John
I totally agree with Beep. Except for the "don't give a flying fart" part. I do listen to Beep. As for MSD I never leave home without it.

I only know this stuff through years of suffering at the hands of computer "geniuses" who through their arrogance and stubbornness made real bad decisions for company computers that I had to use. These guys go to school so they think they know it all but in the computer world sh*t changes so fast that unless you are a full time student and/or constantly watching all the tech blogs you can get out of date in an instant. I've known guys like that too and they are awesome but some guys... well, I won't go into it. I teach myself enough to survive based on the things I need to do. After I figured out how to deal with AVs and general security maintenance I laugh at what those "geniuses" who used to pull big salaries for made everyone go through.
 
AVG was a mighty powerful program for many years as far as blocking viruses... it would also completely cripple your system as it updated (which was constantly) or did anything other than sit idle. One I found out about Avast the performance difference was amazing and although it has slipped a little as far as effectiveness it still right near the top for virus detection/prevention... and those lists include paid programs like Kapersky.
 
The BEST anti virus protection in the world though still is common sense. Don't download stuff willy nilly (Windows shows whether a company is on their list of known and safe software providers). Don't visit crazy porn sites or click on every link you see and ESPECIALLY don't click on ads or popups. Don't open emails from people you don't know. Don't press the "Fart Button" or whatever other weird crap people send you. Always keep your Windows and your AVs up to date. Etc, etc...
 
Whatever... I paid a lot of money for my rig and I'm not exactly a computer tech so I opt to just be ultra cautious with it because that ounce of prevention can save a nightmare of problems down the road even if a lot of people say it's okay to connect your DAW to the tubes these days. Just not worth the risk.
 
One thing that should be noted about this particular thread is that the reason why something like a Cakewalk download can set off your AV is because the guys who write viruses do everything they can to disguise their crap as legitimate programs, registry entries and processes. That's how they evade detection. There is a very goo program called HiJackThis that details EVERYTHING that your computer is doing and allows you to inspect it all process by process. If you click on the Info button for the entries you see how certain things could be legitimate processes or something that is disguising itself as something legit. To me it's a little beyond my scope of education to really use it to its full extent but it is certainly eye opening and sometimes you find something where the Info dialog says "BAD BAD BAD!!! REMOVE NOW!!!"
 
Anyway... I should be cleaning my apartment or something. Cheers.

I use Microsoft Security Essentials for anti-virus.  (It's free from MS.)  I used to use Webroot but it let two really bad viruses into my system.  McAfee and Norton disrupted things so much that they were almost like viruses.  With all three of these I got false warnings on perfectly legitimate software, similar to what our OP is reporting.
 
I am not slamming those anti-virus companies: I know this is a complex area; but for a music machine, I have better luck with the free Windows program (and with using a cheap laptop for non music Internet stuff).
 
To each his own but that's where I am right now.
 
Good luck and sorry for your trouble.

Grem
I have used System Mechanic Pro for many years without it affecting any downloads from Cakewalk. It is a great program and very powerful and effective if you know how to use it.

So Spacey, you got a good program no matter what all these people assume from a amazon.com review.

That's good to hear Grem. I didn't plan on uninstalling based on Amazon reviews lol.
I have yet to learn all that it does and when it does it but I'll have a handle on it before this reload is finished.