Preventing malware

Saw some historic posts of users struggling with malware so I'll list some methods to prevent that:

Malwarebytes pro: will actively protect you if your download link is fishy, very useful if you're using sketchy sites with random popups. Not sure how their free trial works but it's a month, and I've somehow used it 7 or 8 times if memory serves before I bought the pro. Malwarebytes free is good enough if you take other precautions and don't need the active protection


Brave Browser: will block most of the annoying pop-ups in the first place. It's free


Sophos Scan & Clean: if the Malwarebytes scan misses it, this will likely find it. It's free

Windows firewall: reset this to default. If you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't have port exceptions. Even if you know what you're doing, set the exceptions for port forwarding to only function when you're actually hosting your server

If you're not on Windows: get a firewall, a good free one is "TinyWall". If you have windows firewall and need a tool to configure it easily then get "Windows Firewall Control"

Lastly: if you know you're navigating sketchy sites, take it slow. Those sites are designed to trick you, with popups directly over the "download" buttons usually. If you do end up clicking something, don't panic click through the prompts. Just power cycle your PC and then start running the mentioned antivirus software