Hangtooth's Config

[CMLew]

Ok, fresh new experiment. Before things get too far out of hand I am reinstalling on both machines and NOT going to use any registry cleaners (even Ccleaner) and see how it goes.

I believe I've taken the classes "No longer using registry cleaners (even CCleaner).."-101 in the form of threads and many foreboding posts of warning!

Pardon for my curiosity.
Just wondering what advantages of NOT using any registry cleaners?

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Pardon for my curiosity.
Just wondering what advantages of NOT using any registry cleaners?

A very relevant question, CMLew. Simply put, registry traces do not effect one's system in any noticeable way. They neither slow down, as far as I know, nor disrupt normal system functions in most cases. On the other hand, aggressively removing any number of registry(s) can effect and disable your system. In other words:

• Removing all registry(s) found by a program = Dangerous

It is commonly agreed upon that CCleaner's mild approach toward regisitry removal is acceptable if you feel you must.
I have done it (2) times in (3) years with CCleaner. @Hangtooth's decision is something I agree with heartily, ...and the President would approve of this message too!

 

[CMLew]

A very relevant question, CMLew. Simply put, registry traces do not effect one's system in any noticeable way. They neither slow down, as far as I know, nor disrupt normal system functions in most cases. On the other hand, aggressively removing any number of registry(s) can effect and disable your system. In other words:

• Removing all registry(s) found by a program = Dangerous

It is commonly agreed upon that CCleaner's mild approach toward regisitry removal is acceptable if you feel you must.
I have done it (2) times in (3) years with CCleaner. @Hangtooth's decision is something I agree with heartily, ...and the President would approve of this message too!

Thanks for the explanation @Cats-4_Owners-2 !
Then my next curiosity is what would happen if you have too much unnecessary/ leftover registry in your system? I'm asking because my Ccleaner can detect/ analyze about 800-850 (highest for me) registry issues to be fixed.

 

[Hangtooth]

I guess what started me looking into our security (or lack thereof) setup was one of those annoying popup windows that pretends to be a virus warning.. and one that would threaten to delete all her files in 90 seconds~ Thanks, allmyvideos.net That place really gives your malware security a workout. You are right, a simple noscript would probably work but then she'd be angry.

It got her scared she was going to lose all her digital 'stuff' so I started looking for solutions and can't stop.

You wife is likely the same. She'll go months without downloading a thing and would probably never know she was in a sandbox. Of course as soon as I get complacent she'll save a new bunch of 'stuff' and then wonder where it went... That downloading to a usb stick sounds pretty good, though.

The problem is she just wants - like most office workers, I imagine, transparent protection that never gets in her way and lets her do whatever she wants. If I could train her to save only to certain places it would work, but I can see her thinking that's too much work =)

Baby steps though, at least the registry is now intact on both machines as I resist the urge to clear out the gunk.

@clew I guess I missed this article a few years back: Why Using a Registry Cleaner Won’t Speed Up Your PC or Fix Crashes

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Thanks for the explanation @Cats-4_Owners-2 !
Then my next curiosity is what would happen if you have too much unnecessary/ leftover registry in your system? I'm asking because my Ccleaner can detect/ analyze about 800-850 (highest for me) registry issues to be fixed.

Our illustrious OP (original poster) included the link*looks up* to possibly the very article which, in addition to our Wise Oracles of MT, set me on the right registry path. If you haven't <clicked> on it (this is Hangtooth's config. after all) here is the meat of it:
"In reality, registry entries aren’t a drag on your computer’s performance. The registry is a massive database containing hundreds of thousands of entries and individual registry entries are fairly tiny. Even removing a few thousand entries won’t make an appreciable dent in the size of your registry."

I guess what started me looking into our security (or lack thereof) setup was one of those annoying popup windows that pretends to be a virus warning.. and one that would threaten to delete all her files in 90 seconds~ Thanks, allmyvideos.net That place really gives your malware security a workout. You are right, a simple noscript would probably work but then she'd be angry.

It got her scared she was going to lose all her digital 'stuff' so I started looking for solutions and can't stop.

You wife is likely the same. She'll go months without downloading a thing and would probably never know she was in a sandbox. Of course as soon as I get complacent she'll save a new bunch of 'stuff' and then wonder where it went... That downloading to a usb stick sounds pretty good, though.

The problem is she just wants - like most office workers, I imagine, transparent protection that never gets in her way and lets her do whatever she wants. If I could train her to save only to certain places it would work, but I can see her thinking that's too much work =)

Baby steps though, at least the registry is now intact on both machines as I resist the urge to clear out the gunk. I guess I missed this article a few years back: Why Using a Registry Cleaner Won’t Speed Up Your PC or Fix Crashes

From the first time you'd commented on another's thread, I'd found it uncanny how similar our motivations to protect our wives whilst, at the same time, we also persevere to preserve their freedom to roam the INTERNET safely!

You'd hit the nail on the head when you mentioned their wishing for transparent protection that never gets in their way!

 

[Hangtooth]

@Hangtooth
I cant notice any memory leak with Adguard 6 here. How many filters you set up?

Sorry just noticed this while re-reading advice - I can't find the post atm but Booberry (moderator and tester @ adguard forums) said there was a very large memory leak in the beta that they are working on still, as far as I know. Good product, but I *do* notice system drag using it compared to just using ublock origin. That combined with causing the only BSOD crash of either system since moving to Windows 10, I have it uninstalled until an actual release of 6 is available to test. Not holding my breath as the adguard folks seem to do beta testing right - slowly and carefully.

 

[Hangtooth]

Thanks for the explanation @Cats-4_Owners-2 !
Then my next curiosity is what would happen if you have too much unnecessary/ leftover registry in your system? I'm asking because my Ccleaner can detect/ analyze about 800-850 (highest for me) registry issues to be fixed.

Best article I could find on the subject from a site I sort of trust (who can fully trust anything on the internet ever or any media period for that matter?) is this one from How-To Geek: Why Using a Registry Cleaner Won’t Speed Up Your PC or Fix Crashes

Good article and good discussion below, don't skip that. One person brings a valid point though, but his case is extreme:

"The is on big exception to the advice offered by the author:

HKLM\System\MountedDevices

This key can have a large effect on a computer, with relatively few entries: computer degradation sets in after a few hundred values.This key keeps a log for every storage device that is plugged into a Windows computer, which means every USB thumb drive, hard drive, phone, mp3 player... inserted is stored.

When key holds over 1,000 values, boot times will be 10 to 20 minutes on a Windows 7 machine.

This won't effect the vast majority of users, but I run a print shop and over 40 - 50 thumb drives are connected to a machine daily.

Deleting values from this key should be taken with care.

I have never deleted the boot or system values, but I have read that if they are deleted the computer is bricked."

 

[Hangtooth]

Removed: Sophos Home Free - I really like it, seems pretty light, but I have no faith yet in detection rates and it offers no control when it does actually detect something. Want to override a website block? Tough, you can't unless you log onto to the web account and add it to website exceptions. No on-the-fly control whatsoever.

Added: Avira Pro - it's back, warts and all. Who needs self-protection modules ~

If Avira Pro + HMPA can't beat something into submission if it gets onto my machine, I'd be quite surprised. Sure, prevention is better, but sometimes it's just impractical and you have to prepare to take a hit =) Just like in real life, lol.

Why do I keep coming back to Avira Pro? The licenses only cost me $6 a machine, so it's not because I am worried about wasting $18! It consistently has fantastic detection ratios AND no or a very tiny number of false positives. Sure I don't think it has the fancy heuristics that some others do, the fancy cloud that others do, but it's still a pretty solidly built product. It doesn't crash, it doesn't do anything 'funny'. It just plods along slowly and deliberately.

HMPA - I might have fallen prey to a good marketing campaign, but HMPA really seems to offer a *lot* more protection than MBAE - the only other anti-exploit product I have been looking at. Add on a spyware/malware scanner that rivals the old champ MBAM and it really seems like a good product. I just hope Sophos doesn't screw the pooch and kill it.

 

[Hangtooth]

Added: Binisoft Windows Firewall Control Windows Firewall Control

This is one solidly functional and nicely written program. Kudos to the author and donated after 5 mins playing with the free version. Thanks to all who recommended this.

 

[Hangtooth]

Added: Privacy Badger Privacy Badger
Removed: uBlock Origin filters to block trackers to avoid conflict w/ Badger

Giving Privacy Badger a try as a result of discussion: How Much Privacy Is Your Browser Providing? uBlock tracker blocking does not lift even when sites observe the do no track option in browsers. Going to see if Privacy Badger offers a more elegant and fair solution to the tracker problem. Ads and Malware domains can still go to hell thanks to ublock origin.

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Added: Privacy Badger Privacy Badger
Removed: uBlock Origin filters to block trackers to avoid conflict w/ Badger

Giving Privacy Badger a try as a result of discussion: How Much Privacy Is Your Browser Providing? uBlock tracker blocking does not lift even when sites observe the do no track option in browsers. Going to see if Privacy Badger offers a more elegant and fair solution to the tracker problem. Ads and Malware domains can still go to hell thanks to ublock origin.

I like how you've assigned specific tasks to each respective software, & have considered Privacy Badger, although I have not looked in on Privacy Badger's latest developments toward elegance. This is how you are now satisfying my questions before I've even asked them! Thank you for exploring this for us! Electronic Frontier Foundation's iteration towards protecting our rights appeals to me, & is why we use HTTPS Everywhere. *Laughing* with you & your wish 'Ads & Malware..can still go to hell (with) uBlock Origin.'!
A very Merry Christmas @Hangtooth!

 

[Hangtooth]

Privacy Badger will be neat if it works, it has a 'heuristic learning component' which makes it more interesting and perhaps more fair than ublock. I think is also is supposed to block those pesky permanent 3rd party cookies which can slip by ublock. it beats just turning off cookies because then my wife asks me what her passwords are ~

I noticed lag the other time I quickly tried badger but this time I patiently and carefully removed the tracker blocking filters of ublock, added social blocking filters (I hate those like or facebook or whatnot buttons) and then disabled "social widget replacement" in privacy badger (so it ignores them) and they are behaving nicely together, almost no lag and no overlap of function.

I have long been a fan of the EFF as a CMNS major in uni back in the early 90s when the internet was just going mainstream. Glad to see they are still in there plugging for a free and uncensored internet!

I'd use HTTPS everywhere too but you know the deal, it breaks my wife's streaming sites, lol!

I also love EFF's stance here:

Why doesn't Privacy Badger block all ads?
Because Privacy Badger is primarily a privacy tool, not an ad blocker. Our aim is not to block ads, but to prevent non-consensual invasions of people's privacy because we believe they are inherently objectionable. We also want to create incentives for advertising companies to do the right thing. Of course, if you really dislike ads, you can also install a traditional ad blocker.

Merry Christmas as well to you and yours, @Cats-4_Owners-2 !

 

[Hangtooth]

Added: Kerish Doctor (scan only, no real-time)

Question - Is Kerish Doctor a Legitimate, Safe and Effective Product?
Kerish Doctor 2015 - PC Troubleshooting, Cleaning, Perfomance Optimization and Protection from Malware

 

[bitbizket]

Added: Kerish Doctor (scan only, no real-time)

Question - Is Kerish Doctor a Legitimate, Safe and Effective Product?
Kerish Doctor 2015 - PC Troubleshooting, Cleaning, Perfomance Optimization and Protection from Malware

Kerish is not just a cleaning tool, it also monitor changes and protects critical system files in real-time so it's not practical to have Winpatrol too. If you use KD as on-demand only, its such a waste as you are better off with CCleaner or other similar free tool.

 

[Hangtooth]

This is good, stability has *almost* been achieved. No more messing with VMs for me, just installing/uninstalling yesterday's 'free today' shadow defender I screwed things up and reinstalled. Good thing I am so good at that now.

Removed: HMPA - with a heavy heart. No Xmas sale, no new year's sale, uncertain future in the hands of sophos despite their news release (I never 100% believe what I read). I like it, but both HMPA and MBAE are so secretive (and they have to be) about what they do and how they do it, it makes it hard to pick as a consumer.

Added: MBAE full trial mode for 14 days - I may as well give the competition a fair shake.

 

[Hangtooth]

Kerish is not just a cleaning tool, it also monitor changes and protects critical system files in real-time so it's not practical to have Winpatrol too. If you use KD as on-demand only, its such a waste as you are better off with CCleaner or other similar free tool.

You are entirely correct, I have Winpatrol just as a second opinion tool atm as it sometimes can tell me more informatively what is starting up and what services are running, and even wrangles them better sometimes. WP doesn't run real-time, I just start it up when I want to check/mess with a startup or a service and KD/autoruns doesn't tell me what I want to know.

I am liking KD so much I have it running in real-time now too fixing things as it breaks. Both machines humming along happily so far! thank you for reminding me to update my profile!

Added: Kerish Doctor real-time (all modules except game booster)

 

[bitbizket]

Good to know, your wife will mostly benefit from using KD. See i do computer maintainace for a living I do get alot of client who complains about their computer slowing down or broken, so seven months ago i've decided to install KD on some of my client computers as an experiment by which i already recognised KD potential. I'm actually quite skeptical with this kind of programs but KD were quite amazing given by response i get from my customers. KD is good for novices but some notifications need to be address by the user. What bothers me now i actually loose some my income due to how effective KD is. I hope KD will benefits you and your wife in a long run, don't be click happy or install untrusted programs you'll be safe.
By the way i recommended Sandboxie + one anti-exploits of your choice for your browsers.

Good day.

 

[Hangtooth]

Removed: MBAE trial
Added: HMPA shiny 1 year, 3 pc license

I was hoping for a sale, but tired of waiting and who knows what Jan 1 will bring with the new HMPA licenses. Got a 1 year license just to see how HMPA does under Sophos' influence/control. I like HMPA, it runs well with Avira on on our machines, just hoping it stays that way.

 

[Rafabombassaro]

What is HMPA Hang?

 

[Hangtooth]

Oh sorry it's hitmanpro.alert = HMPA - I am just tired of typing it out! Sorry, just laziness! Great product! Products - SurfRight