MalwareBytes IS pretty amazing.
I'd got sick of how bloated anti-virus programs were, how many problems they introduced by hooking into the system, and how much they slowed down my computer. So I actually paid £30 for the premium version, which acts as an "antivirus replacement". It's pretty clever stuff, and doesn't cause any noticeable performance hit.
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwa...-3-0-a-next-generation-antivirus-replacement/
The free/premium MalwareBytes is good at cleaning up an infected system, but often leaves remnants of malware in web-browsers. The program
adwCleaner is really good at doing that. MalwareBytes actually bought it a year or so back, so you can download it from their website.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/
To really give your PC a good scan, the best way is to boot from a live antivirus CD/USB image. That way,
nothing on your PC's hard drive can run (including any sneaky malware trying to evade detection), making it easier for the antivirus to remove and clean up infections.
If you have
Avast, you can create a bootable
Rescue Disc from inside the program. Or you could just download and burn something like the
Avira Rescue System:
https://www.avira.com/en/download/product/avira-rescue-system
Finally, a really good way to avoid infections arising from web use is to install an ad-blocker. Most of them allow you to subscribe to blacklists of known malicious domains. A good ad-blocker for Chrome or Firefox is
uBlock Origin (not to be confused with uBlock).
Chrome add-on:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm?hl=en
Firefox add-on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
To enable malicious site blocking, you need to go into the settings, click the "3rd party filters tab", and tick the filters (blacklists) in the "malware domains" section.
