How do I know that my anti-virus is giving me protection?
I don't like to compare but, I know in IE it is showing me 2 things: 1 Site Advisor protection and anti virus protected.
Alle svar (2)
most of the antivirus program are control by system tray, if your Antivirus mark green and say protected then all is good, dont need to worry :)
Protection by AV software is never one hundred percent, so you should always be careful. AV programs do not catch everything (especially new threats) and if you click links too easily then you can always get infected.