Do not trust Windows Defender !!! What Windows Anti-Virus are you using?

The only 100% way to know your machine is clean is a format and fresh install of Windows, or whatever OS you're running.
Actually that's not entirely true. There has been malware which installs on the motherboard or manages to hide itself on the harddisk. Such malware is very hard to write (I guess), so the majority of malware gets removed with format c:, but not 100%...
 
As someone that works in AV, most of the advice here is fairly good. Defender is better than nothing, but I suggest running a reputable AV - you get what you pay for, but the free AVs are still better than nothing. Windows 10 is by far the most secure Windows operating system - if you're still holding out on upgrading from Windows 7, Upgrade to 10 - it is worth it for the enhanced security.
 
Unless you're downloading shady or pirated software, or opening executable email attachments from unscrupulous sources, there's not really any reason to use AV. I haven't used it on any of my personal Windows machines ever, it just slows things down because it always has to scan files as they are being opened. I've never had a virus on any of them.
Assuming your computer is behind a firewall (if you have a WiFi router at home, it likely is) and has the latest security updates it's pretty unlikely you will ever get a virus.
 
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