Questions about antivirus software ...

I have been reading reviews about antivirus software, and I just cannot make up my mind which software package to get.

So can you recommend what you use and why?

Thanks in advance.

It can be confusing reading reviews that others have written. Besides checking detection rates in independent tests, at the end I think it comes down to personal choice. The best thing is to try the products you're interested in, using free trials. One at a time of course, and use specific uninstallation tools from every vendor before trying the next one.

Having said that, I use F-Secure Internet Security. They have good detection rates, privacy policies, and I like their HIPS (Application monitor called Deepguard). I've tried other AV's but always gone back to F-Secure. And I like the fact that F-Secure develops new tools and products to further improve our safety and privacy, for example the free safe search: https://search.f-secure.com/
And I like their Chief Research Officer, Mikko Hypponen. Here's a recent video where he talks about Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93kdtAUn7g and here's his TED Talks video about NSA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CqVYUOjHLw Both very interesting IMO.
Also look at the policies at the bottom of https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/labs_global/about-labs

Whatever AV you decide, keep in mind that no product can protect you to 100%, and it's important to have different layers of security. I'd say that the most important layer is the user himself. Probably more important than the choice of AV.

You will get as many different recommendations as there are answers. Just pick one. None are perfect. If you really want to protect yourself, make frequent images and connect to the internet from a virtual Linux partition.

I appreciate the advice. I am still at a loss. I guess I will try some AV's that have a 30 day trial.

The best AV is your finger. Don't click on stuff that you don't know. Else, MSE should suffice.