New laptop acquired, now onto configuring it...

[Ratsofat]

Hey all,

A while ago I posted a thread about getting a new laptop, and I ended up getting a spiffy Dell Inspiron 6400 for reelee cheep cause my friend works at Dell. Now I need some advice on things to install.

I have a copy of Office XP, but I was told that Office 2003 has some significant improvements?

A lot of people seem to be using AVG for their antivirus. Is it really that effective compared to Norton?

For spyware dealings, LeavePlz suggested Spyware Doctor and that seems to be working well on my old comp, but it's sort of cumbersome to use without registering for it. Any other suggestions?

Mozilla goes without saying, as well as my rockin' post-it note software and those Yahoo Widgets. Anything else I'm missing?

Thanks guys,

- Ratsofat

[Fitzy]

Don't use Norton. If you want to buy an anti-virus, use Bullguard. Norton chokes up computers like there's no tomorrow. For free anti-virus, use AVG or Nod32.

[Ratsofat]

Yeah, my dad shares this comp (the old one) and doesn't seem to realize just how much slower the computer runs when auto-protect is enabled. AVG seems pretty nice.