Anti-Virus

Okay, time to get the current state of the A/V game.  I've been using
AVG's free edition until I found something really nasty today.  After a
certain point, the program goes into a mode where it checks 99 files and
then pauses a random amount of time.  Since AVG considers every class
embedded inside every JAR file to be a "file", as far as AVG is
concerned WDSC contains hundreds of thousands of files.  I have two
copies of WDSC, three Java SDKs and a copy of Eclipse on my machine; AVG
is up to 2 million files and the pause is up to 16-30 seconds.  Since it
takes roughly a half a second to scan 99 files, that means I'm spending
>95% of my time hanging.

If AVG is willing to stick this kind of malware in their software, how
can I trust them for anything else?

So, time for the opinion poll: who's got the best A/V software out
there?  Is there a worthwhile free edition, or how much will I have to
spend?  Will it handle multiple machines?  Is it easy to schedule
off-hours scans?  Can I eliminate folders from the scan process?

Anything else you think is appropriate is welcomed.

Joe