Advanced Plus Security Lightning_Brian's 2020 Security Config

[Lightning_Brian]

tremendous overkill with system protection tools
and also with copying programs, it is strange that there are no problems with compatibility.

Good Morning @jerzy601 and others: Thanks for the note! I wouldn't say its overkill as not all of the programs are being run at the same time actually. The main programs that I do have running 'at the same time' (if you will) would be the following:

• Norton
• Glasswire
• Adguard

Voodooshield is a off and on program while I'm training it or making changes. It will be running if I'm going to be doing anything on the web.

Otherwise, for all of the rest I only use it as needed or when needed scenarios (as it applies). Yes I take virtualization super seriously (over the top) this I will admit, but I'm also doing a ton of testing with various equipment that I go to great lengths to protect everything. There is times I'm testing stuff for work on my personal machine with a lot of back end networking going on and tons of virtualization going on to the point that in the end I don't have to worry about a thing on my machine. I rather not jump down the rabbit hole, but it gets quite extensive and if I would explain it out everyone would have a "ahhhh so that's why" moment. lol For now, I'll leave it that I do some heavy testing and reporting out.

I retracted my above post #10 in some other thread posted elsewhere because I'm also using Shadow Defender/Sandboxie/VirtualBox. BTW, he is also into testing malware so having the aforementioned software could be a necessity in his case.

As for me I'm not into mlaware testing. However, I use

Shadow Defender to protect my entire system
Sandboxie to sandbox applications like browsers, MS Office, SumatraPDF Reader, SMPlayer etc when I'm using my Windows host machine
VirtualBox when I run Linux OSes like Linux Mint Mate, Linux Manjaro etc

Not too much I would say

@HarborFront I think you were tracking what I was laying down. Thanks for listening a while back. Others too thought the same thing.

You have as periodic scanners: Norton Power Eraser, Emsisoft Emergency Kit and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
According to @cruelsister and AV Test Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool would be a better option.

Here Are the Best Helpers After a Malware Attack

No matter how devastating an attack on a Windows PC: the initial response is to attempt a repair. But which software package is capable of reliably doing so? AV-TEST tested 7 security solutions and 4 special tools.

www.av-test.org

Does NPE make sense with Norton Security Premium as real time protection?
I would ask the same question for Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool if you were running a Kaspersky solution real time.
Which are the most efficient second option scanners?
Can the HUB testers, @cruelsister and other members give their opinion on that?

@Gandalf_The_Grey Good point! I can see this and get this. I'll make a modification and remove it this from my use as secondary scanners or periodic scanners.

However, with this being said I will not be going into the Kaspersky side of things at the present time. I do too much for the powers that be and given that it is banned for my line of work I will be staying clear from it on my personal computers too along with my work computer. I will be in search of different secondary scanners. I would be open to how others feel about various other scanners!

Some more changes to come. Again I don't want to go too deep into the weeds on what I'm doing for testing. Expect to see another change log today.

~Brian

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Notable Changes for 7-19-2020

• Removal of Periodic Scanner:
• Norton Power Eraser (NPE) (Same as my main AV)
• Reorganized my maintenance tools (explain the tools a bit better as some folks are getting confused, not understanding correctly, or not following).
• Removed/Discontinued BleachBit (Portable & Free) – JM needs to confirm if this is still being updated or not (doesn’t appear as though it is)
• Removed/Discontinued: SecureMyBit DHScan – JM needs to confirm if this is still being updated or not (doesn’t appear as though it is)
• Removed/Discontinued: Zemana AntiMalware (Portable & Free) – doesn’t appear as though development is continuing
• Removed/Discontinued: Malwarebytes JRT (Portable & Free & Discontinued [still good for finding nasty stuff, but the end of life was April 26, 2018])

Maintenance tools:

Backup Software (or similar):

• AOMEI Backupper Pro (paid - latest release)
  • AOMEI Dynamic Disk Manager Pro Edition (paid - latest stable - lifetime license) – Updating disk information and management
  • AOMEI Parition Assistant Pro Edition (paid - latest stable - lifetime license) – Updating disk information and management
• Macrium Reflect Free (free - latest release)
  • viBoot from Macrium Reflect (free - latest stable) – Please read more about viBoot here before commenting on it: Macrium viBoot
    • In short (their wording not mine):
      • Macrium viBoot enables you to instantly create, start and manage Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines using one or more Macrium Reflect image files as the basis of the virtual machine storage sub-system.
      • At a minimum, viBoot enables you to boot into the images you have made using Macrium Reflect, for validation purposes, or to retrieve data from old applications stored on a bootable image. At an enterprise level, you could recover an entire network environment in minutes.
      • Macrium viBoot is now built upon new technology that allows it to instantly present a Macrium Reflect image file as a Microsoft Virtual Disk (.VHDX) file.
• Acronis True Image 2020 (paid and latest release - perpetual license for v2020)

Yes, I use three different backup tools. No, I do not use all three at the same time, same day, or for exactly the same reason. If you get stung by one backup going bad you will get why I use three. Plus, all three have some very unique and nice features. Check these out! Questions – please read about the tools prior to asking! Thanks!

Cleaning Utilities:

• Glary Utilities PRO (paid and latest release)
• Windows 10 built in tools

Virtualization Tools:

• VMware Workstation Pro 15 (paid - latest release - perpetual license for v15)
• Additional Tools to lock things down further:
  • Shadow Defender [Lifetime License/Latest Release]
  • Sandboxie (paid and latest release) – Note: As of late Sandboxie is now free.

Adblocker:

• Adguard Premium (paid - latest release - lifetime license)
• Similar, but mainly used as a VPN: Windscribe Pro (paid - latest release - lifetime license)

VPN

• Windscribe Pro (paid - latest release - lifetime license)
• Avira Phantom VPN (secondary VPN not main VPN at all) – BETA TESTING

Networking – You can do so much to this tool its simply amazing!

• GlassWire Elite (paid - latest release/stable)
  • If you don’t know this tool please read more here before commenting on it: GlassWire Network Security Monitor & Firewall Tool Features

Hard Drive Tool (Been Using for Many Years):

• Hard Disk Sentinel Pro (paid - latest release - lifetime license)
  • If you don’t know this tool please read more here before commenting on it: Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

Software Removal Tool:

• Revo Uninstaller v4 (Pro Portable - Paid - Paid for 2 years of updates!)

Windows Repair (Not Always Using Here Folks – Mainly For Some Minor Repairs Before Clean Install)

• Windows Repair from Tweaking.com (Free)

@harlan4096 Does this help better answer what is going on and what I'm doing with my system now? I felt that too many folks were misunderstanding, not reading, or not paying attention correctly. I figured I break things down quite a bit more, because some folks were taking things out of context or not fully understanding the software and its intended use.

@harlan4096 What would be your recommendation for periodic scanner at this point of time? Kaspersky would be off limits for me.

Others please feel free to chime in about secondary scanners as I'm open to other opinions at the present time.

 

[harlan4096]

To use NPE having the Norton Premium suite has no sense, that tech is probably integrated in Norton Security Premium.

You may use MalwareBytes Free and/or AdwCleaner, HMP Free (it uses BD and Kaspersky engines but only for PE files, can't detect other types of files as scripts, etc.), You can add also WiseVector StopX with resident protection modules disables, as I do in my malware tests...

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Yea NPE is a side portion of Norton Premium as well (separate feature). I get the whole senario about it being from the same company etc. etc.

Quite interesting about WiseVector StopX @harlan4096 ! I'll have to take a look at that a bit more. Have not heard much about that program as of yet. I'll need to look at some additional programs too. Suggestions are welcome from all!

~Brian

 

[harlan4096]

In this forum there is a thread dedicated to WVSX

 

[LDogg]

This is definitely more than complete, on a completely different level to some of the people on MWT. Lovely setup bro.

~LDogg

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Hello Everyone!

I have made some changes from the last time I performed a massive change log/change log review of all programs. There has been some big technology changes with many vendors that I have been using for software and I wanted to include this in my latest change log by pointing you back to the vendor's website to learn more about what has changed, what has been updated, what issues were addressed etc. I have a laundry list of updates here and some very minor stuff that I didn't feel warranted a notation has been skipped, because in my mind it was very super minor.

Notable Changes for 9-13-2020:

Upgraded Acronis True Image from v2020 to v2021.

New features/changes of Acronis True Image v2021 can be found here:

Link: Release notes - List of Changes - 42226

If you have v2020 the v2021 doesn't have a ton of new features that I would say "yes jump to v2021 right away/right now". Here is the version comparison for those interested: Acronis True Image 2021 - Compare With Previous Versions

Please take note: I am not using the anti-malware or anti-virus portion of Acronis True Image 2021 that is considered new in the v2021 release

I do like the following that is new in v2021 of Acronis True Image:

New in v2021: Quick backup validation: Speed up the standard process for validating the effectiveness of your backups by only checking the latest version.

Thoughts about this - let me say this: validation has been speed up quite a bit. I'm not saying my system specs have helped this out (having more RAM has helped this), but I tested the validation speed with just minimum spec computer and I can notice the difference here. With v2021 they have tweaked this quite a bit where I can see the results on many different computers beyond my beast of a computer.

New in v2021: Resumable replications: Ensure data isn’t duplicated. If a backup replication is interrupted, the process resumes from the point of the stoppage rather than restarting from the beginning

Thoughts about this - big news here folks! For me this is a good step for any product to take. Best believe I will be testing this out a bit more in a long term testing scenario, but so far everything is working out correctly and as described by Acronis.

Upgraded AOMEI Backupper from v5.9 to v6.0

New features/changes of AOMEI Backupper v6.0 can be found here:

Link: Changelog – AOMEI Backupper

What is notable in the release is that the tool icon that use to be in a odd place (top right corner under settings fly out) now has a separate tab on the GUI. What v6.0 looks like now with the GUI changes (see SPOILER):

Spoiler: AOMEI Backupper Pictures

Upgraded Macrium Reflect v7 to the latest edition (free - latest release)

New features/changes of Macrium Reflect v7 can be found here:

Link: Macrium Reflect Patch Details

Upgraded GlassWire to the latest stable release which is v2.2.241

New features/changes of GlassWire v2.2.241 can be found here:

Link: GlassWire Software Version Changes List

Upgraded Shadow Defender from v1.4 to v1.5

New features/changes of Shadow Defender v1.5 can be found here:

Link: Shadow Defender - the easiest PC/laptop security and privacy protection tool

Upgraded VMware Workstation Pro 15 from v15.5.5 to v15.5.6

New features/changes of VMware Workstation Pro v15.5.6 can be found here:

Link: VMware Workstation 15.5.6 Pro Release Notes

Upgraded Revo Uninstaller Pro Portable from v4.3.1 to v4.3.3

New features/changes of Revo Uninstaller Pro Portable Pro v4.3.3 can be found here:

Link: Revo Uninstaller Pro - History

Adguard Premium (paid - latest release - lifetime license) upgraded from v7.4.2 to latest build which is v7.5.1

New features/changes of Adguard Premium v7.5.1 can be found here:

Link: Versions history | AdGuard

Upgraded RoboForm for Windows RoboForm for Business (highly secure and locked down) from v8.9.1 to latest release which is v8.9.2.

New features/changes of RoboForm for Windows RoboForm for Business v8.9.2 can be found here:

Link: RoboForm for Windows Version News

Big system change to computer specifications:

Previous config for RAM:
RAM - 48 GB DDR4 - 47.8 GB Usable!

Latest config for RAM:
RAM - 64 GB DDR4 - 63.8 GB Usable!

I upgraded from 48 GB to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM as I'm doing a lot more professional work on my computer that requires that bump in RAM. I will not get into all of the specifics in this category, but it mainly involves virtualization, multitasking, and RAM intensive programs. I could talk for hours about what I am all doing, but I will spare you from this. Just know that yes I am actually using much if not nearly all of this RAM on a daily basis for some work that I am doing personally and professionally. Let me say this too - man am I happy I made the jump as everything is much more snappy and responsive now. I no longer have to limit some of my VMs to have minuscule amounts of RAM to run everything simultaneously to test updates/upgrades etc etc.

As always let me know your thoughts MT!

Thanks,
~Brian

 

[jetman]

Brian- quick question. Are you able to run Macrium viboot and VMWare on the same system at the same time ? I couldn't get both to work as viboot requires enabling the hyper-v feature. On my Windows 10 Pro installation, enabling hyper-v seems to disable other virtual machines.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Hi @jetman !

I haven't had issues with my setup at all. Do you have the necessary BIOS settings enabled to allow for everything to run for Hyper-V and VMware? Some older systems I have seen some issues with back in the day. Let me try without my beast of a computer and see if I run into any issues. At the present time I do not recall doing anything different out of the box, but perhaps there was as tweak I needed to do that I fail to remember currently.

If anyone else has experience feel free to share!

Thanks!
Brian

 

[jetman]

Cheers Brian. Based on these articles, it looks like the conflict with hyper-v was a problem that was recently fixed. So I might try again....

VMware Workstation 15.5 Now Supports Host Hyper-V Mode - VMware Workstation Zealot

With the release of VMware Workstation/Player 15.5.5, we are very excited and proud to announce support for Windows hosts with Hyper-V mode enabled! As you may know, this is a joint project from both Microsoft and VMware. You can also check out Microsoft’s blog here. Direct Download: Workstation...

blogs.vmware.com

VMware Workstation and Hyper-V

VMware Workstation now supports running on Hyper-V!

techcommunity.microsoft.com

EDIT: I tried installing VM Player and it DOES now work with Hyper-V. So now I can use both virtual machines on the same system- I'm glad I read Brian's security configuation carefully ! PS- Oracle VirtualBox does not work with hyper-v enabled.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Cheers Brian. Based on these articles, it looks like the conflict with hyper-v was a problem that was recently fixed. So I might try again....

VMware Workstation 15.5 Now Supports Host Hyper-V Mode - VMware Workstation Zealot

With the release of VMware Workstation/Player 15.5.5, we are very excited and proud to announce support for Windows hosts with Hyper-V mode enabled! As you may know, this is a joint project from both Microsoft and VMware. You can also check out Microsoft’s blog here. Direct Download: Workstation...

blogs.vmware.com

VMware Workstation and Hyper-V

VMware Workstation now supports running on Hyper-V!

techcommunity.microsoft.com

EDIT: I tried installing VM Player and it DOES now work with Hyper-V. So now I can use both virtual machines on the same system- I'm glad I read Brian's security configuation carefully ! PS- Oracle VirtualBox does not work with hyper-v enabled.

Cheers @jetman ! Glad it worked out for you too. Now you did bring up some fun factors that I had to deal with in the past with those links. Now things are much more clear sailing. Love VirtualBox, but yes there has been some weird stuff a long time ago that made me choose VMware Workstation Pro vs VirtualBox. I have hung with VMware now for the long haul - yes it costs quite a bit... However, for my line of work VMware Workstation Pro goes great. I have used Hyper-V in the past 100% separated - as in separate install to keep things jiving. Yes, you must have v2004 for things to be stable and actually use the latest edition of VMware Workstation Pro or else folks will be asking for issues to come back up.

Glad I could be of some help and get ya' pointed to the right direction @jetman ! Let me know if you run into issues - ping me if you do.

Sincerely,
~Brian

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Hello Everyone!

Wow! Its hard to believe it is November already! You know what that time is right? Another month of some small and some massive changes.

I have made some changes from the last time I performed a massive change log/change log review of all programs. There has been some big technology changes with many vendors that I have been using for software and I wanted to include this in my latest change log by pointing you back to the vendor's website to learn more about what has changed, what has been updated, what issues were addressed etc. I have a laundry list of updates here and some very minor stuff that I didn't feel warranted a notation has been skipped, because in my mind it was very super minor.

Major Changes:

Upgraded Windows 10 to build/version 2009

Upgraded VMware Workstation Pro 15 from v15.5.6 to major release version 16!!

Blog about it here:

Workstation 16: Now Available! - VMware Workstation Zealot

The Desktop Hypervisor team is proud to announce the general availability of VMware Workstation 16 Pro and Player! Quick links: VMware Desktop Hypervisor Product Page Workstation Download Page Workstation 16 Pro Direct Download Windows Linux Workstation 16 Player Direct Download Windows Linux...

blogs.vmware.com

Announcing VMware Workstation 16 and Fusion 12 - VMware Workstation Zealot

Announcing: VMware Workstation 16 and Fusion 12 It is our pleasure and privilege to announce the upcoming VMware Desktop Hypervisor product lines for 2020: VMware VMware Workstation 16 and VMware Fusion 12 Looking for a more Mac-centric perspective? Check out the Fusion 12 blog! Quick Overview...

blogs.vmware.com

New features/changes of VMware Workstation Pro v16 can be found here:

Link: VMware Workstation 16 Pro Release Notes

Yes, I know I paid a pretty penny on this. I know I will never regret it given my career field and everything that I do.

I can concur that everything is nice and snappy on v16 and the improvements are easily noticeable. I know I recently added RAM, but things are flying in the new version. Some things are eh'. I think those are widely known that I don't need to repeat that stuff here. As noted in the release notes above I am noticing the same thing here:

Performance Improvements

• Improved file transfer speeds (Drag and Drop, Copy and Paste)
• Improved virtual machine shutdown time.
• Improved virtual NVMe storage performance.

Other notable changes:

Upgraded AOMEI Backupper from v6.0 to v6.1

New features/changes of AOMEI Backupper v6.0 can be found here:

Link: Changelog – AOMEI Backupper

Upgraded Macrium Reflect v7 to the latest edition (free - latest release)

New features/changes of Macrium Reflect v7 can be found here:

Link: Macrium Reflect Patch Details

Upgraded GlassWire to the latest stable release which is v2.2.260

New features/changes of GlassWire v2.2.260 can be found here:

Link: GlassWire Software Version Changes List

Upgraded Revo Uninstaller Pro Portable from v4.3.3 to v4.3.8

New features/changes of Revo Uninstaller Pro Portable Pro v4.3.8 can be found here:

Link: Revo Uninstaller Pro - History

Adguard Premium (paid - latest release - lifetime license) upgraded from v7.5.1 to latest build which is v7.5.2

New features/changes of Adguard Premium v7.5.2 can be found here:

Link: Versions history | AdGuard

Upgraded RoboForm for Windows RoboForm for Business (highly secure and locked down) from v8.9.2 to latest release which is v8.9.5.

New features/changes of RoboForm for Windows RoboForm for Business v8.9.5 can be found here:

Link: RoboForm for Windows Version News