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Amaroq_Starwind

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Everything posted by Amaroq_Starwind

  1. Amazon still makes you watch advertisements, though... which pisses me off more than a little bit. As much as I love and rely on the internet, I feel like only after a complete collapse of the system would things have even a chance of improving. Same thing with current economic and political structures.
  2. You really ought to have more faith in humanity. There's a lot that a user can do to improve their experience and personal security on Windows 10. For instance, I use WuMgr so that I can block automatic updates, and instead update Windows on my own terms, and mine alone.
  3. I have a mix of reasons. For starters, it's Windows 10 running on an old laptop, and Windows Update has never been the most reliable for me. Also, I have an old hard-disk that isn't doing too well, and I'm paranoid about file corruption, but until I can afford an SSD to replace it (or better yet, a new computer entirely) I need to make do with what I have and make sure that the system integrity is always as close to intact as possible. I often encounter random issues on my computers that don't seem to have any discernible root cause, which I have begun to attribute to gremlins. That, and having a sort of "self-healing" thing already in place in the event of future errors occurring somewhere down the line just seems like it would be a smart idea. This isn't a proper long-term fix or treatment plan so much as a stopgap solution to extend the life and usability of my system a little longer, albeit also having elements of being a bit of an experiment where I actually put an idea I have to the test. In this case, having a continuous version of DISM / SFC running was inspired by the self-healing capabilities of ReFS, along with the frequent risk of filesystem corruption caused by various other factors. I do have both Windows Defender and MalwareBytes set up to protect my system from threats, but the one enemy they can never truly defend against is entropy itself. On a semi-unrelated note, once I know how to create a script such as this, I can also set it up on my grandparents' computer to make their lives just a little bit more reliable, since I will often have to go over there to fix problems that unexpectedly develop for a variety of reasons.
  4. I'm looking to create a scheduled task, PowerShell script, or command executable that would automatically run the commands DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth and sfc /scannow in the background, and specifically in that order, both on startup and on a regular schedule, and most importantly without requiring a prompt for user input or requiring a UAC prompt. However, as I am not experienced with the task scheduler or with PowerShell, and I've never created a command executable before, I don't have the first clue how actually go about creating what I'm looking for. Could I have some help?
  5. It is no secret that companies have trade secrets. In fact, I would be more surprised if security vendors like MalwareBytes didn't have any trade secrets. But while trade secrets aim to protect a design through obfuscation, they serve no good once somebody else has already copied the design, which is where a patent comes in. However, filing a patent requires exposing details of the design. This leaves me with two questions: 1. For my own purposes (future endeavors), is it possible to get the benefits of having a patent on something while still keeping the really important stuff a trade secret? 2. Purely to satisfy my curiosity, does MalwareBytes happen to own any software patents?
  6. I too would like to see this significantly improved upon.
  7. What kind of easter egg (hidden messages in a program or game; often for the purposes of humor, showing appreciation, or dedicating to someone's memory) would you include in software that you develop? When I was still trying to learn Python, I wrote a utility for tabletop BattleTech which would throw in-universe quips at you if you gave invalid input or out-of-bounds design parameters. For instance, if you tried putting an engine in your mech that was too heavy, it would tell you that the mech had collapsed under its own weight. One more easter egg I had included was that ot would say Out Of Cheese Error -- Redo From Start if you calculated a negative engine rating (a Terry Pratchett reference). I was inspired to create this thread by previous discussion about the pirate easter egg in MalwareBytes.
  8. A lot of older routers have vulnerabilities in your firmware. The second best thing to do is to factory-reset a router and install fresh firmware on it, but some back doors may still be present following a factory reset and firmware update depending on the model of router, so the first best thing to do is to get a new router entirely and make sure that you always have up-to-date firmware on it. And yes, always change the default password. If you are willing and able to fork over additional dosh, then I'd also suggest getting a hardware firewall setup to protect your network equipment, and sticking to wired connections whenever possible. Fun fact: I received that exact same email in the past, which is what actually prompted me to start looking into cybersecurity. Even if you've already changed your password, you will still receive that email. It is not actually sent from within your account, but the sender is obfuscated to trick the server into thinking that it was sent from your account.
  9. Yeah, still trying to get my hands on the replacement drive in the first place.
  10. So, it turns out that the Epic Games Launcher has been stealing user data from Steam-related directories and Registry keys, and sending it to Epic, even before they launched their store. It also appears that this is in fact the intended functionality. Not only does the Epic Games launcher accurately match the description of Spyware or a Trojan, but Epic's behavior is downright illegal. The Steam API exists for a reason! I have some friends who might wish to share their experiences, but in the meantime I would recommend running the program in a sandbox, enabling both UAC Virtualization and Controlled Folder Access, and cranking up the Windows Defender and MalwareBytes anti-exploit and firewall settings around that program. If you actually use it, I mean. Otherwise, it may be better to just uninstall it if you have Steam.
  11. I feel like these sorts of public service announcements deserve an all points bulletin.
  12. I got an E6510 with an aging hard disk (160 gigabytes of failing sectors), a hand-me-down of sorts. Also, my dad has mistakenly put Windows 10 32-Bit on it. I'm desperately looking for a way to upgrade to 64-Bit without losing anything, and also trying to get my hands on a new SSD to migrate to.
  13. I don't use sleep mode on my laptop at all. When it goes to sleep, it never wakes up and I have to hard reboot it.
  14. Fast Start is actually a reduced version of Hibernate; while Hibernate saves your current session to the hard disk and loads it into memory as soon as the computer starts, Fast Start just saves the current status of the kernel. What @Porthos is thinking of is Hybrid Sleep, which combines Sleep Mode and Hibernate. There is honestly no reason to use Hybrid Sleep, and if you have an SSD then Fast Start isn't very helpful either (in general, it causes more harm than good). There are tweaks you can do to disable Fast Start but still have the option of manually performing a Hibernate operation, while keeping the power button's default function as an actual shut down.
  15. That seems a bit overkill, seeing as some people rely on advertisement revenue as their primary source of income. There are a few extensions which are themselves extensions for uBlock Origin. One of them allows you to Whitelist individual YouTube channels for displaying advertisements (I think it's just called YouTube Channel Whitelist), and another disarms anti-adblock content locks, called Nano Defender. They both require some setup though. On Google Chrome, there's also an extension called Fair AdBlocker, which limits the maximum number of ads which can be displayed on a webpage and will replace the advertisements with ones that are significantly less-tailored and are also verified to not contain anything malicious. However, there is nothing like that for Firefox, and it is also still susceptible to Anti-Adblocks. Plus, MalwareBytes' own adblocking does conflict with it a little. I prefer using Fair AdBlocker because it allows people to still gain ad revenue, and I really wish that it was available for Firefox while being made uBlock Origin compatible. Maybe in the future, there will be a MalwareBytes partnership?
  16. Yeah. Last time I tried using the hpHosts version of the HOSTS file, I actually completely lost internet access. If your HOSTS file is too big, it disables the DNS service, and in Windows 10, editing the HOSTS file at all can cause all sorts of problems that didn't occur in previous versions of Windows.
  17. I can't believe that the NSA would just open-source one of their tools.
  18. No problem! One last bit of feedback, I think the script should be bundled with the MalwareBytes Support Tool and with MBTS.
  19. Welp. I was supposed to run DISM before SFC /SCANNOW, and I was also supposed to update DISM. Additionally, I was supposed to reset the WMI. The problem seems to be fixed now.
  20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next-generation_firewall So I did a bit of reading. Turns out that the WFP has actually had a few vulnerabilities in the past, and in general, most existing software firewalls aren't 100% effective anymore. Much like how MalwareBytes uses a lot of next-generation anti-malware technology, there is a growing need for next-generation firewalls. Maybe the acquisition of Binisoft will result in significant improvements to network security as time goes on.
  21. I have the consumer version of MalwareBytes, and noticed that in addition to both the MBEndpointAgent reading as NOT_INSTALLED and the flightrecorder as NOT_INSTALLED (both of which I understand), MBAMService.CPU%..... reads as no. What's going on there?
  22. On a system that I'm working on, the WPD FileSystem Volume Driver got corrupted (which seems to be a common occurrence on Windows 10, especially later versions), and all of the advice for fixing it seems to either involve downloading some snake-oil "this will fix all of your problems" software, or going into device manager, showing hidden devices, and uninstalling the WPD FileSystem Volume Driver and reinstalling it. However, in my case it doesn't even show up in Device Manager, even when hidden devices are shown (it is supposed to show up under Portable Devices, but it is not showing up there), and even if I could uninstall it, I have no idea how to reinstall it. Windows Update and built-in troubleshooting tools don't help me, and I can't find any reliable documentation using Google. I could try DuckDuckGo, but I have doubts that it will show me what I actually need to find. I have a feeling that the MBTS Issue Scanner won't be able to find it either... One of the symptoms this system is experiencing is that it is unable to execute files from removable storage or from certain user directories. My laptop back home is also experiencing a similar problem, and it is running the 32-bit version of Windows 10 as opposed to the 64-bit version, which this computer is running. I have an installation drive which I can try using to restore corrupted system files, but I was hoping I could get some advice from this forum as well. Neither sfc /scannow or DISM seems to help me on any of my machines either...
  23. You never know. I have a feeling that if they really wanted to, MalwareBytes is well within their ability to employ Tor networking for a lot of things. It isn't even that uncommon for companies to use Tor browsers for security reasons, and the most well-known Tor browser is itself a fork of Firefox, which most people should already be familiar with.
  24. A system I recently configured for somebody else is also experiencing BSODs, and my partner is suspecting that maybe MalwareBytes is the issue there as well, based on the results of the memory dumps. However, the system does not currently have other protection software installed beyond the default Windows Defender, and right now it's failing to boot entirely due to NTOSKRNL.EXE and the BCD both being corrupted. It has to be an issue with Windows, because this system was also running Windows 10 x64 (1803 build). Currently waiting on the diagnostic results, because the installation media isn't able to repair the operating system at this time. I am with you in regards to this being super frustrating... I hope that our issues aren't related.
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