Win 7 Pro Security

A) Ccleaner is NOT a malware cleaner.

B) Check out System Ninja and use that in conjunction with Ccleaner. (Note that if you use Spotify you'll want to exclude the download songs path in System Ninja).

C) VPN's don't offer malware protection. Only a new IP address with an encrypted connection so that your ISP, etc can't see what you're doing. Read my post on my forum here on picking a good VPN.

D) Use the now free Sandboxie for your browser. You'll need to go into the default box settings in Sandboxie and allow your browser profile to stick on browser exit so that bookmarks, etc stick and nothing else. They do have a support forum. Use them.

E) Scan ALL downloads at Virus Total. Read the community input if it may be a false positive. In fact, bookmark the link for quick access. That's what I do.

F) Clone your computer/s. I use a combination of AOMEI Backupper and Clonezilla. I use Clonezilla in order to clone my encrypted hard drives. It's used in the Parted Magic live CD I have. You need to use the advanced options and do a sector by sector. That's if you use something like Truecrypt or Veracrypt.

G) My sentiments on the update crap. In synopsis, it's largely a fallacy unless the update is for hardware or software.

Also note that MSE is ONLY a baseline scanner. Check out Immunet.

Immunet AntiVirus

Goodbye Microsoft Security Essentials: Microsoft Now Recommends You Use a Third-Party Antivirus

I haven't had any trouble installing Immunet and I don't even use updates. If you need that update then apply it. I wouldn't use Bitdefender as they inject themselves between your TLS connections and you'll have to whitelist domain after domain. They really made their product a PITA.

I really don't know of any good anti-virus software. I don't even use any, but I have Immunet on my parent's computer. I use Sandboxie for my browser and scan all downloads at Virus Total. I also clone my computer periodically. If you do those three things you really don't need anti-virus software. You would need it if you have the tendency of browsing shady websites or what ever.

Interesting to hear your take on antivirus. As long as your system works for you then "thumbs up" but I don't have your expertise or your luck. I have been pretty safe in recent years as I settled down to my core software collection. I used to sample lots of new stuff and was glad to have a bit of protection. I now know that if I can't download direct from the publisher's site I give it a miss. Places like Cnet and Sourceforge, etc. acting as download agents are known for adding their own rubbish to the load.

The jury is still out on what I should do next........

I'm no expert, but one technique I have with things like Ccleaner, and most software updates, is not to jump immediately and update to the latest release as soon as they come out. Sometimes they're fixing security holes, so I don't want to wait too long, but I fear that if you install when it's fresh off the press, that's when all the bugs are going to be found by the community, so (selfishly) I let others hit the bugs first, report it and have it fixed. When I run Ccleaner and it tells me there's a new version, I just run the old one and then update it ready for next time. Especially true with things that don't matter all that much and updates are generally for new features rather than security patching - which is most things. AV database updates excluded, of course - they're only tweaked to detect newly discovered viruses, so it's good to update often.


I wish I had a clue what to do about Windows Updates - some say they don't update from a fresh install ever, and that the updates are just bloat or for more control and spying by M$ - others advise that you should update all the important ones for best security.


I also wish I knew whether all these fairly large updates just accrue on my smallish drive, or fix something and then get deleted - the monthly rollup stuff all adds up to a big chunk of disc. I hardly understand the info when I try to figure out what it does, or it just says something bland about fixing security issues. I generally ignore the non-critical stuff. It keeps on offering me Silverlight, but who needs it? It's supposed to be deprecated according to wikipedia.

Aardvarkly said:

Interesting to hear your take on antivirus. As long as your system works for you then "thumbs up" but I don't have your expertise or your luck. I have been pretty safe in recent years as I settled down to my core software collection. I used to sample lots of new stuff and was glad to have a bit of protection. I now know that if I can't download direct from the publisher's site I give it a miss. Places like Cnet and Sourceforge, etc. acting as download agents are known for adding their own rubbish to the load.

The jury is still out on what I should do next........

Read post #11 again. Specifically the part about scanning ALL downloads at Virus Total.

And when you install something you shouldn't use the quick or express install, what ever it's called. Go through the options so that you can opt out of any possible third-party offers bundled with the software.


Check out this site. They have a freeware section, they scan everything, let you know if it has third-party crap and they have a great collection of all kinds of goodies. Some known, some not so known. Been using Snapfiles since circa 2007. Been a happy downloader ever since. In fact, I think it was Snapfiles where I got a great monitor interaction software from called Input Director. I have a laptop sitting here on the desk and I can just mouse over the screen and access it. Best of all, this software is free. At least the version I have installed. It does say in the program licensed for personal non-commercial use.

From Snapfiles I also found a program called Yawcam. It allows me to use a webcam as a proximity sensor. Once the camera detects motion in my room it will launch a shutdown shortcut and my computer will automatically shutdown. Since I have all my computer's encrypted I don't want anyone venturing onto my stuff. Would you? So once the computer is shut down, there is no way in hell you're cracking AES 256 with a 25+ character password committed to memory. One day I'll do a cascade of ciphers. Like AES and Twofish. If I did three my computer speed would suffer.

I use the VNC App in a local network Config. to turn off Yawcam before I open the door.