Advice Request Software that can work alongside Windows native defenses?

[ForgottenSeer 54678]

Hello everyone,

I have a doubt, and I would like to ask for your help: do you guys know a good program that can work in a complimentary way, alongside Windows Defender, Windows 10 native defenses and Smartscreen, rather than replacing them? One that is hassle free, set and forget (even for a person that uses/installs lots of stuff), doesn`t generate lots of warnings (like Comodo, hell no way) and is easy for a novice. Keep in mind, I`m a home user, so I face many of the risks discussed in this forum in a different way/level.
I thought about NVT OSArmor, Malwarebytes, Immunet, any opinions?

About myself: I`m a home user and regarding knowledge, an average Joe. Currently I use two computers, one dedicated to financial/important stuff only, and the other one for everything else. I use Standard User Account, I have configured the router as much as possible, I have enabled two factor authentication whenever possible/SMS warnings+blockade/virtual cards/etc, I only install software from trusted sources, in other words I have taken all the common measures for protection. Currently I use KTS on both computers, but I find it very expensive (in my country) and way too much bells and whistles for the risks I face. As time goes on, I find myself increasingly unreliant on third party software to protect me.

I would like to thank everyone for the patience; I would like to thank people like Littlebits, hjlbx, shmu26, Andy Ful, Nico@FMA, Umbra, and many others, that have taken time and patience to give good answers on other threads or creating good tutorials. I have learned I lot here.

 

[RoboMan]

Mate @Gheart I personally understand your concern with third party apps. It can be very frustrating... Incompatibilities, random crashes, sites breaks...

Taking a look at what you mention, you seem to have decent knowledge of your online security!

I use Standard User Account, I have configured the router as much as possible, I have enabled two factor authentication whenever possible/SMS warnings+blockade/virtual cards/etc, I only install software from trusted sources, in other words I have taken all the common measures for protection.

As for protecting your system you should take two steps to achieve a "secure" enviroment:

Prevention:
Focusing on avoiding malware at all cost. This could be achieved on two ways:

1. Secure habits: do not download cracks/keygens/activators for pirated software. Do not happy click everywhere and trust nobody online!
2. Browser: equip your browser in a way you reduce risks to the minimum. uBlock Origin to block all ads and malvertising, HTTPS Everywhere to force encrypted connections, NoScript Suite to block unwanted scripts (possibly malicious).

Protection:
This could be done by installing local software and hardening your security policies.

There are many usefull yet not intrusive software you could use, right now two names come to my head:

• VoodooShield
• NVT OSArmor

An excellent non-intrusive combo would be:

• Windows Defender (hardened with AndyFul's ConfigureDefender to tweak for maximum settings)
• OSArmor
• SysHardener (NVT) to harden all possible Windows security policies and lock it down.

I personally use this combo on one of my machines. And it's very effective, non-intrusive, and light.

 

[shmu26]

On top of Windows Defender, you can (and should) add OSArmor at default settings. It won't bother you much. You can install and uninstall most software without issue. I am speaking of OSArmor at default settings. If you totally tweak it out, you will have issues with installing and uninstalling software.

If you are willing to spend money, HitmanPro.Alert (note that I am speaking of the "Alert" version) is pretty much a install and forget software, if you want to use it that way. You also customize it, to a certain extent. No promises for the future, but at the present time, it seems to play pretty nicely with Windows and most software.

If you are an intermediate user, you should be able to handle Andy Ful's ConfigureDefender. It will allow you to unlock the advanced protections of Defender.

 

[Ink]

Free tier users may want to avoid Malwarebytes with it's semi-bloated Premium features.

Unless you need it, it's up to you, but I don't believe in any real-time complimentary scanners, so Immunet is out too.

Unchecky can prevent unwanted apps from popular and free installers. It's Adware protection without a scanner.

If even needed, ESET Online Scanner is decent tool for scanning and removal. An active Internet connection is required, but it's completely free to download and use. Pin to taskbar so you don't lose the shortcut. Optional to uninstall after use.

@shmu26 HitmanPro.Alert might trigger a Blue Screen error, at least that was the first one I experienced on Windows 10, ever. The latest OS version has Exploit Protection.. of sorts.

Don't forget Backup as a native defence:

• Let Windows create a Recovery disk (or ISO) for USB
• Create a system image at [intervals] with Macrium Reflect Free/Paid, or software of choice.
• Offline backups onto USB portable HDD or Flash disk.
• Data sync with preferred cloud storage solution.

Everything else has been mentioned by @RoboMan and @shmu26 above.


@Gheart Once you have figured everything out, you can share you set-up under PC Security Configuration

 

[shmu26]

Free tier users may want to avoid Malwarebytes with it's semi-bloated Premium features.

Unless you need it, it's up to you, but I don't believe in any real-time complimentary scanners, so Immunet is out too.

Unchecky can prevent unwanted apps from popular and free installers. It's Adware protection without a scanner.

If even needed, ESET Online Scanner is decent tool for scanning and removal. An active Internet connection is required, but it's completely free to download and use. Pin to taskbar so you don't lose the shortcut. Optional to uninstall after use.

@shmu26 HitmanPro.Alert might trigger a Blue Screen error, at least that was the first one I experienced on Windows 10, ever. The latest OS version has Exploit Protection.. of sorts.

Don't forget Backup as a native defence:

• Let Windows create a Recovery disk (or ISO) for USB
• Create a system image at [intervals] with Macrium Reflect Free/Paid, or software of choice.
• Offline backups onto USB portable HDD or Flash disk.
• Data sync with preferred cloud storage solution.

Everything else has been mentioned by @RoboMan and @shmu26 above.


@Gheart Once you have figured everything out, you can share you set-up under PC Security Configuration

@Spawn, just curious, when you saw the Blue Screen, did you have the ASR rule for credential protection (lsass) enabled? Because HMPA has a pretty similar mitigation. Just wondering what might have triggered the BSOD in your case.

 

[SumTingWong]

VoodooShield

 

[Deleted member 178]

An excellent non-intrusive combo would be:

• Windows Defender (hardened with AndyFul's ConfigureDefender to tweak for maximum settings)
• OSArmor
• SysHardener (NVT) to harden all possible Windows security policies and lock it down.

i definitely +1 that, this is my baseline on all my computers. i just dont need the max setting of WD because once set, smartscreen settings are unavailable except via ConfigureDefender.

 

[shmu26]

I would not recommend SysHardener to someone with average skills who is looking for a no-headache setup, because if something gets blocked or doesn't work right, it can take some tinkering to fix it.
OSArmor will cover most of the same things as SysHardener.

 

[oldschool]

I agree with everyone here. You won't go wrong with this advice. At default settings for OSA and SysHardener you won't be bothered at all. +1 on Voodooshield. Your choice. I consider my experience level same as yourself, a casual home user. Any of the above suggestions should work well with little weight. I still think of myself as Level 1, but since I use ConfigureDefender at High settings/SS set to Warn -according to @shmu26 I'm an intermediate user. Thanks for the compliment @shmu26 but I'm still Level 1. If you have any questions, you already know who to ask.

 

[ForgottenSeer 54678]

I`m glad I got many useful suggestions, thank you guys, really. I`m looking forward to test each suggestion and see for myself. OSArmor looks a very promising option ... and it`s free.

Secure habits: do not download cracks/keygens/activators for pirated software. Do not happy click everywhere and trust nobody online!

Don`t worry this one I already follow . But there is always the risk of someone else happy clicking while using a SUA (a kid for example) :emoji_expressionless:. This is what worries me, malware messing with your pc while you`re on a SUA at default settings.

Browser: equip your browser in a way you reduce risks to the minimum. uBlock Origin to block all ads and malvertising, HTTPS Everywhere to force encrypted connections, NoScript Suite to block unwanted scripts (possibly malicious).

Oooooops!!! Installing it as soon as possible!

Don't forget Backup as a native defence:

• Let Windows create a Recovery disk (or ISO) for USB
• Create a system image at [intervals] with Macrium Reflect Free/Paid, or software of choice.
• Offline backups onto USB portable HDD or Flash disk.
• Data sync with preferred cloud storage solution

Oooooops!!! [x2] Backup solution on the way!

@Gheart Once you have figured everything out, you can share you set-up under PC Security Configuration

Well perhaps one day, I still have a lot to learn, but someday I would like to write a complete guide for home users (or see it done by anyone else more skilled than me), a very comprehensive one including router configuration as well and what kind of threats we home users really need to worry or not. Sometimes we average home users have to go great lengths in other to abolish misconceptions within ourselves (example: antivirus as a 100% protection ...), for me it took a long time; but ... I used to use my pc with admin account :emoji_cold_sweat: plus KTS until 2015.

i definitely +1 that, this is my baseline on all my computers. i just dont need the max setting of WD because once set, smartscreen settings are unavailable except via ConfigureDefender.

So I`m guessing one possible combo would be: OSArmor [default settings] + AndyFul's ConfigureDefender at High settings, but keeping in mind that this is as comprehensive complimentary protection as I will be able to get within the given constraints.

 

[shmu26]

OSArmor [default settings] + AndyFul's ConfigureDefender at High settings, but keeping in mind that this is as comprehensive complimentary protection as I will be able to get within the given constraints.

You don't have to go with Andy Ful High settings all the way. Try it, and then disable the things that bother you.
1 You will probably disable Controlled folder access real quick, because it's a pain.
2 You might also back off from the 2 max settings for cloud lookup, if you find that it causes too much delay in launching certain processes.
3 Credential protection might conflict with some of your software.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

I would not recommend SysHardener to someone with average skills who is looking for a no-headache setup, because if something gets blocked or doesn't work right, it can take some tinkering to fix it.
OSArmor will cover most of the same things as SysHardener.

I have a diferent idea. I found sysharder gave me a lot less headache than OSArmor because OSArmor blocks more than the syshardner
syshardener never interferes with any activity of average users because I don't think they ever touch wscript, java or MS word, excels's macro
syshardner will reduce the surface attack for them. The default settings are good enough for them

I founs OSArmor's blocking suspicious process is quite sensitive

 

[oldschool]

You don't have to go with Andy Ful High settings all the way. Try it, and then disable the things that bother you.
1 You will probably disable Controlled folder access real quick, because it's a pain.
2 You might also back off from the 2 max settings for cloud lookup, if you find that it causes too much delay in launching certain processes.
3 Credential protection might conflict with some of your software.

Yes, this could be true depending on how many/what kind of apps you have installed. There is a small learning curve with CFA but for me, at least, it has not been difficult to set exclusions. You will simply have to experiment. I believe this is one of ConfigureDefender's strong points: it really simplifies configuration. If you get stuck you may always re-configure and later go back and investigate what needs to be done to return to higher protection level. Yes, I've turned off CFA now and then, but now I have it on (along with all other features) and it's playing very nicely with my system,.

 

[LDogg]

Alongside WD you can also use Configure Defender by @Andy Ful , another alternative is also TinyWall; very feature rich and easy for any beginner to use.

Backup is also essential if you're also using Windows Native defences with something else.

VoodooShield + Unchecky + Tinywall + Web Browser extensions + Various on demand scanners+ Backup Software can serve as a very strong catalyst for a user using Windows security systems too. Aspects you have covered with this:

• PUPs
• Adware/Spyware
• Exploits/Ransomware
• Trojans
• Scamware/Scareware
• Reinstall system images if needed
• and a whole lot more

Hope this helps you!

~LDogg

 

[JiSingh12]

@Gheart - where you attttt? Wanted to know what you're rocking these days

 

[ForgottenSeer 54678]

@Gheart - where you attttt? Wanted to know what you're rocking these days

Well, kind of ... for now I`m relying mostly on my old ways to secure my two computers, because I`ve been very very busy, but at least my antivirus license (Kaspersky) reports no malware activity up to now (perhaps because it missed stuff, or because there was no malware activity in the first place). But I took some time to investigate the proposed solutions in this thread.

- Backup: for now i have very few important files (generated only on the pc for important stuff), so I decided to keep this manual through a USB stick (for now).

- Browser (uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, NoScript Suite): I have found that even though browser extensions do increase security, they can also mess with functionality, specially NoScript. Blocking ads has one drawback: profit issues for free content creators. I`ll probably end up installing browser extensions only on the pc for important stuff.

- AndyFul's ConfigureDefender, SysHardener (NVT), OSArmor: I have found the options in the first two difficult to understand (I`m a basic user). But I`ll keep OSArmor at default settings, it`s easy enough (for me) to deal with.

- HitmanPro.Alert , VoodooShield : in the country I live, they end up being very expensive.

Once my Kaspersky license expire, I`ll have to think & experiment carefully.

 

[509322]

Well, kind of ... for now I`m relying mostly on my old ways to secure my two computers, because I`ve been very very busy, but at least my two antivirus licenses (Kaspersky) report no malware activity up to now (perhaps because it missed stuff, or because there was no malware activity in the first place). But I took some time to investigate the proposed solutions in this thread.

- Backup: for now i have very few important files (generated only on the pc for important stuff), so I decided to keep this manual through a USB stick (for now).

- Browser (uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, NoScript Suite): I have found that even though browser extensions do increase security, they can also mess with functionality, specially NoScript. Blocking ads has one drawback: profit issues for free content creators. I`ll probably end up installing browser extensions only on the pc for important stuff.

- AndyFul's ConfigureDefender, SysHardener (NVT), OSArmor: I have found the options in the first two difficult to understand (I`m a basic user). But I`ll keep OSArmor at default settings, it`s easy enough (for me) to deal with.

- HitmanPro.Alert , VoodooShield : in the country I live, they end up being very expensive.

Once my Kaspersky licenses expire, I`ll have to think & experiment carefully.

Send me a PM please.