Ok I know this may seem like a silly question?

I am curious to know what the difference is between buying a anti virus/ spyware and using a free one? Are there any benefits to the ones you buy versus the ones you get free? If so what? And which is the best? I saw Bit Fender in Wal Mart and thought about buying it but I need some reassurance a ''paid'' for one is any better..Thanks in advance and again excuse my ignorance, but I don't sit at a computer alot therefore, I don't know these things unless I ask:)

Ok I know this may seem like a silly question?ktm

You're going to get different responses depending on who answers the question. From my testing and my research, some paid antivirus programs can outperform the free ones, but the performance of some of the free ones is close enough to the paid programs that for the average user, it shouldn't make a difference.

For example, if you trust in the results of the US magazine PC World,

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130869...

Kaspersky Antivirus offers the best protection, while not slowing your PC down very much, while BitDefender's protection was close to Kaspersky, but slowed your system a lot. Meanwhile, the paid versions of two of the free programs (AVAST! and AVG) are farther down the list, but still performed better than one of the better known AV programs they tested, Trend Micro.

Looking at another respected publication that conducted recent testing, the UK's PC Pro