New PC, need software advice

[Squeeeeeeeps]

Just installed Windows 10 on my first PC build and I would really appreciate some advice from the pros here

 

I'm looking for the best free Antivirus and Malware protections and PC Cleaners. I'm thinking of getting Advanced System Care, CCleaner, maybe Avast and Malwarebytes. 

 

I'm completely new to getting a new PC up and running, so any general advice or suggestions would also be greatly appreciated

I have already ran Windows update and tried to download all of the drivers, but I don't know if I got all of them or not...

 

ALSO: My system doesn't seem to be detecting my Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD...?

 

Thank you!

[X55]

2 hours ago, Squeeeeeeeps said:

My system doesn't seem to be detecting my Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD...?

Does it have a partition? Press Win+R, put in "diskmgmt.msc", hit enter and look in the bottom if there's a disk that doesn't have a partition and is about 1000 GB big.

[cole0622]

multiple AVs on a single computer may not be the most desirable and cause conflicts. I use sophos home on my devices as its free and supports up to 10 devices also from the testing I have done it does a good job, malware bytes is also a good one, I haven't used avast. I think CCleaner is just a waist of space and time

[seagate_surfer]

Yeah, Disk Manager and the Avast is ok, their paid version only adds remote technical support to your computer (and includes ads removal ) but that´s technically not software related, the application works the same free or paid versions.

[adfaklsdjf]

We may reaching a point where anti-virus is considered harmful: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/antivirus-is-bad/

The low-level system access AV software requires to do its job introduces its own vector of attack.

 

AV software does not catch all malware attacks.  As just one example, WannaCry got past AV software (links to more info in the accepted answer on that page).

AV software does not protect against other types of attacks, e.g. phishing.

 

Windows Defender is Pretty Good™, and Microsoft already has low-level access to the system.  I think Defender is still worth running, but I don't recommend any other antivirus programs.

 

The most important defensive measures you can take are: exercise judgment and critical thinking in the sites you browse and software you run, take backups of your system and files, and apply the latest system updates (which is pretty automatic these days).  There are non-free services like Backblaze and Carbonite that make backups automatic.

 

Another (more advanced) defensive technique is to do anything you're unsure about in a virtual machine; VirtualBox is free and Pretty Good™.

[LogicalDrm]

As previous customer for IObit stuff, steer clear from those. Free ones don't actually do anything really beneficial, and paid ones don't really do that much either. So overall you get more annoyance than good. So no ASC, Uninstaller, Game Booster, Driver Booster, Smart Defrag or anything else from them.

[Mark Kaine]

20 hours ago, Caroline said:

I warn you, free AVs are shit

Windows defender and Malwarebytes aren't "shit" lol.

 

That's actually my recommendation to the OP,  another advantage is that you can have both installed at the same time and they don't conflict,  that's because Malwarebytes is technically not an AV. 

 

I would also stay away from any and all "PC cleaners" they often do more bad than good. 

[foxxyman]

get razer cortex, if you haven't