Windows 7: Tips for NOT using an antivirus?

I made the leap about 3 years ago to uninstalling my AV software and have never looked back. The key is standard user accounts. Never logon to your system as an administrator. In XP use "run as" when needed which is nicely taken care of for you by the UAC in 7. Of course all the other best practices mentioned here apply too.

I went for a long time without an AV and probably still would if I didn't download stuff from people--even though it's mostly people I know, I'm still careful. I generally can't stand most AV's or Internet Security Suites. They are such hogs!

I've never even heard of these AV's you guys have mentioned on this thread, I use AVG Free simply just to scan anything I download and because I can barely tell it's running ever, no matter what machine I put it on. Are there better ones that run just as smooth, and are those free? Just curious, thanks.

Avira, not avast!