old, works very slow, or doesn't work at-all after the first scan without you paying $.
Don't pay money unless you have to. Buy a two year extended hardware contract from your retailer if you have to, in order to get your computer fixed within a week at your local big-box store, but just about everything else is available free, or for a small add-on cost to the purchase of your computer. If you expect your $500 laptop to last more than 3 years, you don't know the value of a $. You spend five times as much time on your computer than you do in your car, and your car costs 20-40 times what your laptop costs, and costs hundreds in gas and oil and labor to maintain every year, your laptop costs almost zero to maintain for 2-4 years.
After 3 years, use your old laptop to store pictures and videos and files and records and old email, but don't expect it to last forever, back up old files of all types on flash drives.
For instance, Dell and Toshiba sell a one year subscription to a service that cleans your computer while you sleep, updates software, scans for everything, and warns you of phishing sites before you click and load them. That kind of peace of mind, for me, is worth $40 a year on my one-year-old Dell laptop which I take everywhere and plug into any network that will let me in, (colleges, airports, hotels, coffeeshops, etc.)
My anti-virus software is included in the price of that, and is updated almost daily. I don't buy "free" stuff that later asks me for $, I don't even open emails from places that tell me my software and virus stuff needs updating, or that my computer is running slow.
Stuff that is for sale, (or even that which has a free version with limited abilities to ferret out problems or to warn you about phishing sites, (there's only about 10 million sites that "phish" for your private info out there), just don't trust them. Get a reliable computer, get some manufacturer-recommended security software, and don't screw with what works.
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