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We dumped McAfee too. AVG subscription worked OK, but when we wanted to step down from two computers to just one, there was no way to do it. We could have just canceled the account and opened a new one, but that motivated me to swap over to a system I like better.
ZoneAlarm Free from zonealarm.com. The new free version nags you to upgrade about once a month but it fucks off with a click. Older versions didn't do that. Either way, lock that fucker down to full unabomber status including all ports, windows processes, and programs. Then unlock them one at a time as you bump into the need. Only a few windows processes need to touch the web. After a few days you rarely have to mess with it again.
Spybot Search & Destroy from Safer Networking. Be sure to install their Tea Timer system settings protector and do the browser immunization. It also has a right click menu item to scan files and folders. Email attachments get downloaded only from trusted sources and scanned before opening. Update Spybot weekly and schedule a scan for the middle of the night.
Finally, turn off all windows processes and services that you don't need, starting with uPnP and remote desktop. There are lists available on the web that show minimal, middle of the road, and full boat sets of services. I go minimal with a few exceptions. Also delete everything possible from your Startup program folder and do a Sysedit to have a goggle at your startup config files. Last but not least, do a Regedit and search for 'Runonce'. The entry just above will the called 'Run', and it's another place for startup programs to hide. Kill everything in there that you don't need. In Win7 you do this search again as there are two of them. You might want to set a restore point if you're not familiar with Regedit.
Firefox web browser with NoScript and Adblock. Also remember to do the Spybot immunize thing.
And that's it. The firewall blocks a lot of traffic. I avoid applications that require me to open ports or act as a server. I don't hang out on hacker sites and try to avoid downloading skeevy shareware. I don't download any software off torrents, although I will snag movies and documents. There are those who snort and tell me I'm just begging for trouble, but I haven't had a virus or successful attack in more than a decade.
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