Microsoft Smart Filter and UAC

Svoll

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I'm curious why it is always recommended to run to have smart filter and UAC at default level.

I had it on for 1 day and it has drove me nuts with all the prompts and after furthur testing, while it does provide some layer of protection, I am far not willing to have smart screen running, but I have other software to provide such layer protection when I disable it. Made 2 VM, one with WD, UAC, Smart Filter and all its default settings to alert and another VM where i remove as much as WD, Smart Smart, etc as I can via DISM and run them side by side and doing my curious testing of malwares and surfing malicious sites.

I was expecting a big difference, but it speedwise it was almost the same or I haven't noticed a difference on the VM.

TL,DR : Whats your view of UAC and Smart Screen
 

Windows_Security

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Svoll

How would you characterize a friend who crashes his car just to see whether safety belt and air bag protect him from injuries.

At some point this strange behavior becomes weirder when your friend starts to car with disabled air bag and unlocked safety belt?

Luckily it does not happen in real world, it is just a Grand Theft like arcade game.

So enjoy your fight with malware and malicious sites. As long as it is in VM and not an your real machine, all security is sort of irrelevant
 

shmu26

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I'm curious why it is always recommended to run to have smart filter and UAC at default level.

I had it on for 1 day and it has drove me nuts with all the prompts
Are you installing and uninstalling software all day long? If so, do it in a VM, and like @Windows_Security said, it's not the real world, so security is kind of irrelevant.
 
L

Local Host

He used the VM for testing, so I can't agree with @Windows_Security makes no sense to judge a user for using a VM to perform testing between two different configurations. Maybe we should shut down the malware hub or force everyone to perform testing in their Local Machine (is what you all suggesting).

UAC at level 1, 2, or 3 makes no difference to me, at level 0 (turned OFF) is a different story. I honestly use it at level 1 and people here tend to complain to leave it at default settings (level 2), I simply ignore them as level 2 has nothing to add to my security.

As for SmartScreen, is useless at Default Settings, but I leave it at that.
 

Windows_Security

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He used the VM for testing, so I can't agree with @Windows_Security makes no sense to judge a user for using a VM to perform testing between two different configurations

I did not judge Svol, post literally states "So enjoy your fight with malware and malicious sites. As long as it is in VM and not an your real machine, all security is sort of irrelevant "
 
L

Local Host

I did not judge Svol, post literally states "So enjoy your fight with malware and malicious sites. As long as it is in VM and not an your real machine, all security is sort of irrelevant "
And as I said your post is irrelevant, cause the VM was used to test the configurations nothing more.

User wants insight on both UAC and SmartScreen, not how effective VMs are against Malware, is OFF-Topic if I may say the least.

Is the same as saying AV Testing in VMs are irrelevant, and shouldn't be done cause VMs don't need AV. Goes beside the point VMs where used to test the malware in safe environment and makes no sense to discuss if they need an AV in the first place.

Your analogy with cars was wrong too, cars are also tested in safe environments to see how well they can protect the passengers in crashes.
 
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shmu26

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And as I said your post is irrelevant, cause the VM was used to test the configurations nothing more.

User wants insight on both UAC and SmartScreen, not how effective VMs are against Malware, is OFF-Topic if I may say the least.

Is the same as saying AV Testing in VMs are irrelevant, and shouldn't be done cause VMs don't need AV. Goes beside the point VMs where used to test the malware in safe environment and makes no sense to discuss if they need an AV in the first place.

Your analogy with cars was wrong too, cars are also tested in safe environments to see how well they can protect the passengers in crashes.
Please keep the tone respectful.
 

jogs

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When you are installing software after doing a Windows clean install you may disable UAC and after finishing again put it to level 1. It will be much less annoying and safe.
 
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Svoll

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My apologies for the misunderstanding, I was just curious about UAC and SmartScreen hence why I was asking and wanted further input.

As it is a test machine, so I do install and uninstall a lot of software and sometimes even accessing said secuity software triggers a prompt from UAC (IE. Opening Antivirus suite for settings, running custom tweaks and configs, etc...)

My daily driver is Arch Linux and MacOS Mojave so i usually only run windows when I am gaming or doing testing.

This thought of UAC and smartscreen came to me thru wanting to find out why my collegues have such different opinions on WD, UAC, and smartscreen.

Don't get me wrong @Windows_Security , it does provide a layer of security and does a good job at it, infact my testing of 2 different VM has taught me that smartscreen and UAC saved me from restoring snapshots and with mininal performance hit.

@Local Host Thanks for understanding and defending my silly post, I appreciate it =D
 

Azure

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Makes sense. Constantly having to install and uninstall software can be bothersome to some.
 

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