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.
No it would infect wine, not Linux.
Anyway I can see your point, but just in case the OP wants to try a different operating system where you don’t have these problems, it’s good to know about Linux.
There are virus scanners for it, sure, but they are hardly used outside of enterprise environments and there is almost no virus writers targeting Linux. It’s a different world.
Once you try it, you don’t want to go back to Windows.
WINE isn’t a container, it will hijack your data.
Of course it’s not a container but wine is a windows emulator running in Linux. So wine will be infected, which means your windows apps may be infected also.
Wine = Wine is not an Emulator
It’s a compatibility layer.
Your files are still fully visible to the Malware so if it is trying for example to encrypt all of them it can. If it targets smth like System32 then you would be safe since that would only affect wine and apps running under it. So depends on the Type of Malware.
Edit: Most Malware Target the entire System so exes are a danger for Linux when using WINE
Thanks, that’s the correct word.