Advanced Plus Security (From forum thread)plat's PC Security Config

[Digmor Crusher]

I use Bitwarden, I have 84 items in my vault, pretty much all for shopping/forums/email, makes things so much easier. Any financial sites such as banks/credit cards its pen and paper.

 

[plat]

OK, I have replaced my graphics card. There is actually nothing wrong with the one it's replacing--gtx 1080. However, this lovely gpu is over 7 years old now and it's time for a change. I will keep it as a spare as it works well.

The thing is: I have a rather lower-end board (thanks alot COVID pandemic!) and needed to tie in the card with the specs of the board but still be a noticeable upgrade. So I got an ASUS Founders card rtx 4070 and it's about half the weight of my 1080 but it's kind of a chonk in there. Also I learned the hard way that if you're skipping two generations, make sure your monitor cable is going to be compatible. My monitor is going on 8 years and it didn't have the right connector to the gpu any more, I had to go back and get another one. Time and tech march on.

Spoiler

Next to upgrade is the monitor because really, this is a 1440p gpu but there's no rush.

Edit: I was curious if my impressions of the new gpu would pan out in a couple of benchmarks. Again, this card has no overclocks, no bells or whistles. Subjectively not a profound improvement, just some nice speed-up in games and YouTube videos are more nicely rendered.

gtx 1080

Spoiler

rtx 4070

Spoiler

Yes, a bit better but it was expected. Also, I forgot that enabling v-sync caps your frames at 60--I could not understand why this new gpu bombed these tests at first. Also Geekbench--gtx 1080 open CL score of around 55,000. rtx4070--open CL score of 176,869.

 

[plat]

Hey everyone. Ordinarily I would not mention something as banal as changing out a boot drive but if you need/want a new nvm-e, live in the US and have a Micro Center near you, check out the sale on Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB. I got this for around half off--60 USD.

So I upgraded my Windows 11 drive by installing Windows 11 on my old 980 Pro, updated to Insiders beta and voila. Installed Windows 10 on my new drive and I'm in business. Hope someone can benefit from this sale.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

Its a shame I have a laptop because I'd really like one of those "cute" keyboards...

 

[plat]

I am demoing a new browser, courtesy of member @wat0114. Here is his post. My impressions are at the end of the thread--basically it's a Firefox-based browser but has some Opera-like elements out of the box. It has uBlock Origin already in the Extensions and if you're familiar w/FF, you'll find it easily. Two other ext. are enabled by default and are easily disabled. Many browser settings are virtually identical to those of Firefox. It has a smaller presence on your disk than Firefox. First impression--fast! Very.

SmartScreen and CyberLock objected to the installer but Mr. False Positive Galore--Norton Power Eraser--deemed it clean as did Defender's quick scan. VT--0/71 for the installer.

Floorp Browser from Japan

Edit: the import function is hidden in Floorp. Once you find it, you can import from HTML. If you want to install extra extensions, you can easily do it via Mozilla addons--it'll say "Firefox" but the ext. do install in Floorp. Very interesting. Let's see how it works out. Thanks alot for this interesting little nugget @wat0114

 

[plat]

PC is from 2020 and has had case fans, m.2 drive and gpu upgraded since then. I think it will be OK for a little while now. Nothing fancy.

i9 9900 cpu, rtx 4070 gpu, 1 TB Samsung 980 Pro drive, ASUS Prime z-390A board. The little keyboard is Razer Huntsman mini

Spoiler

 

[plat]

OK, I have a sorry confession to make. I made my PC eat a bad Windows 11 update last week that took out the "check for updates" button. I later got it back but not without some trickery.

I said: OK, like ransomware, this jolts you out of complacency 100%. So now I have Hasleo Backup suite with a fresh image on my external HDD. I'm gonna now allow new updates to happen and then I'm gonna restore from the Data D drive.as a test. Hope it works out. If it doesn't, I'll come back w/questions. But I don't foresee an issue. Took about 3 min. to back up to the HDD.

Spoiler

Was considering Macrium subscription--and am now using this in the interim, until there's a decent sale. The static image via Aomei I'm still keeping (have to refresh it next).

Edit: OK, seemed to work fine. I have not yet made a "rescue" tool as I'll need to get another USB for that. The entire restoration took a little over 2 min. which is reasonable for a 95% Windows-only drive. OK, very good!.

 

[ForgottenSeer 100397]

Was considering Macrium subscription--and am now using this in the interim, until there's a decent sale.

Edit: OK, seemed to work fine. I have not yet made a "rescue" tool as I'll need to get another USB for that. The entire restoration took a little over 2 min. which is reasonable for a 95% Windows-only drive. OK, very good!.

My suggestion is to continue with Hasleo instead of paying for imaging software. Macrium is great, but Hasleo is also reliable. I only have experience with Hasleo's System Backup and System Mode Restore. I backup the system partition and use the system mode option for restoration. So far, I have had no issues or failed restores. I find Hasleo to be trustworthy. However, I haven't used other backup or restore modes in Hasleo because I don't need them. I use the Hasleo boot menu or interface for restoration. Whenever a new version comes out, you need to recreate the boot menu, WinPE, and emergency disk.

 

[plat]

Whenever a new version comes out, you need to recreate the boot menu, WinPE, and emergency disk.

OK, will do. Thanks for the tips, someone else also recommended to keep up w/Hasleo and not do a sub to anyone. Doesn't seem necessary anyway if all you're doing is one image, to be replaced every few weeks or whatever.