The Best PC protection you've found (at the lowest price)

There used to be a great thread linking updated AV software & firewalls to prevent PC issues and hacking may years back.
I’m not looking for it to be bumped; its too old or out of date. Still, if that thread were started brand new & today, what links would you recommend or post on it?

The free edition of Zonealarm has worked great for me for almost 10 years now. It has a program control section and where one can block such annoyances as the Adobe Updater. You’ll never hear a peep from it again.

It blocks all incoming attempts quietly and when you look at the log it’s amazing as you’ll see thousands of blocks it has made for you. It also has an immediate ‘shut the internet off’ feature which can come in handy.

It’s the first thing I install on any new computer in my house.

Microsoft Security Essentials, free. Starting a couple of years back this actually got really, really good and it’s the ‘default’ for most tech people that I know at the moment. Add MalWareBytes free or pro as needed. Those would be my first two installs on the proverbial “clueless grandparent on a computer” box.

I personally use Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials on different PCs and I really don’t see much of a difference between the two of them. They both work well and both aren’t bloated and neither one causes performance issues. Avast is annoyingly chatty by default, so the first thing I do after installing it is to put it in silent gaming mode (or whatever they call it). Other than that, no issues with either one. Both have caught the exact same viruses/malware that have been floating around the networks they have been on.

At home I exclusively use Avast just because if everything else is equal, I prefer not to use Microsoft. That’s just a personal opinion though based on how Microsoft does business. I don’t have any technical reason not to use MSE.

For most internet browsing type stuff at home though I use a linux box, just because by being linux it is immune to all of the windows specific viruses and malware out there, which is most (though not all) of it. If you prefer macs, they get mostly the same level of immunity for exactly the same reason.

ETA: Important note - I would recommend Avast or MSE over any commercial AV I have personally used, which are Norton, MacAfee, and especially Microsoft Forefront which had major performance issues (I described my system as running like a snail on sedatives any time Forefront decided to start scanning stuff).

This, and also use the built-in windows firewall. The OP doesn’t mention what OS is being used. Windows 8 has MSE built-in but earlier versions of Windows will need to download it separately. Then if I’m worried that something dodgy is going on, I run Malware Bytes. But I don’t have that running automatically.

Aside from that -

  1. Uninstall Java, or if you need it for something, at least uninstall the browser plugin.
  2. Use Adblock on your browser
  3. Use no-script or no-flash

Most malware comes in via the browser these days. Practice safe computing when you’re online.

This is assuming Ubuntu isn’t a possiblity? (because if your life is stored in Google, Chrome on Ubuntu is very much like Chrome on Windows)

Microsoft Security Essentials & an ad blocker for the browser are all I’ve ever needed.

Rollback RX is a different kind of security…

https://www.horizondatasys.com/en/products_and_solutions.aspx?ProductId=1

MSE and Malwarebytes Pro. The free version doesn’t help prevent infection; Pro is a one-time $25 (or less, I’ve seen it on sale for $12).