Free anti-virus or paid one ?

Should I use a free anti-virus or go for a paid one?

One of the best free anti-virus programs is offered by Microsoft itself - to users of genuine Windows (Windows XP SP2 and later). Its called Microsoft Security Essentials and you can download it fromwww.microsoft.com/security. 

Before it installs, Microsoft Security Essentials validates your Windows install to make sure that it is genuine. 

It is preferred over others, because it is effective and has a very small footprint (consumes fewer system resources while running). Like the other paid anti-virus programs, it offers real-time protection and stays automatically updated with the latest virus definitions. 

To download an anti-virus program on a new laptop - you can connect it to the internet and go straight to the anti-virus website you want. The machine will not be infected with a virus just by connecting it to the Internet. 

If you are still paranoid, you can always download the setup file of an anti-virus program to a USB drive using another computer and install it on the new laptop.