At-Risk Sher's Config

[SherKaan]

Other software:

IDM (Lifetime License).
PotPlayer.
qBittorent.
O&O ShutUp10.
Inspectre.
7-Zip.

 

[frogboy]

I would like to suggest a good free backup solution for you, such as Macrium Reflect or Aomei Backupper both are free and reliable.

 

[Quassar]

At last if you don't have space for full backup system & importand files, you can use send some files to cloud solution.

 

[JM Safe]

Add ZAM Free.

Add HTTPS Everywhere.

Follow suggestions about backups.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[SherKaan]

I don't need system image backups as I always do a clean install if something goes wrong.

And Kaspersky is proven to be more than enough on its own. However, I have tweaked its settings to protect me in the best way possible.

 

[Quassar]

YES but even you can do backup of clean image system after fresh install/update + drivers.
It save you about 1--2 hour while backup cost you about 8 min + 5min in futre for rollback.

So still is better to use backup, how about data you dont care about lost it ?!

 

[SherKaan]

My data is backed up and is on another partition. No worries.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Hello @Sher !

Thanks for posting your configuration on MalwareTips.

Personally, I would recommend that you add a backup mechanism in place as well. I like viBoot and Macrium Reflect (both are free). Aomei Backupper is another good solution that is free as well. Having backups can save time and can help you in easily rolling back your computer. From a corporate standpoint if I didn't have backups of computers my end-users may be losing out in significant downtime which equates to not only time lost, but money lost. While consumers may be different I still say the time spent creating backups is well worth it. For something as small as a driver issue or as large as a virus a restore from a backup can get you up and be running much faster. Having even a 'base' image is preferable to having no backups at all. Macrium Reflect and Aomei Backupper Standard are both free and widely used programs for consumers.

I'm happy you keep Windows on a different partition than your data. However, stuff can still get on your separate partition on your drive. While it may be slightly harder it is possible.Take my advice from having helped people for many many years who have done the same thing - there are people who get burned thinking they are safe just because the data is backed up on another partition. Having data stored/backed up on a separate drive that can be connected/disconnected from the physical computer is more preferable. Please keep the external drive disconnected when not creating backups. Plus, by not keeping it connected to your computer (all the time) it can minimize the drive from getting infected as well.

I agree with @JM Security - you should look into adding HTTPS Everywhere as it is a good extension. Here is a link to HTTPS Everywhere for you to read more about this great add-on: HTTPS Everywhere

I would like to mention that Zemana Anti-malware is very good product along with Norton Power Eraser for on-demand scanners. Both of these great tools are well known and free!

Link to Zemana Antimalware (ZAM): Zemana Anti-Malware | Advanced Malware Removal Software

Link to Norton Power Eraser: Norton Rescue Tools

~Brian

 

[mekelek]

My data is backed up and is on another partition. No worries.

an other partition can still be infected/encrypted/stolen

 

[Lightning_Brian]

an other partition can still be infected/encrypted/stolen

@mekelek Is correct about this @Sher . It is sad but so very true. Many people think it cannot be infected/encrypted/stolen. However, it can just as easily be just like the C: drive. Please take note of this!!

This is why I recommend an external solution that is not always on nor connected to a computer.

~Brian

 

[SherKaan]

an other partition can still be infected/encrypted/stolen

I know this mate. It's all backed up. And there's no way of me getting infected the way I use my PC.

 

[SherKaan]

Added:

Zemana Anti-Malware.
HTTPS Everywhere extension.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

I know this mate. It's all backed up. And there's no way of me getting infected the way I use my PC.

@Sher I'm glad you have confidence, but I hate to say it.... There may come a day that you do get infected. If this does happen it is not the end of the world, but what we are all trying to say is that by not having backups of data we live kinda dangerously. While I get your point of view that you believe the separate partition is good for what you are doing it may come back to bite you at some point of time or another (figuratively speaking). I worked with a few folks who share a similar thought process until they got hit with some nasty stuff and they lost data, because they didn't keep up-to-date backups. It is not a matter of "IF" anymore, but a matter of "WHEN" in this day and age. Unfortunately, for them they lost far more than what they originally thought they lost. Ever since they went with various backup products that I recommended such as Acronis True Image 2017/2018 (Paid), Macrium Reflect (Free/Paid), AOMEI Backupper (Free/Paid) among other solutions such as Clonezilla (Free).

At this point of time I will not recommend solutions such as EASEUS as I have seen many issues with that software. If anything if people don't want to use anything else one could use Microsoft's built in backup and restore feature. Couple this with an external drive large enough to store several images and you should be good to go. Again, my preferred method would be to use a tried and true software that is widely used than just Microsoft's built in backup. However, Microsoft's built in solution is better than nothing. As a side note: your configuration will remain in a "risky" state until a backup solution is decided upon.

Glad to see you have added ZAM and HTTPS Everywhere to your config. Both of these security solutions will help out tremendously in keeping things in check.

Perhaps adding NPE would be another good on demand solution to keeping things in check.

~Brian

 

[ForgottenSeer 69673]

When you get a bad windows update that leaves your computer unbootable and you format and redo windows from scratch, you still have to go through all the time to update again. Having saved data an another partition won't do much good if you can't boot your computer. Doesn't look like OP is looking for suggestions.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

When you get a bad windows update that leaves your computer unbootable and you format and redo windows from scratch, you still have to go through all the time to update again. Having saved data an another partition won't do much good if you can't boot your computer. Doesn't look like OP is looking for suggestions.

Oh I have seen this problem with Windows 10 time and again... A update causes some BSOD (Blue Screen of "Death"), because an update went sour. Having a good solid backup would save a lot of time. Even in the corporate side we see Windows 10 causing some hiccups in a small percentage of computers. That is even with using extreme caution and deployment through WSUS. We could have hundreds of computers with the exact same setup (hardware, software, updates, purchased the equipment the same time frame down to the "T" deal here) and there is one or two that have some update issues. It seems like there is always a computer or two that may experience a small/moderate problem out of the thousands of computers that we (my company and I) manage. I have seen some computers become un-bootable due to some odd Windows Updates too, but with the amount of management and oversight of the WSUS setup we have we can control updates much more compared to most consumers. Thus, we have less amount of problems. Backups are key to overcoming problems. Loss of time equates to loss of profit for a corporate standpoint. Loss of data for both consumer and corporate environments can have detrimental effects as well - even more so for corporate environments.

Glad you pointed out the issues with updates!

~Brian

 

[SherKaan]

@Sher I'm glad you have confidence, but I hate to say it.... There may come a day that you do get infected. If this does happen it is not the end of the world, but what we are all trying to say is that by not having backups of data we live kinda dangerously. While I get your point of view that you believe the separate partition is good for what you are doing it may come back to bite you at some point of time or another (figuratively speaking). I worked with a few folks who share a similar thought process until they got hit with some nasty stuff and they lost data, because they didn't keep up-to-date backups. It is not a matter of "IF" anymore, but a matter of "WHEN" in this day and age. Unfortunately, for them they lost far more than what they originally thought they lost. Ever since they went with various backup products that I recommended such as Acronis True Image 2017/2018 (Paid), Macrium Reflect (Free/Paid), AOMEI Backupper (Free/Paid) among other solutions such as Clonezilla (Free).

At this point of time I will not recommend solutions such as EASEUS as I have seen many issues with that software. If anything if people don't want to use anything else one could use Microsoft's built in backup and restore feature. Couple this with an external drive large enough to store several images and you should be good to go. Again, my preferred method would be to use a tried and true software that is widely used than just Microsoft's built in backup. However, Microsoft's built in solution is better than nothing. As a side note: your configuration will remain in a "risky" state until a backup solution is decided upon.

Glad to see you have added ZAM and HTTPS Everywhere to your config. Both of these security solutions will help out tremendously in keeping things in check.

Perhaps adding NPE would be another good on demand solution to keeping things in check.

~Brian

Brother, all of my data is backed up. In case, of an unlikely malware infection or system failure, I'll restore it easily. No worries.

 

[SherKaan]

When you get a bad windows update that leaves your computer unbootable and you format and redo windows from scratch, you still have to go through all the time to update again. Having saved data an another partition won't do much good if you can't boot your computer. Doesn't look like OP is looking for suggestions.

In case of a system failure (as you mentioned in your post), I'll do a clean install and my data partition will still be intact. If a malware strikes or my hard disk dies, I'll restore the data easily from the backup source. Hope you understand.