Windows 10: Any benefits to using TPM, VBS etc. as an average desktop PC user?

Hello everyone,

This will most probably be a longer and somewhat unusual read; it's more of a discussion on this, I hope, than asking for help. It's also a part repost from the Technet forums, where nobody bothered to answer or even have an opinion. So here we go.

I'm generally curious about the more "unusual", newer security features in Windows 10 (1809). To give some context, I have a Z370/8700k based PC. Mostly used for work in Adobe Illustrator/Indesign/Photoshop, some gaming, browsing, typical general use.

At the same time, I do like to test IT stuff, and was always moderately interested in security, and since Defender is now a viable security choice and Windows 10 has so many new security features, I wanted to give some a try. But... I am just left wondering how would such features benefit me. Assume a Secure Boot On, UEFI-only platform.

For example, TPM. I can enable Intel's PTT, which looks to be a fully functional TPM 2.0. All good. Defender sees it, says it's OK. Everything proceeds as normal. But, even though I have read on TPM, I just can't see how it can benefit me. I don't use an admin password, I'm the only guy that uses the PC. Don't even use a Windows password, I mean, I have one but I used netplwiz so I don't need to enter it. I don't need SSD encryption either, it's a small performance hit, and if somebody actually steals my PC I'll have more stringent issues than the data on the SSD getting compromised, so I just don't see a reason to use Bitlocker. Is there a use for TPM in this scenario? The PC is a desktop I have built, so no Windows Hello etc.

Then we have VBS. So I enabled the Windows Hypervisor Platform, enabled VT-d in BIOS, enabled about everything in gpedit/Device Guard/Turn On VBS. All good (mostly, I'll explain later), VBS enabled in msinfo. Took a very small hit to performance (like 20 points in Cinebench). But again... what exactly is this doing for me - how am I benefited? Other security technologies like a firewall or app control (in other security suites, like KIS) are very obvious. VBS seems yet another layer of security for no obvious reason/benefit - at least to me.

I have said "mostly" above, as 1809 brought some issue with it too (clean install). For example, running the Device Guard Readiness tool would say that HSTI fails. Why - I don't know. msinfo also says it, and that are "Unallowed DMA capable buses" something-something, of which I don't know anything about, the motherboard doesn't have Thunderbolt or any fancy/old interfaces like Firewire, it's a pretty basic MSI Z370 Gaming Plus. I assume this results on Core Isolation>Memory Integrity failing when I try to toggle it - in 1803 it worked fine. Forcing it through the registry works, but yet again, I see no reasons why I would do it, as I don't get how exactly it would benefit me, not to mention that since HSTI fails, there might actually be an incompatibility and the feature might not be 100% functional.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying these features are useless. I am just trying to find out if they can do anything useful/interesting for my specific use case.

:)

 

VBS Msgbox

Denis,

• I was too lazy to compute the size programmatically. And, it the 2005 version the message box always came up hidden, so I always used 0 for the top. It's also part of my OCD to be able to control everything.
• I personally don't need it to timeout. I used this in vbs files to ask to continue to the next step, skip the next step or cancel the vbs. BTW, I added the code back in but keep it assign it to 0.
• Sound was calling Windows Media Player: WshShell.Run "C:\Users\donast\desktop\sndrec32.lnk",7,false the lnk is a shortcut on my old desktop that had: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe"
  "C:\Users\Public\Music\Wavefiles\Twilight.wav"
• Yes. The value is the number of the button in the order specified when calling it.
• Never really thought about it as all my VBS/VBA code is relatively simple and I add comments in the file as necessary to remind me what is going on. I don't usually have anyone to share my code.

FYI I use a VBS to call it. Here's a line from a test vbs I use to run your version:

choice=Wshshell.run("custommsgbox.vbs " & wscript.scriptname & " ""CopyFiles.vbs done. Continue with UnArchVista.vbs?"" ""White"" ""Black"" 40 ""Yes"" ""No"" ""Cancel""",1,true)

Copy it to a text editor to see all the spaces, etc. Took me a while back the to figure it out.

Don

 

TPM update

Don't know if this is the right place for this thread but whatever, laptop informed me that " a firmware update is needed for you security processor (TPM)," now, i looked up what to do and from a microsoft support thing, the last step says to clear the tpm. it has a warning saying to back up my data, i would like to know what clearing the tpm does, and what measures i need to take to make sure nothing goes wrong.

 

windows 10 deleted my desktop files

Step 1 - I upgraded to Win 10 and lost all my files on Desktop.

Step 2 - Found the files in Network - USers- Desktop

copied all files again to desktop.

Step 3- Restarted my machine again and lost desktop files again.

Step 4 - As suggested did the following as listed below but dont find my files.

• Press “Windows + E”, open This PC/Computer
• Open Local Disc C, open Windows.old
• Click on Users, select your User name
• Go to desktop folder

Cant find my files. Why is Win 10 deleted files again and again from Desktop ?.