Rienna's security configuration (still working on it)

[rienna]

Laptop is an HP Pavilion dv6 with A8-3500m (upgraded from 3400m) with a 160GB WD Blue and 6GB DDR3 1600. + Beats Audio (built-in). Only cost me 150$ (part of the cost was actually the SquareTrade warranty).

Edit: Specific laptop model:
HP Pavilion dv6-6c11nr Entertainment Notebook PC
Model: A6Y56UA

Desktop is a A6-3500, 4GB DDR3 1333 (OC to 1866), with a 320GB Seagate, and Ultra LSP750 (from a previous and much faster build that died, never even over-clocked that one).

Note: I do not have money to spend. Currently dealing with other problems irl, unless I can find a easy to do job online somewhere that I can handle even with my disabilities.

Edit: Malware testing is done on my desktop in a virtual machine. Since it can handle it and I can easily unplug the Ethernet before things go awry. And I don't have to worry as much about needing to wipe the drive.

Edit Edit: Also would like to find a nice Disk encryptor. Bitlocker is a no go (Requires TPM module, and refuses to load without it, plus I don't trust Microsoft "that" much) and DiskCryptor doesn't get along with my bios. (Even causes blue-screens mid boot).

Edit Edit Edit: For the record qBittorent is unrelated to the "Bittorent" client of which the popular (and dare I say malware riddled) uTorrent is based off of. And is Opensource.
No it's not for warez. There are legitimate and 100% legal uses for P2P File sharing. Plenty of Linux distributions (again legal and free) are available for download as torrents for instance on their official pages.

 

[frogboy]

Let me know when you are finished as i never finish always changing stuff around.

 

[yigido]

I like the simple setup, thanks for sharing

 

[Ink]

+ 1 for Windows Defender. However, I do recommend using UAC on default settings.
http://malwaretips.com/threads/why-you-should-not-turn-off-uac.23351/

Malwarebytes Free is superior to SuperAntiSpyware Free, something to consider whether it's required or not. You could replace SAS with HitmanPro (Non-activated) for scanning only. Likewise for SpywareBlaster, I am not sure if it has a purpose with modern security and web browsers such as Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

HitmanPro.Alert 2 (stable) is another software I now recommend, but I am not sure if it's compatible with Zemana Anti-Logger Free. Have you noticed any slow boot up with ZAL Free, or have they improved start-up times?

Note: OneDrive is the new name for SkyDrive.

 

[hjlbx]

Yes, I have terrible luck.

Hello rienna,

You're luck can't be any worse than mine.

I have an AMD A8 laptop and always seem to experience some issue or another with software.

Just FYI that "crawling" (I assume you mean cursor lag\freeze and other delays) occurs on every low-end system I've tried. It may have something to do with Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) installations of the Windows OS.

That you have experienced issues with so many AVs is a concern... if possible, try to uninstall as much "bloatware" as possible. BSODs should not occur on any frequent basis... if they are then there is definitely something amiss.

In any case, if Fortinet does not work out for you, then you may want to look at these freeware options:

• Avira Free (NOTE: Is cloud-based protection so uses a lot of bandwidth)
• Panda Internet Security

To eliminate some of the performance issues you are experiencing, it may be necessary to eliminate some items. In your case, less is going to be more.

On my system, VPN software loads the system down - especially during start-up, but after a while it calms down; I would only use the best performing on your specific system.

I would consider eliminating Spyware Blaster and Super AntiSpyware... as they add little, if any, additional protection. You'd be better off adding MalwareByte Anti-Exploit free to protect your browsers.

You can eliminate AdBlock Plus by using IE 11's internal adblock lists (identical to AdBlock Plus); go to Manage Add-Ons > Tracking Protection > add\enable EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and Stop Google Tracking.

To monitor outbound Windows firewall connections the best freeware that I have tried is GlassWire.

You can obtain a free Lifetime version license here at the MT Give-A-Ways subforum for AOMEI Backupper Pro 2.5. It works seamlessly with OneDrive - you just specify the backup location as one of your OneDrive folders, then OneDrive uploads it automatically to the cloud.

You might also be interested in VooDooShield Free... it's an anti-executable that will block all non-white-listed files from running on your system.

 

[akuigla]

It is good that you are here.There is many skilled people here and they will help you,including myself.
It may be that some malware on your pc is reacting and causing bsod with different anti virus programs.

Run Rkill http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/

Try Adw cleaner and let it clean all it finds.

https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/

Run Emsisoft and let it clean all that finds

https://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek/

 

[tonibalas]

You should try AVG Free Antivirus personally i like it it has good detection and it's light on mu system.
Instead of Firefox you can use Cyberfox which is a 64 bit version of Firefox.
Cyberfox is light on system resources and it's very stable
I hope i have helped
Thanks for sharing your config
p.s: Since you don't have money to spend for your system you can enter MT giveaways to win a free license like Panda Internet Security or Eset

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Happy Sunday, and thank you @rienna for sharing your configuration with us.
I'd particularly liked reading the details of your hardware (& the bargain received on your lap top.)

As @tonibalas recommended (imho) a quality well liked Firefox alternative in Cyberfox, I'll hitch my wagon onto his & suggest looking into their x64 portable version to extract onto an external USB flash drive. This dispenses with adding an additional (albeit worthy) program as well as adding registry entries thus keeping your system(s) less bloated.

• https://8pecxstudios.com/cyberfox-portable-edition

*Scroll down the <linked> page for more info plus download options.

Also, on the subject of lightening your systems, CCleaner is among my favorite free privacy\maintenance tools safe enough to use after every browsing session.

• https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

There is a portable version available by simply scrolling down the page. Find it under "Builds". Choosing to download directly from the developer's sites avoids running into software bundled with unsavory PUPs.

 

[Exterminator]

Looks good. Thanks for sharing your config

 

[rienna]

@hjlbx
Well honestly, last time I tried Avira I got a flashing alert in the notification box demanding I buy "premium" or risk getting infected. And another one demanding I install their mobile Antivirus on my phone. There are plenty of ignored complaints in Avira forums if they haven't been deleted yet.

As for Panda, that depends.
Have they fixed the performance issues? And does it still flag literally ALL NSFW sites as dangerous?

And as far as VPN's go that depends, I'm only using OpenVPN (with the OpenVPN GUI) and .ovpn config files.
It's as light as you can get when using a VPN connection. No bells or whistles. Though you do have to manually move your .ovpn configuration files into the OpenVPN config folder.

This operating system wasn't OEM Provided. My laptop was purchased on eBay.
It's completely fresh.

@tonibalas

Maybe. Have they dropped the pop-up ads and push to get users to buy their cleaner yet?
I tried it before and that was my only complaint.

And yeah maybe. I've also tried Palemoon and it was okay.

@Cats-4_Owners-2

That sounds nice. but I don't have enough room on my flash-drive. Sadly.
And will do. I usually install CCleaner, but I tend to forget it exists.


I know I sound picky here guys. but I've had so much trouble over the past 5 years with each computer I've had minus my old HP (Tualeron @1.2ghz with 384mb PC-100) that ran like a dream when I switched from Windows XP to Windows 98SE back in 2008. >~<

 

[Dani Santos]

I recently tried Xvirus but was lucky I made a restore point before hand, it nearly totaled my system flagging every last file in the Windows folder as malware.

Can you tell me more details on that? Xvirus doesnt delete any file without you confirming so a restore point was not necessary...

 

[rienna]

Can you tell me more details on that? Xvirus doesnt delete any file without you confirming so a restore point was not necessary...

Well the thing is it was rather late. And it kept popping up repeatedly. All I wanted to do was listen to my music and drift off to sleep.
So I just clicked it thinking it might actually be malware.......until I saw the full file-path, and couldn't find the quarantine folder.
They were things like the .dll for the Microsoft Store, and other components. I ran a scan with malwarebytes and found no such infections. I also scanned with TDSSKiller.

 

[jamescv7]

Consider Opera browser which one to be a better alternatives to FF and GC for your problematic resource utilization.

WD (Windows Defender) is a baseline AV so you are protected at most common threats just don't play any samples from Malware Hub or going to pesky websites/downloading unknown programs.

Speaking of browsing, considered of Sandboxie to isolate any changes happen especially when surfing.

Xvirus may happen to work on most computers but sometimes issues like triggering FP by heuristics/signatures must be notified by developers. It does not have automatic deletion because it will ask you if the threat is detected. (I've used it in VM)

 

[Dani Santos]

Well the thing is it was rather late. And it kept popping up repeatedly. All I wanted to do was listen to my music and drift off to sleep.
So I just clicked it thinking it might actually be malware.......until I saw the full file-path, and couldn't find the quarantine folder.
They were things like the .dll for the Microsoft Store, and other components. I ran a scan with malwarebytes and found no such infections. I also scanned with TDSSKiller.

It maight have happen a bug that sometimes happens when the update process fails, what causes the db to be corrupted and Xvirus will detect everything. Because i whitelisted every system file from windows xp to 8.1. If you could install it again and if that happens send me a screenshot. IF you cant there is no problem

 

[Ink]

I would rather have a corrupted database that detects nothing, than flagging every file on the system. Are there not any failsafe to prevent that?

 

[Dani Santos]

I would rather have a corrupted database that detects nothing, than flagging every file on the system. Are there not any failsafe to prevent that?

It is going to be fixed on next update

 

[tonibalas]

rienna i believe that AVG hasn't dropped the ads about their cleaner but maybe you can find a way to disable those ads.
About AVG you can ask starchild76 who knows a lot about AVG.

 

[rienna]

Thanks guys will do.
And I did try opera, my problem was it too wanted 90% of 4-cores when I tried to play videos in HD, which isn't surprising since it's literally just chrome re-skinned (since Opera 15 and up) with support for Chrome-Apps removed. Both being based on Chromium (Open-Source).
but on IE 11x, I get like 30 or 40% tops unless I try to run it in 2k or 4k then I get 90%+ and lag. lol

As far as sandboxie goes, it's no longer free. Check the website.
It's pay only. At best you get a trial. And doesn't that also prevent you from downloading anything? Even pictures you want to save?

And perhaps, but I don't feel like dealing with it anymore.
Plus Xvirus still gets blocked on start-up by UAC. Even when I elevate it.

An interesting note on my desktop computer I found a file entitled vir_heuristics in FortiClients "vir_sig" folder.
Which I looked into out of curiosity. but didn't delete/modify.
intriguing because they don't mention using heuristics and testers (on youtube) have found no such system actively blocking malware.
And the only data I can find online for heuristics is from the outdated 4.0 release (not 4.2+ just 4.0).

 

[jamescv7]

Thanks guys will do.
And I did try opera, my problem was it too wanted 90% of 4-cores when I tried to play videos in HD, which isn't surprising since it's literally just chrome re-skinned (since Opera 15 and up) with support for Chrome-Apps removed. Both being based on Chromium (Open-Source).
but on IE 11x, I get like 30 or 40% tops unless I try to run it in 2k or 4k then I get 90%+ and lag. lol

As far as sandboxie goes, it's no longer free. Check the website.
It's pay only. At best you get a trial. And doesn't that also prevent you from downloading anything? Even pictures you want to save?

To clarify Sandboxie is a workable free program with limitations like Forced Folder and Forced Program feature on paid version and others + alongside of nagging screen which exceeds after 30 days but still effective to isolate your browsing and download programs upon testing.

Meanwhile from browsers better yet turn off hardware acceleration of Flash Player which suppose to show gradual result alongside watching at 360p (SD). I owned an HP Laptop and likely it depends on the optimization performance specification since I can view videos smoothly at HD at SD.

 

[rienna]

To clarify Sandboxie is a workable free program with limitations like Forced Folder and Forced Program feature on paid version and others + alongside of nagging screen which exceeds after 30 days but still effective to isolate your browsing and download programs upon testing.

Meanwhile from browsers better yet turn off hardware acceleration of Flash Player which suppose to show gradual result alongside watching at 360p (SD). I owned an HP Laptop and likely it depends on the optimization performance specification since I can view videos smoothly at HD at SD.

And again I do not wish to deal with not being able to download a perfectly safe file because "security reasons".
Nor do I wish to deal with nag-screens. If I wanted nag-screens I'd just download malware and let it flood my screen with it's scare-ware ads.

So your response to my problem with Chromium based browsers is to use them anyway, just turn off hardware acceleration (which just makes things worse) and only use 360p? I'm sorry but where are you getting this logic? No offense. If IE11x can handle 720p or 1080p then Chromium oughta handle it as well on my laptops A8-3500m. But Chromium simply doesn't right now. It's not a hardware issue, it's a software issue.