what anti virus is recommended by the stw masses? needed for windows xp and windows 8. currently using ad-aware but its really slowing down the winxp machine.

I thought this post was going to relate to rusty radiator water.

Windows 8 includes one already- Defender

Happy with Microsoft Security essentials here on W7, also XP compat.

any one used spybot?

In case the OP didn’t know, XP goes end of life in April.

Oh and I didn’t think spybot was antivirus. It used to be a good anti malware program, but I’d suggest malwarebytes these days.

For windows 7 (so might not be quite whats needed on win 8 or xp):
Comodo anti-virus and firewall
Malware bytes
Spybot
And Avast

Have moved most of my own machines and my works machines to Ubuntu rather than windows – which runs nicely older machines.

Microsoft Security essentials and defender.