Windows 10: Security

New to W10. Need suggestions for protection from all the evil that lurks on the internet and anyplace else.
Anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-dimwits and anti-anyproblemsthatmightarrise.

Thanks,
dlw

:)

 

Win10 can not access installer

My PC is pre-installed with Win8 and updated to Win10 then.

It works well. But someday, I tried to uninstalled the preset app of win10 such as Xbox etc.

After the preset apps were uninstalled, the system always falls down. I have to restart and restart. It showed to rescue and takes one or two hours without improvement. I have to restart and choose secure setup. It then enter into the system.

But I found I can not uninstall and install any app or program.

Even I want to re-install the windows with tool download from Microsoft website is not available.

What can I do now?

Please help. I almost want to return to Win8.

 

Windows 10 Family Safety glitch

I think a better (more permanent answer) if you are still having trouble is to go into Windows Tasks and disable the task. That will stop it from rearing its head again for you.

Do this ...

The Family Safety Monitor (wpcmon.exe) task is started as an ordinary Windows task. It can be permanently killed like this:

1. Do a Cortana search for "schedule tasks" and click on the search result for the "Schedule Tasks" control panel.

2. When the control panel opens, find the "Family Safety Monitor" entry in the "Active Tasks" pane at the bottom of the screen and double-click it to open.

3. You will see four tasks at the top of the screen. For each of these, click the task and click "Delete" on the right under "Selected Item." Delete all four of them.

4. Close the control panel and restart your system.

You will not be bothered by this horror again (unless they fail to fix it before the next Win10 build is released).

 

I use Windows Defender and common sense.
Other will be along with other fine suggestions.

 

Thanks for replying.
I'll try it.

dlw

 

For those two, making a system image to an external HDD is a sensible precaution. It allows you to restore a known working system if/when you shoot yourself in the foot. Macrium Reflect (free) is the imaging solution recommended by many here, said to be more reliable than the built-in Microsoft 'Backup & Restore - create a system image'. There are tutorials for both...

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

Create System Image in Windows 10

 

For the web pollution, avoid any Chromium project browsers, together they form the largest data base collection on earth: They park in your machine permanently. Same for Edge and Internet Explorer that are not safe to deal with.

Firefox 64-bit appears to be safe with the following extensions:
Ublock Origin (ad blocker), Disconnect (calm Google appetite at collecting data and many other), Ghostery (blocks all kinds of stuff), duckduckgo and duckduckgo.com/lite for home page.

Surf the web safely is the number one rule. Get Defender update many times a day is the second rule and run quick scan few times a week. Avoid all other AV that slow down the machine and the Internet connection = False suitors = All of them.

Malwarebytes free trial is on the list and is very hard to remove, one of the only app that can be removed with Revo Uninstaller and there are some left over to deal with after. The deeper an app goes in the Windows 10 architecture, the harder it is to remove. Some, to get rid of them, needs a clean install and you should do one periodically. The 1607 installer (14393.0) remains the best one on the market, same for 1511 (10586.0).

Don't be shy also at removing MS apps that you'll never use. The list is shown in CCleaner Pro (free trial), under tools/Uninstall. Run CCleaner frequently to removed internal pollution-junk. In this app, you will discover that without using Edge and removing Internet Explorer in programs and features , they both grab your Internet traffic. Revo Uninstaller Pro is also a good app to clean them and to clean Windows too.

Get in touch with the latest and stay informed would be the main rule.

 

Hi there.

IMO the SAFEST way of not getting spyware or worse on a machine is not to use the Internet --however this is obviously not practical these days so I'd recommend browsing on a DECENT LINUX distro such as Centos, OpenSuse, or Ubuntu (there are others such as Linux Mint but the 3 I've named are probably the most popular).

Centos in particular is based 100% on the excellent RHEL Enterprise server (Red Hat) which is used worldwide by 1000's of commercial servers worlwide and is the community based distribution supported totally by Red Hat.

Use Firefox on your Linux distro for browsing and Windows for all the other activities you generally carry out on your computers such as Office stuff, games, or whatever.

Run the Linux machine as a VM on your Windows Host -- VBOX / VMware player are both FREE and can easily be used to create a Virtual machine.

If you must use Torrents then the safest way again is to use MAGNET LINKS (never download an actual torrent file) and use a good free bit torrent client on the Linux machine such as Deluge. That way when downloading a torrent - even if it contains malware it won't hose up your machine (either the Windows Host or the Linux VM).

To use magnet links on say deluge - on the torrent site right click on the magnet link and copy location. Now in Deluge when adding the torrent in the add torrent option a popup will appear - click the URL box --job done.

It's no point saying don't use torrents -- some people will always use them so if you do then USE THEM SAFELY like I've suggested - and while there are legal acceptable torrent delivery sites around beware of copying copyrighted material.

On the Windows box keep WD up to date and of course the OS -- whether or not it's necessary to add further security programs is a matter of choice --personally I don't see much value but there again it's up to everyone to make their own choice.

Finally be aware of the loads of scams out there which can't be stopped by any amount of software protection -- only BRAIN will do that - and never ever open dubious emails, or ANY attachment which you don't know anything about -- and NEVER give out sensitive information (passwords etc) to ANYBODY and especially not on Social media sites.

If you insist on opening an email attachment out of curiosity - you CAN do it safely on a LINUX VM - disconnect from the internet (in the VM menu simply remove the network adapter), and use an email client such as Thunderbird to open the attachment -- you'll soon see if it's OK or not. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ON A WINDOWS HOST WHETHER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET OR NOT. !!!!

Otherwise surf safely.

Cheers
jimbo

 

You're recommending Linux on a windows focused forum? Linux isn't infallible either.

I would recommend Windows Defender, Malwarebytes (free for second opinion or premium for always on) and SuperAntiSpyware.

 

Bitdefender free, Avast free or Avira free, but most important: you!

If you would like to try Linux, try Feren OS. You can make it look like W10, W8, W7 or even XP.

 

I find Avast is too intrusive and bloaty these days so have stopped using it.

 

I run Wd for anti-virus then use Comodo for my firewall and then because Comodo firewall has a built in containment (Sandbox) I run firefox in the containment.

 

I use openSUSE, but for Windows I just use the built in Windows Defender. It seems like between Windows Defender and just a little common sense, that is all I really need. Never been infected, knock on wood.

 

Hi Rocky,
Thanks for replying.
The biggest problem with Windows is the constant interruption of pop-ups in one form or another. Switch to other websites and so on. That is one of the reasons for leaving Windows years ago. I will probably only use it for my drafting; little else.
I did a VM for Ubuntu. However my ext4 hd's do not show up - 2 x 1tb internal and 1 external 250 gb hd.
Any ideas on how to find them when using a VM?

dlw

 

You need to spend some time setting up your Windows because in over two years of using Windows 10 I have seen zero pop ups.