I bought a new PC and need some advice please

HP 270 running windows 10, has 30 days McAfee livesafe antivirus. Should I get something more to keep the bugs out?

Install an ad blocker.  Done.

AVG free was my go to. I also ran Spybot S&D. No idea what is “good” anymore. 

Microsoft Security Essentials is generally considered a good way to go.  Auto update, not intrusive.

Make sure the system updates run!! (set to auto)

Use Flash blocker or run Chrome (which doesn't allow Flash)

I use uBlock Origin to stop most scripts from running.  It's easy to disable if it causes issue (generally doesn't)

I believe most of the damaging attacks are done via email these days.

 - DON'T click on any links unless you are SUPER sure!

 - DON'T open attachements unless you are SUPER sure!

Make sure your passwords are good (especially on a primary email). Use two -factor authentication (e.g. send text to confirm PW change) when possible.

Chrome is a huge security breach IMO, or at least it was the last time I'd used it (a bit before Win10 rolled out).  The way the ad blockers worked was a bit dumb.  With Firefox, the ads don't load.  With Chrome, the ads would load but not get displayed.  So if there were a malware infected ad, Chrome would happily load it and berk up your computer despite having "ad block".

As aircooled mentioned, Microsoft Defender is definitely good enough in Win10 unless you need something that "graces" you with its presence more often than necessary. I do occasionally use Spybot S&D and Malwarebytes for extra checks, but that's not strictly necessary.

I tend to use EFF's Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin and on FF, Facebook Container to, well, contain Facebook.

I read that if you set up an administrator , and sign in as a user , then most of the attacks will not go thru as it says you do not have permission to add a program , 

anyone know how true that is ?

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Exploits will steamroll right past that.

californiamilleghia said:

I read that if you set up an administrator , and sign in as a user , then most of the attacks will not go thru as it says you do not have permission to add a program , 

anyone know how true that is ?

It helps prevent you or someone else from doing something stupid within your profile, but yeah the heavy duty exploits don’t even need someone logged on, just a PC available on the internet.

californiamilleghia said:

I read that if you set up an administrator , and sign in as a user , then most of the attacks will not go thru as it says you do not have permission to add a program , 

anyone know how true that is ?

It can help to limit the damage when malware executes and is certainly a good idea, but it does nothing to prevent the initial infection. I set up my Windows computer like this - when I need to do something as admin, I just enter my admin username and password, similar to gksudo on Linux. Malware can't get past this limitation without a local privilege escalation exploit, but infecting one account is plenty enough for most malware.

Win10's built-in antivirus is plenty good enough, nothing more is needed.