Symantec Norton Internet Security 2006

There's also a Security Inspector feature that, unlike the Trend Micro version, will look for browser insecurities, whether IM accounts are protected by Norton, verifies IP addresses linked to your Hosts file, Windows services, shared folders that shouldn't be, user rights and will even check the strength of your system passwords. Finally, there's the Norton ace in the hole: LiveUpdate. This remains one of the most efficient and easy-to-use updating tools, adopting a holistic approach to keeping all installed Norton products up to date.

This adds up to an impressive and reassuring package that's only beaten by ZoneAlarm for ease of use, and then only by the narrowest of margins. And it gets even stronger when paired with Norton's SystemWorks.