Windows 7: When Norton Internet Security expires....

is the free MSFT anti-virus program worthwhile?

Welcome
Most members, here, use and suggest Microsoft Security Essntials and a weekly scan with the free Malwarebytes. I use them too.

hmmm, so I guess I should leave NIS be, then uninstall..it's up Oct 17.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/nort...=1&pvid=f-home

When you decide to uninstall Norton Internet Security.
MSE, is well worth it. I personally use it on my laptop because it's very light weight and that laptop is used for gaming.

My desktop uses Avast 7.0 Free anti virus.

Whatever anti virus you decide to use, is really up to you. It really becomes a personal thing. One day MSE may fail where Avast triumps and vice versa. That's pretty much the same with all Anti Virus. The main difference is Compatibility and system stability once an anti virus is install. MSE tends to have a much higher rate of stability and less installation failures.

When you remove NIS please remember to do so with the Norton Removal Tool. For that see https://www-secure.symantec.com/nort...=1&pvid=f-home.

Go with free solutions if you think they will be better than NIS but you can just get cheap versions ($25) of NIS 2011 (upgradeable to 2012) and input the new key when your current subscription expires. I have done this for quite a time now as I am quite content with the protection that NIS provides. Everyone has their own opinion and I know Norton is not exactly flavour of the month (year?) here but I have never been infected by malware.

I used MSE for a little while, but after I caught a couple of Viruses (fortunately I had images to recover), I went back to NIS - and I never visit any shady websites. Never had that type of problem with Norton. My wife uses it on her systems without any problem. But she is 'less adventures'.

If you plan to stop the Norton subscription, make sure you let them know. Else they will automatically book you for another 3 years.

To prevent your Norton subscription from being automatically renewed before it expires, log into your Norton account and deactivate the auto-renewal feature.
http://www.symantec.com/support/cancel.html
Note: if you want to activate this feature again, you will have to contact Symantec Customer Support.

I use a paid program on my systems, NOD32 is what I use.
I put MSE on systems I build and repair if the customer doesn't want to purchase an anti-virus app.