No response so I give my experience: do not install those "malicious, fishy, bloating software"! that is the only effective way, i.e. increase vigilance!
I have not installed any anti-virus, anti-malware, ... for the past 4-5 years and have had no problem at all, although I have cleaned many viruses, crapware, malware from friends and family computers.
Just make sure nothing is installed without your permission (no auto-runs, and no next-next-next application install), read before installing anything, do a quick research on validity of the website and usefulness of application first.
Even the best anti-viruses usually misses new threats, and threats are not threats if they are outdated anyways.
The only thing anti-virus software gives is a false sense of security (increasing the chance of getting infected) and it eats more CPU than viruses themselves! maybe because good viruses/malware do not want to be detected and are written by better programmers.