I am migrating here from Winmx and it is all very strange to me.

In the past I investigated torrents but with no success.

I had a look at the tutorial . When I google searched for the video file I was looking for (ie "**** torrents" ) I got a malware message from Windows Firewall and so am a little bit frightened as to how (or if) to proceed......

was it complaining about Tixati or the file you were trying to download?

Just the site.

Since then I have enabled Tixati in the Windows Firewall  and I  am getting returns for search terms.So I seem to be on my way.

I have not tried searching for Torrents on Google again though. Is it worth doing that ? Can I add channels to Tixati or are  they "softwired in"?

Google is not the best tool, better try one of torrent catalog sites. Search for "most popular torrent sites".

Unfortunately there is no 100% effective method to be safe from malware other than completely avoid executables. I always read comments under a torrent before I attempt to download.