Advanced Security oldschool's surfing laptop configuration

[Stenographers]

This is a great setup. You've enabled a lot of the features that I've used at work for my fleet of Windows laptops.

 

[oldschool]

Added Panda Dome free version and VoodooShield. My cheapo i3 8th Gen laptop runs more efficiently so far. We'll see ....

Thanks to @TairikuOkami for the suggestion at his Windows tweaks page.

 

[Kongo]

Added Panda Dome free version and VoodooShield. My cheapo i3 8th Gen laptop runs more efficiently so far. We'll see ....

Thanks to @TairikuOkami for the suggestion at his Windows tweaks page.

Don't you think that you could just use VoodooShield as your standalone security product? I mean Panda is known to be pretty ineffective when it comes to detecting malware. Even tho it's pretty light, it will probably not do much more than taking up disk-space.

 

[WhiteMouse]

Don't you think that you could just use VoodooShield as your standalone security product? I mean Panda is known to be pretty ineffective when it comes to detecting malware. Even tho it's pretty light, it will probably not do much more than taking up disk-space.

First time I heard that panda is light, a panda is about 70~120 kg. But I agree, I would just shut off Windows Defender and run VS only.

 

[Kongo]

First time I heard that panda is light, a panda is about 70~120 kg. But I agree, I would just shut off Windows Defender and run VS only.

 

[Shadowra]

Added Panda Dome free version and VoodooShield. My cheapo i3 8th Gen laptop runs more efficiently so far. We'll see ....

Thanks to @TairikuOkami for the suggestion at his Windows tweaks page.

Panda ???????
Oh no….

 

[oldschool]

My Panda + VoodooShield setup didn't improve performance much at all, so I reverted to Microsoft Defender.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

My Panda + VoodooShield setup didn't improve performance much at all, so I reverted to Microsoft Defender.

How did you determine this? I flip back and forth between F Secure Safe, Voodoo Shield. Defender with Configure Defender, Simple Windows Hardening, and sometimes Malwarebytes. I can't see any performance differences in respect to boot time or web pages loading.

 

[ForgottenSeer 97327]

@Digmor Crusher and @oldschool

On which protection level do you set ConfigureDefender on High or Max?

I know Andy warns for MAX level, because it might block old hardware related software updates. On my wife's HP laptop (which came with Windows11), Windows Update itself blocks an HP driver to update (through HP maintenance center), because it says it has a weak signature. Laptop runs fine without that driver, also after receiving two bios updates (AMD problems with Windows11), I have de-installed this HP software because Sophos Scan & Clean classifies this as spyware software. On newer hardware it seems that Windows pushes out all driver updates (which are Windows co-signed), so ConfigureDefender on MAX does not cause any problems.

I like the idea of having a cloud based whitelist with ConfigureDefender on MAX (on my wife's laptop). This allows me to set Hard_Configurator on SWH-like protection (allow EXE, MSI and TMP) with an extra block for all H_C listed sponsors for standard users (with RunDLL32.exe added as extra block). I ran the same setup on her previous Lenovo laptop without problems, so I am curious what your opinion and experience is (in using CD and H_C).

For me since I started using H_C and CD on Windows Home and stopped adding third-party software layers, I never ran into update of software crashing problems anymore (due to third-party layers stopping it). I now can even withhold the temptation to try out F-secure (on my wfe's laptop), which I got for free from my ISP (rebranded as their own), because I really like the problem free MAX protection.

 

[oldschool]

On which protection level do you set ConfigureDefender on High or Max?

High+ with ASR rules

... and I only use these as I don't use Office products and use wordpad instead, with custom Exploit Protection settings.

block JS/VBS from launching downloaded executable content
- block execution of potentially obfuscated scripts
- block executable content from email client and webmail
- block process creations originating from PSExe and WMI commands
- use advanced protection from ransomware
- block persistence through WMI event subscription

 

[ForgottenSeer 97327]

High+ with ASR rules

High+ consumes a little more CPU, MAX is more efficient and more effective (cloud whitelist in stead of blacklist) but ....
I have a natural preference for MAX as you might have guessed from my (nick) name

 

[oldschool]

more effective (cloud whitelist in stead of blacklist)

Didn't know this. Is there documentation showing this? I was previously using default.

 

[Shadowra]

I reverted to Microsoft Defender.

Best choice

 

[ForgottenSeer 97327]

Didn't know this. Is there documentation showing this? I was previously using default.

Spoiler: See microsoft GPO documentation

 

[oldschool]

@Max90 I suppose "blocks all unknown executables" implies use of a whitelist?

 

[ForgottenSeer 97327]

@Max90 I suppose "blocks all unknown executables" implies use of a whitelist?

Correct that is why I like ConfigureDefender MAX protection

 

[oldschool]

Updated configuration to show:

• Powershell in Constrained Language Mode
• UAC Policy: Only elevate executables that are signed & validated

 

[ErzCrz]

Updated configuration to show:

• Powershell in Constrained Language Mode
• UAC Policy: Only elevate executables that are signed & validated

Thinking of amending my setup a bit more like yours this coming year

 

[oldschool]

Finally said 'Goodbye' to Brave.
Updated my µBO Custom filters list:

I like Dandelion Sprout's lists. AFAICT good protection with no breakage.

 

[SeriousHoax]

Various about:config changes for privacy & security

Maybe you can save them in a user.js file to backup all the settings for yourself and share the user.js aka about:config changes that you made like @Kongo in his configuration.

Advanced Plus Security - Kongo's Computer Security Config 2022

- replaced Giburu with Neeva search engine I haven't heard of Neeva.

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