It's been a long while since i used a desktop and honestly can't remember what antivirus software i used, and even then, probably the landscape has changed over the years.
Atm i've been winging it with just Windows Defender (no custom configuration) and scanning any thing that looks suspicious on VirusTotal, but probably that would be not enough.
I'm thinking on get a couple of pirated files, so i'd like to be as secure as possible.
After setting up the PC, search “defender” in the toolbar and poke around a little bit. The security settings are very intuitive, so I’m sure you can modify things to your liking.
Exactly the same as what I did (I think it was called Microsoft Security Essentials); things are a lot more locked-down these days, never had a virus or issue in many many years (then moved back to Apple).