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First off you must understand the basic law of security. Effective security is always in the way. The question is, what balance of security vs convenience do you want to make? That applies to any security program, not just computers. If someone tries to sell you an exception to this rule they are lying.
In this case there is no bottom to the technical details. So you have to accept a prebuilt simplified security solution. However if it is truly going to protect you, you as a user must take the time to read the manual and adjust the settings to your chosen level of security. Otherwise the default settings are typically tilted way toward convenience. You need to adjust the settings on your router, your firewall, and your antivirus. The first line of defense is the router. Turn on all the security options and turn off everything you don't use.
It is best to keep your data files separate from apps and system files. Only back up your data files. That way if the OS gets crapped up, your data might still be OK. Keep rolling backups on a spare hard drive until it is full, and then delete the oldest ones. Which should be several years old by then unless you've got a metric crapload of data. If you have large chunks of data that doesn't change like music or movies, you only back those up once and don't include them in the rolling backups. Unplug the hard drive when not in use. No virus has managed to jump an air gap yet.
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