First…welcome to the forum. That said for a “newbie” I would suggest using default settings for now. When you are more acquainted with avast then you can always “create” a custom scan. But for now default settings are good. PUP (potentially unwanted programs) are pretty much root-kits. I have them on, some leave them off. I would strongly urge you to leave the “packers” settings alone. As far as frequency of scans some scan once a week, others more often. Personally I run a full system scan two times a week with a quick scan every other day. Other software which you may find useful are malwarebytes and super anti-spyware.

http://filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
http://filehippo.com/download_superantispyware/

Hope this helps. :slight_smile: