Advice Request Concern or discovery - what is the reason for changing the security setup?

Share practical recommendations that address the author's needs.
Andy Ful

Andy Ful

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This problem was brought up many times in several threads. Some people think that fear can be the main reason for "security paranoia" and overkill setup. Others think that fun and discovery is more important. Many people changed the security setup after the malware infection or due to performance issues.

So, what was the reason in your case?
 
I just want a random AV, light on resources that won't get in the way of my work, in order to get rid of WD.

That is sole reason I change my security setup.

Currently using F-Secure Anti-Virus and is perfect, doesn't even install certificates nor mess with my browser.

Is just sad how most companies are dropping simple suites, and bloating their software with useless features.
 
Andy Ful said:
In my case, it was looking for perfect security. Several years ago I used an overkill setup. My computer started for about 5 minutes until I could work on it. One day I had to repair something and the people in the service point could not even install drivers.:)🙃
Click to expand...

You mean that your security set up borked your machine ??


Local Host said:
I just want a random AV, light on resources that won't get in the way of my work, in order to get rid of WD.

That is sole reason I change my security setup.

Currently using F-Secure Anti-Virus and is perfect, doesn't even install certificates nor mess with my browser.

Is just sad how most companies are dropping simple suites, and bloating their software with useless features.
Click to expand...

Likewise, hence my use of incredibly light K7 Total Security suite.

Regards Eck:)
 
Behold Eck said:
You mean that your security set up borked your machine ??
..
Click to expand...
No, it was a hardware problem. :)
They could not install drivers because after reboot the changes were wiped out by ShadowDefender. This overkill setup had broke sometimes Windows Updates.
The computer performance was not great. My Firefox was starting 30 seconds in the Sandboxie.
 
I do not endorse overkill setups and this was a discussion I had in the past here in MT.

Often than not many people believe they must protect and plug in every hole, when in real world scenarios 70% of the "plugs" are literally pointless.

I often use default settings on Security software and yet to be infected. The only time I was infected was posted here in MT which I strongly recommend people to read and post:

malwaretips.com

How I got infected last time thread | MalwareTips

The purpose of this thread is two fold: To share one's experience and to raise user awareness to both members of MT and guests. A few days ago, after being...
malwaretips.com malwaretips.com

I change every so often mainly the AV solution because I am lucky enough to have enough connections to have access to quite a few solutions and I prefer Balance of performance and protection over overly protected systems. It does help having several systems I can do the swaps (not VMs).
 
In the days of the doubtful MS Security Essentials I used successively several AV programs.In the meantime MS Defender is a mature program. So in combination with Configure Defenfer (thanks Andy) is MS Defender my basic protection. Whatever AV program I used, I had never an infection. Nowadays I'm more interested in privacy defense, but that's an other kind of sport.
 
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I used comodo for so many years if I remember correctly from 2007 onwards. I had so many issues with it but never had an infection ever. But I lost my patience with it a few months back. Comodo, during my time with it had taught me that a stable version of comodo never exists. Now I am using a managed version of Sep.
 
A lot of reasons: concern, curiosity, see what's new, expanding knowledge and help with development.
Currently very happy with Microsoft Defender enhanced with the tools of @Andy Ful , but still following the development of VoodooShield and curious about Wisevector. I maintain a few laptops for family members and they use a F-Secure Safe rebrand by their ISP (KPN Veilig or Ziggo Safe Online) or Kapsersky Security Cloud Free. So I also tried those on my main laptop.
 
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In the old days I just wanted the best AV, so I changed it every time new AV comparative reviews were released.
Afterwards as a gamer I was more concerned about performance, so I picked based on that and eventually let go.

One would think, that with new CPUs and SSD, AV makes no difference, but it does. I tried Panda and it even slowed down loading webpages. As for Windows Defender, when I temporarily enable it, I can see a noticeable slow down, like explorer takes 2-3 secs to open and icons are loading one by one.

But in the end, I just do not like running something, I do not need. I do not like wasting any resources, regardless how abundant they are. Not to mention, that every single process is another vulnerable software, that can be exploited. Security software being the top target and it runs with SYSTEM privileges.
 
In my overkill times, I was inclined to control everything on the computer. So, for example, I used Sphinx Windows Firewall Control for network protection (a lot of alerts), EMET for anti-exploit protection, Sandboxie for shady software (several custom sandboxes), ShadowDefender to protect the system, NVT ERP as anti-exe, many Sysinternals and Nirsoft tools, etc. I learned much by using them and killed the system a few times.:)
 
Andy Ful said:
In my overkill times, I was inclined to control everything on the computer. So, for example, I used Sphinx Windows Firewall Control for network protection (a lot of alerts), EMET for anti-exploit protection, Sandboxie for shady software (several custom sandboxes), ShadowDefender to protect the system, NVT ERP as anti-exe, many Sysinternals and Nirsoft tools, etc. I learned much by using them and killed the system a few times.:)
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You remind me of a MT user that used to go by the name Overkill

Don't think he is active here anymore.

When I used to do a lot of testing years ago, I did have Sandboxie but found that I hardly used. I see its potential.

ShadowDefender I still have it installed in one system.

Was never a fan of anti-exe due to the trouble of maintenance in a gaming system.
 
JoyousBudweiser said:
I used comodo for so many years if I remember correctly from 2007 onwards. I had so many issues with it but never had an infection ever. But I lost my patience with it a few months back. Comodo, during my time with it had taught me that a stable version of comodo never exists. Now I am using a managed version of Sep.
Click to expand...

I was like you, patience ran out with Comodo or I was always fiddling with it and it became more of a constant thing. I then discovered @Andy Ful 's Hard_Configurator, CD and FH. I will test out the new Comodo version when it comes but in the meantime, I'm quite happy wth my setup.
 
Andy Ful said:
No, it was a hardware problem. :)
They could not install drivers because after reboot the changes were wiped out by ShadowDefender. This overkill setup had broke sometimes Windows Updates.
The computer performance was not great. My Firefox was starting 30 seconds in the Sandboxie.
Click to expand...


Okay Andy, now I get you.

Was just wondering there about the guys from the service centre etc. LOL:giggle:

Yes I think a lot of us used to have a lot of similar overlapping security set ups until performance or maintenance became a bit of a pain.

Regards Eck:)
 
Little story for grownups:

I was a program moderator almost 16 years ago, and I was good, at least like to think I was, beta tester for Kaspersky, etc.
Then the year's past, my daughter was born, I left the computers, and I star doing almost anything in my iPhone.

Corona show up, and a by a new laptop to start working at home. And the computer addiction came back again, testing, downloading, installing, p2p.
I believe I still know something, enough to no catch a virus downloading things from Piratebay. Wrong I was outdated, I trust in Windows defender and catch a Cryptomining malware.

So I came back to my old love Kaspersky and discover MalwareTips, and star to learning again and testing, and trying new programs.

So in my case the addiction of testing is my reason to change.

End of story ....

Sorry for my bad English ;)


"Moderate yourself or be moderated" - this was my tag when I was a moderator....
 

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