Active Malware Protection

After finally getting rid of all Conduit traces on my computer only just yesterday, I found out that I had been infected with “Great Arcade Hits” malware after trying to discover why my flash player wasn’t working on some sites. The only software I installed was an update for Adobe Reader which I found out during the middle of installation was installing some McAfee crap which I then had to uninstall, and MCShield. I also added a couple extensions to Chrome. Anybody aware of where this came from in any of my installations? Isn’t there some way that I can protect myself from this stuff installing on my computer pro-actively? It would seem to me that is what Avast is supposed to do now that it advertises malware protection as well. Are there any better anti-virus programs that do this? How about NoScript or it’s equivalent for Chrome? I’m tired of wasting time trying to root out this garbage. I need some active protection, and if Avast can’t do it, I need to go where I can get it.

Set Avast to scan for PUP’s

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/pups.JPG

By the way as far as I am aware no antivirus proactively scans for pups http://blog.avast.com/2013/07/09/shady-practices-of-free-download-servers/

Also check this small programme out Unchecky http://rammichael.com/

By the way as far as I am aware no antivirus proactively scans for pups.......
Norman does...

Why isn’t that box checked as a default? It seems everybody would want that on anyway.

Why isn't that box checked as a default? It seems everybody would want that on anyway.
bc they are not virus...

some AV have it on by default, some dont, and some detect them and warn you but dont remove them before you click yes or select them for removal after a scan

avast PUP scan also detect some factory installed programs from Thosiba / Dell / HP as PUP bc of what they can do
so when avast detect a PUP be sure you know what it is before you take action … i recomend letting Malwarebytes handle the PUP as it only targets crap