Looking for an Anti-Virus program for Windows

Criteria:

I don't want to notice any performance issues.

I want the updates to run by themselves, or at worst ask me if they should run. And saying yes is all the input I should have to give unless I want to give more.

I don't want to spend much money. I'll spend $30 per year for a noticeably better product, but free marginally better. Open source is fine, but not if it's written by people who take pride in interface incompatibilities with Windows. That is the operating system I choose to use and I expect my software to run smoothly on it.

As far as I know, Windows Defender, which I enabled when my OEM license for Norton ran out, is fine for a firewall and for protecting against spyware and adware. So I don't necessarily need a "suite," just an anti-virus program.

Microsoft's page lists the following vendors as options:

• AVG (geminigirl recently had to uninstall it for incompatibility issues: 1 demerit
• Windows Live OneCare (I'm guessing it's somebody else's product with Microsoft branding and an increased price, but I suppose it should have few incompatibility issues and relatively good on-line documentation.
• CA (I assume that's Computer Associates.)
• (Never heard of it.)
• Trend Micro (I use their online tool, which is a great concept and still useful, but isn't well maintained.)
• F-Secure (I don't know them.)
• ZoneAlarm by Check Point (I used them several years ago and had no complaints. I they're reasonably priced and I get no conflicting advice, I'll probably use them again.)
• Kaspersky Lab (Them, either.)
• Panda Security (I had very bad performance issues with them on a previous computer: 2 demerits.)
• Norton from Symantic (seemed to work well enough when I had a license for it. I've read bad things about it re performance and it being bloatware, and I don't know whether that represents real problems or the bloviating of those who denigrate the leading paid software whenever there's a free alternative.)
• BitDefender (I don't know them, or the next two.)
• Vision Power
• K7 Computing (The subtitle in the logo is in Japanese (I think) which is probably not a good sign for English support and documentation.)
• McAfee (I've read some of the same stuff as about Norton, with the same caveats.)

What is "i.[anything].com.com?

I can't get to CNet. The page is forever loading, with a message saying "transferring data from i.i.com.com..." I googled i.i.com.com and the only link was for TechRepublic with a techrepublic.com.com address. I clicked on the link and now that too is forever loading, first with a message saying "transferring data from i.zdnet.com.com..." and now saying "transferring data from i.i.techrepublic.com.com..."

I can get to cnet.co.uk, for what it's worth. Can the rest of you get to CNet, or is it just me? And what is this i.i.com.com shit?

Help!

Microsoft says I need to borrow a Vista DVD to repair corrupted system and log files, otherwise I won't be able to install Service Pack 1 (I've tried intermittently for a year) without help from Sony and probably losing all my data.

So, do any of you in New Jersey have a Vista DVD? If you upgraded to Vista (a silly thing to do under most circumstances) than you probably do. If you bought a computer with Vista already loaded (not a silly thing, nuder most circumstances) than it depends on the brand. Sony and HP, for instance, don't provide disks.

Without SP1, I can't install the anti-virus software I bought.