I never really took that much interest in antivirus software. I always felt that it slowed down my computer and had a bunch of useless pop ups asking me to buy new upgrades. So, I deleted it from my computer. Looking back now, the pop up notifications were not all that annoying. I still don't know where I picked it up, but a nasty little virus infected my laptop computer. I tried to download some free antivirus software to get rid of it, but it attacked my web browser and would not let me download anything. I even went out and bought a hard copy of antivirus software, but when I went to install it, the virus completely shut down my operating system. After a complete system restore, my computer was up and running again. The only problem is that I lost everything. Now, I have downloaded new antirirus software and keep it updated, even if it does cost a little bit. I don't want to have another meltdown. I did learn another lesson through all of this. Backup files often!