Yep viruses have evolved a lot since 2012, to me worst of all are spywares, Adwares, Malwares, Spamware, Rootkits, Ransomwares, Boot sectors or worse Bios Virus. (I actually never had the latter)Disclaimer: Not everything can be effective or some of the software can tamper with your OS files as well. If you feel like you have wasted your time on this, you can ask several forums in Mcafee, MajorGeek or Bleepingcomputers for help in complicated situations
So just for to be aware for your everyday purposes for PCs with Windows 10 (here's a secret, Windows 10 is a virus itself cause it sucks)
Here are my lists of helpful tips:
1. Browsers: Well, well one day you install an add-on, you try it. Guess what it's feeding your PC with PUM or PUP (Potentially unwanted modifications or programs). You start off cleaning by removing the add-on itself, that's it is over......if only it was that easy
it's still left some stuff viruses don't die easily, so you have certain tools like Adwcleaner or JRT for removing any adwares from browsers or remote viruses in drives and registries. If you've used Malwarebytes, either after removing virus or not finding one it didn't finish the job then comes the second in-command antivirus HitmanPro. Roguekiller also does better job against what I mentioned earlier about registries but sadly new version does not reset host file and host file should be reset everytime you clean your PC up just to remove the DNS ip for safety measures. For that you could download Windows All-in one repair tool and reset.
2. Rootkits: I think these guys haven't made any noise recently, haven't seen one of these in a long time but if they're still around you have to eliminate those quickly. It's easier to do so by googling anti-rootkits. Such examples are Kaspersky's TDSS killer, Malwarebytes Anti-rootkit etc. But if your PC is already infected to full stakes. Then there's plan B which is AVG rescue kit. I'd highly suggest you install this in a flash drive as this is a bootable antivirus, it's by far effective for me since AVG is good tackling rootkits pretty well
3. Boot sector/MBR virus: I don't know how to basically wipe out sectors, there are easy ways to do so and have your OS reinstalled or just wipe them clean without any problems. There are methods there, however MBR viruses can be eliminated all you have to do is just boot into your windows flash drive and go to repair windows installations. There click on Command prompts and enter these commands
>Bootrec/rebuildbcd
>Bootrec/fixboot
>Bootrec/fixmbr
>exit
4. Paranoia of virus floods: Uggh I hate these, you can thank ISPs for distributing without any notice in your computer and just have it ruin your computer performance. I had this problem and cause of it I couldn't play my computer well enough for very long, I had to browse around the internet for solutions repeatedly and I didn't even know my ISP was doing this (Link3 you bastaaaaards) but did time catch up and finally we have ways to avoid that. You could go to your network sharing settings and do one thing. Turn everything off, do not allow your computer to share with your ISP's server at all. Use whatever I mentioned above for no. 1 to clean up and I forgot to mention you can use Spybot as well, it's a good detector for Spywares
5. Cloud scanning: Now imagine that, your antivirus definitions in your PC doesn't determine what's infecting your PC nowadays cloud computing does too. Such is Panda Cloud Cleaner, I had used it for mostly C drive scanning and it works wonders. It could find system;hijacks and so on even PUPs or Trojans.
6. Portable scanners: There are plenty to go around such like Dr. Web Cureit or using HitmanPro in portable manner in case you want to scan your friend's PC or elsewhere. Best are bootable antiviruses like the one I mentioned like AVG, another being Anvil Rescue Kit which is a good alternative, even Bitdefender Rescue Kit which can pretty much find everything. All you need is a flash drive and everything will work out smooth
Hints: There are services and running processes in your computer that's hiding in plain sight, they could do things like NSA spying on your stuff with their hidden cell agent files monitoring everythingif that is true. But jokes aside, I would suggest Hijackthis or Rkill helping out on this, some viruses are persistent and can hide in Recycle bin folders in every of your drives as well just unhide those since they're your windows operating system files and deleted everything in the folder. these have proven useful. More are coming, I'll update this as much as possible any other suggestions would be nice
Btw this is coming from a guy who has chronic headache 24/7, with liver and kidney issues as well as uncontrollable anxiety from stomach illness. This wasn't easy and I lost like good gaming hours for this so please give credit where it's due
List of tools to help against viruses:
-Adwcleaner
-AVG Rescue Kit
-Anvi Rescue CD
-Spybot
-Super Anti-spyware
-HitmanPro
-Roguekiller
-Rkill
-Junkware removal tool
-Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit
-Ccleaner
-Eset Online Scanner