Newbie, security Q

New member but big fan of W7 Vs newer MS . Any tips on best security methods since we no longer have support?
I have Malwarebytes & cccleanet

As SIW2 said, MSE is a good choice, for as long as MSE continues to support W7. Then use whatever 3rd party option that will work, assuming any will at that point.

My solution is to use W7 only for the one thing I need it for, music creation. I keep my music rig offline by default, only enabling the adapter as needed, for brief excursions related to my music stuff. I don't do my email on it, or random browsing. I use Linux for that, on another computer. I update MSE weekly. When it stops working, I may choose to just keep it offline all the time. no connection, no danger. As simple as that.

Jim smith said:

Any tips on best security methods since we no longer have support?

Don't be a worm wearing a clown hat ready to be eaten by the crows...

In other words, it doesn't matter if Windows is patched or not. Good Internet surfing habits and security hygiene go a long way...

For the most part, I don't even use updates. I don't subscribe to the patch Tuesday God. And guess what? I'm here to tell you that YOU CAN use an unpatched OS so long as you have good security hygiene. To most (who probably possess the thinking capacity that wearing a mask in the car is an absolute must) probably can't understand that statement. But you'll just have to believe me. Well, let me give you another real life fact other than my own use of Windows. I have my elderly parents use Windows 10 that is not only NOT patched, but there is no anti-virus either. I have them do what I do. Their browser runs in Sandboxie and all downloads are scanned at VirusTotal. The general consensus with VirusTotal though is four hits and you toss. But you should know how to read the Behaviors and Relations (if provided), and it depends on what you're scanning. Believe me when I tell you most anti-virus products now-a-days are not only a false sense of security hyped up by the masses (like Windows updates), but are a major privacy invasion. For one, an anti-virus has to stand in between your browser and the Internet for that so-called "online protection." So they are what amounts to being a man in the middle and sends all your data to AV headquarters. I stopped using anti-virus software circa 2015. Never got malware, never got hacked. And believe me when I tell you I run a tight ship beyond an anti-virus product. The only thing that might be on this and my other computers would be government level crap that somehow escaped VirusTotal and my monitoring of my network at home, processes, daily tallies of modified files across the hard drive, etc. So I guess since I run things this way I can go about things without a freaking anti-virus. To others you'd be better off scanning ALL downloads at VirusTotal and/or use ClamWin portable from portableapps.com. Which is great, but don't try using it for a whole hard drive scan. It'll take three and half millennia.

cccleanet

Is that suppose to be Ccleaner? If so, you are like everyone else that thinks that suckers piece of snake oil software is somehow an anti-virus. It is NOT! And God forbid you use it to clean the registry. Don't! You don't need to or want to unless it's for a specific reason and the left overs from an uninstalled program can be adequately tracked back to the registry. In lieu of Ccleaner I use SystemNinja mostly just prior to creating my periodic 1:1 full hard drive clone to another hard drive. I do that to help minimize (somewhat) the size of the clone. And for a really good program uninstaller I recommend Bulk Crap Uninstaller.