iv had my sony vio about 3 maybe 4 yrs now, solid n heavy, i dropped it still working, but minus 1 damaged usb slot , only got the 1 that works now, as it only had 2 slots,came with vista ,(vista was a big let down used a lot of resorce slowed things down) i upgraded ram and installed 7 very nice no complaints,, security software i dont pay, for years and i highly recomend, avast antivirus, pc tools firewall,
note that all antivirus and firewalls do let some monsters past, such as trojens worms ect , they not perfect, i use emisoft anti malware has to be updated and start manualy , but its a good extra it has been good to me , taken out the odd worm that nothing else seemed to be able to, and any trojens , i recomend this highly a free version, another usful tool is windows live one care online safty scanner, free to use, again very good, always make sure java and other such programs are up to date so they do not become a securtity risk,windows scan will check them for you
