Advanced Security oldschool's surfing laptop configuration

Last updated
Mar 27, 2024
How it's used?
For home and private use
Operating system
Windows 11
Other operating system
Windows Pro
On-device encryption
N/A
Log-in security
    • Biometrics (Windows Hello PIN, TouchID, Face, Iris, Fingerprint)
Security updates
Allow security updates
Update channels
Allow stable updates only
User Access Control
Always notify
Smart App Control
On
Network firewall
Enabled
About WiFi router
Provided by ISP
Real-time security
Windows Security
Firewall security
Microsoft Defender Firewall
About custom security
MS Defender - Block all unknown executables | ASR rules | Platform & Engine Beta channel updates
Smart App Control
Exploit Protection settings
Firewall Hardening
RunBySmartscreen
Windows Spy Blocker
Periodic malware scanners
KVRT
Malware sample testing
I do not participate in malware testing
Environment for malware testing
N/A
Browser(s) and extensions
Firefox I µBO | Brave Search I
Brave | Brave Search | My settings
Edge | Privacy Badger | JShelter | Bing
Secure DNS
Quad9 DNS
Desktop VPN
None
Password manager
Maintenance tools
Windows built-in
Mem Reduct
File and Photo backup
Copy/Paste
Active subscriptions
    • None
System recovery
Wiindows built-in | Aomei Backupper Pro Lifetime
Risk factors
    • Browsing to popular websites
    • Opening email attachments
    • Buying from online stores, entering banks card details
    • Downloading software and files from reputable sites
    • Streaming audio/video content from trusted sites or paid subscriptions
Computer specs
Lenovo L340 Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8145U CPU @ 2.10GHz 2.30 GHz 8.00 GB RAM 1TB HDD
Notable changes
22-12-5 Reverted to MS Defender.
23-1-21 Refreshed Windows with SAC in evaluation mode.
23-2-2 Clean Windows installation
23-2-18 SAC user-enabled on
27-2-23 Added Chrome for the lack of 'feature' bloat.
28-2-23 Changed default browser to Chrome
What I'm looking for?

Looking for minimum feedback.

oldschool

Level 81
Thread author
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Mar 29, 2018
7,044
@oldschool click the security software like a bookmark.🏄‍♂️:)(y)
My configuration is saved in Wordpad so I can make quick changes to the thread! :LOL: :LOL::LOL:

Wordpad is the little app most users have forgotten about. Rarely exploited. ;) Perfectly safe. It is my main program for document creation and management.
 
Last edited:

Dave Russo

Level 21
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 26, 2014
1,042
I like your choice, I also have changed setup with AVs often but now pretty happy with Defender... with Voodoshield or HitmanPro or now wisevector,do you have any experience trying wisevector instead of Voodoshileld? hitman Pro is my 3rd alternate
 

oldschool

Level 81
Thread author
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Mar 29, 2018
7,044
do you have any experience trying wisevector instead of Voodoshileld?
Yes. Very lightweight and effective according to those who test but I haven't used it since v2.7xxx
hitman Pro is my 3rd alternate
I wouldn't bother with it myself. I generally use Defender alone with built-in Windows exploit protection. You may find exploit setup in first post above.
 

oldschool

Level 81
Thread author
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Mar 29, 2018
7,044
This is the first time I hear about this search engine. How is it compared to other "private" engines?
I think it's most like the old, i.e. original, Google before/without the tracking. It doesn't track, log or place cookies, it uses its own algorithm and I believe it relies the Google API. I like its results and uncluttered pages. The next closest results-wise is StartPage, in my opinion. Oh, and it's blazin' fast! I think DDG is way over-rated.
 

Pixelman

Level 4
Verified
Well-known
Jun 7, 2022
149
I think it's most like the old, i.e. original, Google before/without the tracking. It doesn't track, log or place cookies, it uses its own algorithm and I believe it relies the Google API. I like its results and uncluttered pages. The next closest results-wise is StartPage, in my opinion. Oh, and it's blazin' fast! I think DDG is way over-rated.
Never was a fan of DDG's search results. Startpage was closest to google search results I think.
Will try this one.

Thanks for the info. :emoji_beer:
 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
Settled on Adguard MV3 Experimental in Edge for now. It has more features than µBO Minus*.

* Editorial note: Gorhill must have a bug up his *** to dumb down his MV3 work and push this out. Why bother?
Mr. Hill is known to be grumpy and stubborn. So I think he's trying to prove a point here with his uBO Minus. Google's main intention behind MV3 is to make extensions more restrictive, to make them less likely to do malicious stuff. If you follow that principle, then you get this barebone adblocking capability as what we have with uBO Minus.
If you do what Adguard did which requires "read and change all your data on all websites" permission, which is one of the thing that Google said they're trying to avoid with MV3. That's the irony he's trying to imply on Google.
 

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