If you are not visiting dodgy sites looking for "educational" adult material or hooky software, the built in MS product is the best by some margin.
The biggest tips for security are not to be a first class idiot and lower UAC presets (if you do, you deserve to be banned from the Internet), and not run with an admin type account - always sign on as a limited user. Always. Trust me, your ego is significantly larger than your talent if you don't.
Other products don't really make sense on Windows, they slow it down, they consume vast resources, and they cause lots and lots of problems. The paid for ones have advantages in the enterprise world due to centralised reporting and control.
For all the gays creative types out there, remember that macOS needs AV as well, and Macs are now the fastest growing area for nasties - mostly because of the stupidity of its users believing they are immune.
Thanks that is what I was hoping to hear. I chose Malwarebytes as the pc guy I use suggested it - apparently it works happily alongside Windows protection without the slowdown. I have it on trial at the minute.
