Most of the AVs out there have gone downhill in the past 10 years.

I personally can't recommend any third party AVs, paid, and especially free. There's other things, but at the end of the day if you do simple things like these, your AV will gather dust, since you'll avoid the majority of the common malware people get. Old software and outdated operating systems are prime targets for getting malware and hacked. Also make sure all of your software and Windows is up to date as soon as possible. Avoid scam emails and flag and delete any that seem fishy. Definitely avoid downloading attachments from emails if you can help it.

Many bundle extra crap, when say you want to download a web browser only. Avoid third party websites to download software. That means avoid pirating games and software, those are huge risks. You should learn what bad websites are, and to avoid them. You can whitelist sites you support, but I would let it block everything. You need to do things like run a good adblocker, and load up on anti malware lists. What I am getting at is you need to reduce your chances of getting infected, so you can be more at ease. You can't expect the AV to do everything. You can rely on an antivirus and anti malware program to do the work for you, but you should be the first line of defense. Along with the regular malware scanning, Malwarebytes is also capable of finding and removing spyware and rootkits.Honestly the best free AV is You. Some of the features of Malwarebytes include but not limited to high malware detection rate, customizable detection and protection settings, ability to lock down Malwarebytes settings, ability to exclude folders, files, and even websites, etc. Moreover, the user interface is pretty minimal and all the options are neatly categorized so that you don’t have to meddle back and forth. The good things about Malwarebytes are that it has a high detection rate and uses very low system resources. Malwarebytes Anti-malware is one of the most popular and most used anti-malware software for Windows. For instance, on my personal system I use Windows Defender as the primary anti-virus, Malwarebytes for occasional malware scanning, and GlassWire (free version) as the firewall.

Usually, they don’t interfere with each other. In case you are wondering, yes you can use an anti-malware tool alongside your anti-virus software. Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool

Free anti malware for windows 10