Reasonable, basic security for a NORMAL PC?

What do you do online?

If you want proof just look at the defined viral databases it uses. They're the smallest of any platform, and when you consider that wd uses the same security programming as the rest of windows.... yeah it doesn't surprise me. Seriously, when you look at it, it's just not a good platform. I'm dealing with a rootkit, which is what brought me here to this forum, and windows defender said my system was perfectly fine(see the "hacked computer" thread). The majority of viruses target it by default as a result of it being integrated fully into the windows framework. I'll stick with Kaspersky if I go with an anti-virus on a windows boot.

Pooflinger said:

Windows defender has been one of the worst products ever to come out. Most security issues target it specifically when they infect a system and use it to aid them. A physical dog is better at cyber security

Windows Defender is a physical dog. But it has disguised itself

1. Use standard Windows account for every day use of PC instead of Administrator (but keeping one Administrator account is still necessary)
If you are the only account using the PC, then why not go into gpedit and at least set the UAC to always Prompt for Credentials (Not Prompt for Consent) on the Secure Desktop even when running as an Admin. If you had like a company with many users, then yes, I would definitely make them all Standard Users. But for a single user who practices safe computer security protocols and knows which apps to install that are not malicious, then an Admin would be fine.

Nobody mentioned AppLocker. Which I think would be more effective than an AV solution.

And, full disk encryption is a must!

And people who don’t trust Windows Defender, the 2 good third party AVs are Symantec Endpoint Protection or Mcafee Virus Scan Enterprise. But these are not free.

win10freak said:

, the 2 good third party AVs are Symantec Endpoint Protection or Mcafee Virus Scan Enterprise. But these are not free.

I consider them PUP: Positively Unwanted Program.

I turned the UAC back up… It pops up a lot. Seems like every time I open something to configure a program this thing pops up and I have go over and click on it to let me make a change. It pops up when I run ADWCleaner.

Beyond that, I'm trying to figure out how I should PROPERLY handle these situations.

WD is up and running. I downloaded Configure Defender, set it on HIGH and let it go. I'm not sure whether it's working on not, and I haven't found anything that shows that WD is different than before. I set it to HIGH, it had me reboot, and I presume it's doing whatever it's supposed to.

Just to be sure – the “Configure Defender” you’re talking about is from Andy Ful, right? Anything SPECIFIC I need to do other than set it to “HIGH” and reboot?

I've got the free Malwarebytes, ADWCleaner, CCleaner and Malware Browser Guard and Ublock Origin are running in all the browsers. Except Opera, which doesn't seem to have any of them.

Anyhow, about two minutes ago, I got a notification from "App and Browser Control". Clicked and it opened the Virus and threat protection screen. There, it says it found

PUA:Win32/AskToolbar and that its "Low".

I have the option of having it Quarantined, Removed or Allowed
I couldn't see any reason to keep it in quarantine, so I told it to Remove it...

In THEORY, it DID remove it - right? Do I now need to run Malwarebytes and ADWCleaner? Or do I just run a "Quick Scan" on this page? Or do I need to do ANYTHING - as in I can be assured that whatever it was is now gone?

The quick scan says it check 27132 files and found 0 threats.

And I JUST got ANOTHER one... This time its

Backdoor:Win32/Diretelti!ml and it says it's SEVERE

I told the virus and threat protection to get rid of this one too. What's going on?

Since you tightened up your security things are getting caught. A bit strange you find a more than 2 years old threat today !?!