Q: I walked into my computer room this morning and there was a message from McAfee about files that were missing. What should I do? I run McAfee on Windows XP.

A: I have no way of knowing which files are missing or why you received this error, but I’ll tell you how I would fix this situation: uninstall McAfee, reboot your computer, go online and download Microsoft’s free and very capable antivirus tool Security Essentials.

Install it.

Regardless of what you think about Microsoft, Security Essentials does a whole lot right—including not bugging the hell out of you with a bunch of false positives or messages about all the protection it’s giving you. The app is also easy on system resources.

Security Essentials is so good that I no longer see a reason to be paying any antivirus software maker an annual subscription fee to be using its product.

Don’t trust my opinion? There’s an interesting thread over on PhotoCamel about Security Essentials. Take a look.