I'm presuming Windows because "not very technically inclined" but at this point when I help such people it's mostly a matter of A) verifying UAC is active and at or higher than the default [1], B) verifying Windows Defender and Smart Screen are active and up to date (Windows Update).
In every case I've seen of Windows Defender or Smart Screen being disabled or out of date it almost always seems to be the fault of a "security product" the user was talked into buying (especially the Norton Insecurity Suite). Defender and Smart Screen together silently but capably do their job at handling the main issues for a not very technically inclined person's systems and I find the harder issue is convincing them not to install games from disreputable sources (random poker websites, the weird shadows of once sort of reputable places like RealArcade and WildTangent) that install irritating adware and occasionally spyware, short of "taking away the UAC keys" and forcing them to call me to type in an admin password to install software for them, which I don't have the time/inclination to do.
[1] If a not very technically inclined user complains they see too many UAC prompts they are probably doing something wrong and you should help them figure that out.
In every case I've seen of Windows Defender or Smart Screen being disabled or out of date it almost always seems to be the fault of a "security product" the user was talked into buying (especially the Norton Insecurity Suite). Defender and Smart Screen together silently but capably do their job at handling the main issues for a not very technically inclined person's systems and I find the harder issue is convincing them not to install games from disreputable sources (random poker websites, the weird shadows of once sort of reputable places like RealArcade and WildTangent) that install irritating adware and occasionally spyware, short of "taking away the UAC keys" and forcing them to call me to type in an admin password to install software for them, which I don't have the time/inclination to do.
[1] If a not very technically inclined user complains they see too many UAC prompts they are probably doing something wrong and you should help them figure that out.