Basic Security Amnesia config 2021

[Amnesia]

Reinstall windows recently my pc, doing VR and other over spec staff...

Used to use Ccleaner and Wise Registry cleaner and TotalAV sould I use them again or do the tools i use now will do the job/you have better alternative? Newbie and have little knowledge in the subject, would like to hear your recommendation, performance is the most important thing to me so light anti virus/malware are the way to go, thank you

 

[oldschool]

Suggestions:

Switch to a Standard User Account for daily activities.

Add ConfigureDefender set to "High" to harden M$Defender.

Less is more when it comes to extensions. Reduce the number of extensions, some of which are questionable due to security or privacy concerns e.g. Honey. What would you risk for free Honey?

And this: How anti-fingerprinting extensions tend to make fingerprinting easier

Check here for his latest examples: Almost Secure

Edge has fairly strong built-in tracking protection when using "Strict" mode. µBO and Privacy Badger together in Edge are redundant. Use one only. Both are superfluous in Brave with its excellent built-in adblocker unless you use µBO in medium or hard mode.

Remove HTTPS Everywhere. Both Brave and Edge have settings to handle this function.

Your basic config is good and adheres to my motto: "Stay safe, not paranoid"!

 

[ScandinavianFish]

TotalAV is an Potentially Unwanted Program, it has no value whatsoever, and it uses aggressive and misleading advertising tactics such as advertising affiliate sites that pose as review sites aswell as bots on Google Reviews and Trustpilot, it just uses the Avira engine so theres no point of using it.

Also, avoid these "optimizer" and registry cleaning software, like TotalAV they are snake oil with fake promises and borders being PUP's, they can also harm your system by deleting crucial items, even Microsoft themself strongly recommends against the use of such software.

 

[Amnesia]

Suggestions:

Switch to a Standard User Account for daily activities.

Add ConfigureDefender set to "High" to harden M$Defender.

Less is more when it comes to extensions. Reduce the number of extensions, some of which are questionable due to security or privacy concerns e.g. Honey. What would you risk for free Honey?

And this: How anti-fingerprinting extensions tend to make fingerprinting easier

Check here for his latest examples: Almost Secure

Edge has fairly strong built-in tracking protection when using "Strict" mode. µBO and Privacy Badger together in Edge are redundant. Use one only. Both are superfluous in Brave with its excellent built-in adblocker unless you use µBO in medium or hard mode.

Remove HTTPS Everywhere. Both Brave and Edge have settings to handle this function.

Your basic config is good and adheres to my motto: "Stay safe, not paranoid"!

TotalAV is an Potentially Unwanted Program, it has no value whatsoever, and it uses aggressive and misleading advertising tactics such as advertising affiliate sites that pose as review sites aswell as bots on Google Reviews and Trustpilot, it just uses the Avira engine so theres no point of using it.

Also, avoid these "optimizer" and registry cleaning software, like TotalAV they are snake oil with fake promises and borders being PUP's, they can also harm your system by deleting crucial items, even Microsoft themself strongly recommends against the use of such software.

Thank you both for helping me to clear out some things, as you said I'll delete some extension and won't be downloading any optimization software. Just one more thing about Microsoft Defender, if I put it on high security mode would it slow down my computer? I'm just doing heavy and power hungry activities on my computer (in comparison to my specs of course) editing and heavy gaming... Is there an lighter alternative to mc defender? Or should I just with that? I heard people recommending on WiseVector and 360...

 

[silversurfer]

@Amnesia
You should try to reduce your browser addons, as fewer as better in terms of security (attack surface) and even for users privacy.
Just keep in mind about upcoming Manifest v3. We all don't know yet how many browser addons/extensions continue to be available

 

[ScandinavianFish]

Thank you both for helping me to clear out some things, as you said I'll delete some extension and won't be downloading any optimization software. Just one more thing about Microsoft Defender, if I put it on high security mode would it slow down my computer? I'm just doing heavy and power hungry activities on my computer (in comparison to my specs of course) editing and heavy gaming... Is there an lighter alternative to mc defender? Or should I just with that? I heard people recommending on WiseVector and 360...

Generally, all antiviruses slightly slow down your computer, it all depends on how many features they have and how it scans files, some AV's scan files only when you execute them, while some, like Windows Defender, scans them at all stages, from download, to access, to execution, to post execution.
Windows Defender can get pretty CPU intensive, but its not commonplace and it stops after 15-20 seconds, but its resource usage and performance impact is quite small compared to products like Bitdefender, which just over 600 megabytes of RAM andalmost maxes out your CPU if it detects anything, though of course this is from my standpoint, it may behave completely different on your system as for me theres very few AV's that doesnt significantly slow down the system, which includes Windows Defender.

 

[harlan4096]

Also:

Set UAC to Always Notify.

An image full system backup solution (Macrium Reflrect, AOEMI BackUpper)would be welcome in Device recovery & backup

Thanks for sharing

 

[Shadowra]

You can use NextDNS (replacing uBlock)

 

[Moonhorse]

Used to use Ccleaner and Wise Registry cleaner

You may use privazer , in my opinion its best cleaner out there..i just scheduled it to run once a month when i used it
You dont need cleaners though , windows itself is doing enough