Sandboxie -
http://www.sandboxie.com/ - is a virtual environment security program, unequalled by any.
It is extremely user-friendly, is simple to configure, operates hidden and gives no trouble whatsoever. You never know it is there, similar to an ordinary AV program, but without any heart wrenching pop-ups and alerts.
Any threats which develop are confined to the sandbox and cannot enter your PC system, unless you personally allow them out of the sandbox in some infected download, which you do not virus check before download or running. All threats within the sandbox are eliminated on browser closure.
Unlike every AV available, which rely on ever-increasing data bases and are always out-of-date at the moment of update, Sandboxie does not have a data base and therefore has no problem keeping up with the enthusiastic hackers. There are no updates excepting occasional program changes, which are infrequent.
An AV and FW are still needed to prevent external theft of data and for those infrequent occasions you have to access the web without using Sandboxie.
Whilst it is necessary at times to open my browser unsandboxed, I never surf, it is almost always to trusted sites for a specific purpose. There are no conflicting problems between Sandboxie and an AV or FW.
Do not be put off by the Sandboxie "30 days trial". After 30 days, Sandboxie reverts to a basic free version, which I have been using for many years now with great success.
For the home or personal user, Sandboxie is the ultimate security program. It deals with bugs just a few seconds old as well as older established bugs. They are all restricted to a virtual environment.
Perfection is an impossibility, but Sandboxie comes close and offers a confident means of web surfing without becoming neurotic about baddies and bugs infecting your computer or being nervous about visiting a site.
Over 10 years using Sandboxie and visiting all kinds of risky sites, I have been to Hell and back many times and never had a single serious infection. Sandboxie is impregnable and it is free.
---------- Post added at 21:28 ---------- Previous post was at 20:55 ----------
An additional benefit to me as a Windows XP user is that I have no use for those incessant MS updates that perpetually clogged up my disk space with 1 GB of rubbish. Sandboxie takes care of all the security I have ever needed.
I stopped MS automatic updates bombarding my XP in August 2013 and have never looked back. MS`s public execution of XP on 8 April 2014 meant absolutely nothing to me.