Ok, so which one should I get out the ones you recommended?

I am obviously not a computer guru.

I just wanted to be protected as I am downloading. I run a windows platform on a compaq presario. I just bought it a year ago.

256 mb sdram
40 gigs

I have also heard this virus program is good for scanning programs that are being downloaded, rather than having a program that scans programs that are already downloaded.

Avast antivirus

Have you heard of it?