Setting Up Antivirus And Antimalware For Home Computers (Windows)

In this guide I will describe the basic steps on how to install and configure virus and malware protection on a new (or reloaded) Windows computer.  Use of this information is *at your own risk* and I am not responsible for any damages or losses you may cause by using this information.

Most of the time, computers will come preloaded with a trial version of an antivirus program.  It is important that you uninstall this trial software if it exists on your computer, before following these instructions.

After you have uninstalled any antivirus or antimalware trial software, restart your computer (to ensure it is completely removed).

There are three pieces of software I recommend you to install on your computer:

1.  Avast Antivirus.  This is a good, free antivirus program.  There are many free antivirus (and, I have tried a lot of them), and right now I personally feel this is the best one available.  You can download it from here:

https://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download



2.  Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.  MBAM as it is often called, is a great program that will help catch things like "spyware" - which are not always picked up by antivirus programs.  You can download it here:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/



3.  CCleaner.  This is a good program to remove temporary files from your computer.  Why am I including this in a post about antivirus?  Well, simply put - many pieces of malware will hide themselves in your temporary files directory, in order to avoid detection.  By using this program, you can ensure that temp files are properly deleted (and, therefore, not give malware a place to hide).  You can download this free program here:

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner


Note that there are paid versions of each of these programs.  If you want to use a paid version, that is fine too - however, the free ones offer a good level of protection that will help to protect your computer (as long as you are also following safe computing habits).

These programs will configure themselves to auto-monitor your system.  In the case of MBAM and CCleaner, I disable these auto-monitor features, and typically run them once per month (as a checkup), in order to keep the impact to the performance of my computer down.  You can either do this, or allow them to run in the background, either way is fine.

Remember that in addition to these programs, you also need to make sure to allow Windows Updates to install as needed - this is just as important as running antivirus, to ensure your computer is up to date and protected.