How do I protect my PC?

You really don’t have to buy an antivirus , just be smart and install Malewarebytes as well and it is free, you can get it at Cnet downloads and make sure you keep both updated regularly and do scan your system at least once a week, PLUS DO NOT open any Emaill your not sure about and you will be fine.

Norton, Avast do just great.

Don’t use Internet Explorer. Use Firefox and get the Adblock plus add-on.

Get rid of Avira. It does nothing. Real time protection is a gimmick. Get a good spyware/malware scanner like Malwarebytes anti malware or SUPERAntiSpyware.
Periodically do scans.

Lastly, NEVER, I repeat, NEVER use Norton or McAfee or any other paid/free antivirus that offers real time protection. They are a waste of money/time and offer nothing but trouble. Norton and McAfee should both be considered a virus as they are near impossible to completely remove once installed.

I ditched antivirus programs years ago and haven’t had a single virus. It all comes down to being smart with where you surf. Don’t visit shady websites and don’t download from anywhere but a trusted source.

I am a big fan of Advanced System Care It’s a great all in one computer care optimizer program with a great set of tools for tweaking your system that anyone can use..

Avast Anti-Spybot is great.

CCleaner is good for finding and dealing with registry issues.

Both are, to my knowledge, free.

My mom went to prison right before the internet got popular. She got out ten years later. So in 2006 she got a computer with Windows XP. Constant infections. She was using IE and she pretty much clicked on everything. I was getting a few calls a week to come over and help.

It got to where I said that if she used IE I would charge her 35 per hour to fix it. She was convinced IE was the Internet. It cost her around a thousand dollars but now she uses Firefox. That was the first part.

Second part was email. NEVER CLICK ON EMAIL ATTACHMENTS unless are expecting it.

That took a few years to pound into her head.

Third: Install Ad-Bock plus/edge.

Forth: Install MSE. It is free and doesn’t constantly bug you or slow down your computer.

So eight years later she is now on Windows 7 and has only bugged me for hardware problems in the last few years.

Avira is a great choice, but, I recommend to boost up the security by using an additional compatible antivirus software like Immunet. This will keep your system secure from any threats.

Thanks for the help. I’m still thinking, but you’ve given me things to think about!