Looking for a better anti-virus program, but don't feel like shelling out any money? You might want to take a look at Active Virus Shield. Although this freeware bears the AOL moniker, it's basically a rebranded Kapersky Labs product.

Active Virus Shield doesn't take up much memory, runs a series of different scans, and can detect spyware as well as viruses. The downside is that up until now it was Windows XP only. Install it on a computer running Windows Vista and you'll be greeted with a BSOD, which could cause you to waste about two hours of your day using system restore and trying to uninstall/reinstall your previous anti-virus software. Not that we speak from experience.

And that's why we're not linking to the official download site right now. Because while AOL has released a new version that runs like a dream. But it's not available on the official download site. But Neowin and Softpedia seem to have the updated version. You'll also need to sign up for a free activation code. But we recommend doing that after you download the file (which should be AVS_v25.exe, not AVS.exe), just to make sure you don't accidentally download the wrong file from AOL. Of course, if you're running Windows XP, download any version you like.

[via CyberNet]