I primarily use Windows 7 as my OS with Firefox as a browser, I do use Avast free version and have been using it for last 10 years.
In last few years, virus and malware have been rare for me. Firefox blocks most of the tracking scripts and avast do stop any phishing or malware javascripts.
I personally prefer to not upgrade to windows 10/11 and Windows 7 is serving my purpose well, all the software I use/download are either from official website or from github release archives. My documents have scripts and macros disabled by default. I keep eye on every startup items, background processes and any unwanted resource hogging processes.
I tried to switch to linux for this purpose, but I needed to hack many configs and find drivers with updates. So, I went back with windows 7.
In last few years, virus and malware have been rare for me. Firefox blocks most of the tracking scripts and avast do stop any phishing or malware javascripts.
I personally prefer to not upgrade to windows 10/11 and Windows 7 is serving my purpose well, all the software I use/download are either from official website or from github release archives. My documents have scripts and macros disabled by default. I keep eye on every startup items, background processes and any unwanted resource hogging processes.
I tried to switch to linux for this purpose, but I needed to hack many configs and find drivers with updates. So, I went back with windows 7.