Solved Running light

[I be he]

As of now my config is Win 7 64 home, LUA, 7fw, UAC on high, Sandboxie drop rights/delete upon exit, IE-9 w/ smartscreen on, and MBAM free for on demand scan Now, is it possible to trim alittle fat off:shock: with a OS tweak or two? Or is there a tweak or two that will harden things abit without any trimming?

 

[marsmimar]

What are you ultimately trying to accomplish? Speed up boot time? Free hard drive space? Reduce CPU usage? This tutorial may give you some ideas.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

 

[I be he]

What are you ultimately trying to accomplish? Speed up boot time? Free hard drive space? Reduce CPU usage? This tutorial may give you some ideas.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

Sorry, im concerned with the security end only

 

[Britton30]

You may want to look at some security with active (always on) protection. Microsft Security essentails will take care of that.

 

[I be he]

Im done with the A/V scene. Its all about tweeking and running light from now on.:shock: I know its hard for some to do this without feeling alittle naked, but im enjoying it:shock: The ugly truth is, everytime i caught something, there was an A/V involved. The good part is ive NEVER caught anything when running Returnil, Comodo D+, Geswall, or my fav, Sandboxie But thank you for the suggestion Im more looking for a few tweeks maybe, that can be done by the average dummy

 

[Britton30]

Seven Forums will be here when you need help.

 

[I be he]

Thank you kind sir You should try it with me though, i think youll like it

 

[Britton30]

Been there done that, got a tee shirt. Haven't been back.

 

[pparks1]

Hmmmm...I don't really run any tweaks related to security. I used to run with a LUA on my work laptop...but found that it wasn't really doing anything beneficial for me. The other machines where I don't use a limited account seem to be fine as well.

I leave UAC enabled (although not on high), and I use the Windows 7 firewall along with my hardware firewalls (at work) and my NAT firewall (Linksys router at home).

With regards to AV, we use Trend at work, and I use MSE at home. While neither product seems to really ever find anything on my computers, i guess I don't want to go completely head in the sand and have something crop up which "might" have been preventable.

The number 1 thing which I changed which pretty much stopped problems from happening for me, was getting away from piracy of any kind. Once I quit searching for activators, serial sites, warez sites, commercial software keys, and software which I didn't pay for...it seems to have reduced issues by about 99.99%. And I gave all of that stuff up 6-8 years ago.

I keep mbam around, although it pretty much never finds anything. I also run Spyware Blaster from time to time, from Javacoolsoftware. SpywareBlaster® | Prevent spyware and malware. Free download.. However, I'm unsure if that has really prevented anything either.

The #1 thing I do to keep my machine as light as possible, is that I test and play with software exclusively in a VM. And I load only what I absolutely need on my desktop. This keeps it fast, and keeps plenty of space on my limited space SSD for the OS. Any of my questionable web surfing (like when work forced me to try to jailbreak an iPad), is usually done within a VM running sandboxie.

 

[Bill2]

If your PC runs fine with all that armoury, theres no harm in continuing with that. You dont have to be light because other people are. Also, step out and experiment instead of asking people whats good for you. Make sure your data is backed up at all times, then fiddle, you'll learn much better that way. Just my opinion, no offence meant.

 

[I be he]

If your PC runs fine with all that armoury, theres no harm in continuing with that. You dont have to be light because other people are. Also, step out and experiment instead of asking people whats good for you. Make sure your data is backed up at all times, then fiddle, you'll learn much better that way. Just my opinion, no offence meant.

None taken thanks for the reply. You never know when someone will have the answer your looking for, so im all ears if somebody does come up with an easy tweak. Tnx

 

[DBone]

I am security minded, and as I type, my browser (Chrome) is sandboxed with avast! Internet Security while WinPatrol Plus, MBAM and Hitman Pro are all standing by for their by-weekly on demand scan. All of that said, the best thing that I have done to my W7 machine, is to turn off UAC. Wow, it's like I have a computer from the 20th century again!

Yes, I know all about not having the "always click me, no matter what" program enabled, and that it also deactivates IE9 protected mode, but since I never ever use IE9, I could care less. UAC is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[I be he]

I am security minded, and as I type, my browser (Chrome) is sandboxed with avast! Internet Security while WinPatrol Plus, MBAM and Hitman Pro are all standing by for their by-weekly on demand scan. All of that said, the best thing that I have done to my W7 machine, is to turn off UAC. Wow, it's like I have a computer from the 20th century again!

Yes, I know all about not having the "always click me, no matter what" program enabled, and that it also deactivates IE9 protected mode, but since I never ever use IE9, I could care less. UAC is absolutely ridiculous.

I understand what your saying, but ive decided to go with the lesser of two :devil: I dont care for googles positions on privacy so ie-9 gets the nod for now. Since i surf from a lua account and dont download or change things very often, i dont see my uac much

 

[pparks1]

All of that said, the best thing that I have done to my W7 machine, is to turn off UAC. Wow, it's like I have a computer from the 20th century again!

Wonders why your computer would be faster now with UAC off. Were you getting UAC prompts every 2 seconds? Do you only use programs that require you to be an admin? I've run with UAC on since day 1 and it's hardly a bother. In fact, I rarely see it.

 

[DBone]

I saw UAC for CCleaner, all my Auslogics programs, MBAM, HMP, WinPatrol, Slimdrivers, ect, ect... Disabling UAC didn't actually speed up my computer, it just makes getting to those programs easy again. UAC is just a false sense of security to me.

 

[Windows 911]

A good tweak I would recommend would be using EMET for Windows. Look it up in tutorials from Brink. It's a friendly GUI for users to optimize Window's protection systems like DEP, ASLR, etc. It doesn't inhibit any performance as far as I am aware of, and makes sure the protection systems are always active. Adds security without adding weight.

 

[I be he]

A good tweak I would recommend would be using EMET for Windows. Look it up in tutorials from Brink. It's a friendly GUI for users to optimize Window's protection systems like DEP, ASLR, etc. It doesn't inhibit any performance as far as I am aware of, and makes sure the protection systems are always active. Adds security without adding weight.

Very good!!! That is what im looking for Good job Windows Many blessings

 

[Windows 911]

No problem, you are very welcome

 

[pparks1]

UAC is just a false sense of security to me.

I don't understand.

Let's say that you run into some sort of spyware/malware and now all of a sudden your browser throws a UAC prompt indicating to you that it needs to now run as administrator. By disabling UAC, you simply allow it to elevate to admin and it potentially does damage. With the UAC prompt in your face, you hopefully stop and thing WTF...why does Firefox/Chrome/IE/Safari all of a sudden need admin access.

I'm unsure why this would constitute a false sense of security. The entire purpose is to alert you to situations when applications require an elevation of privileges.

I just don't find my prompts annoying. The only programs that I use regularly which seem to prompt are 1). Acronis..I launch about once every 1-2 weeks to backup my system 2). malwarebytes..I launch about once per week and do a scan for any problems.

 

[DBone]

I guess my logic is, sense UAC pops up all of the time (for me anyways) with nothing more then a "Hey D, are you sure you want to do this?" pop-up that needs to be clicked to proceed, then the user (for me anyways) just hits OK.................. It's like the boy who cried wolf. My other security apps are far more protective then the wolf button.