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And don’t disable UAC no matter how annoying you find it during the initial barrage of installs. Actually it’s not a bad idea to take your day to day account out of the administrators group, and force yourself to type in the password for a second account whenever you need administrative access.
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Mar 5, 2024 03:48
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Install uBlock Origin on whichever browser you choose to use. Bitwarden is the password manager I recommend, it supports all major browsers and has great mobile apps (though they don't support passkeys at present). It can generate random, complex passwords up to 128 characters in length. Use two factor authentication on any account that supports it (including whatever password manager you choose), and use password-less accounts on any that support it. As a rule, I always format and perform a clean install of Windows. The Windows 11 Media Creation Tool allows you to download the current version. Make sure your BIOS and drivers are all up to date. Many manufacturers will bundle their own driver update software but I personally prefer just to download drivers etc. directly from the manufacturer's website. WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Mar 5, 2024 |
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Mar 5, 2024 10:32
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Subjunctive posted:- install a Russian keyboard so that their malware will ignore you Is this a joke/meme? Or is this real?
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Mar 5, 2024 11:32
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Magnetic North posted:Is this a joke/meme? Or is this real?
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Mar 5, 2024 12:58
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Oldsrocket_27 posted:After 17 years of only owning apple products I'm going back to PC (ASUS ROG Zephyrus m16, because it should play Baldur's gate 3). Oldsrocket_27 posted:From what I gather I should disable any and all remote access/remote desktop and continue to use two factor authentication for everything. Basic googling says that newer windows operating systems have as good of antivirus as any built in (for whatever good that's worth). Also device encryption, but I don't really understand what that does for me. Is that important because everything just gets sent to cloud storage without having a choice and I want it secure out there? Other reasons? Main recommendation would be: DON'T touch any system setting and DON'T run any security/privacy scripts without checking that they do what they claim..
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Mar 5, 2024 14:59
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Magnetic North posted:Is this a joke/meme? Or is this real? https://www.howtogeek.com/83487/will-installing-a-russian-keyboard-save-you-from-ransomware/
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Mar 5, 2024 15:58
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Thanks to everyone for the replies! I was planning on Ublock Origin, the reminder to always keep everything up to date is a good one. 2 factor forever on everything, that habit's already baked in. No sketchy downloads from strangers (or candy). Turn on device encryption, disable UPNP and remote access. Presumable Chrome is the browser I should be using? I definitely hadn't thought of having the administrator be a separate account from my day-to-day one, but that makes a lot of sense. Re-installing the operating system is something I've never thought to do on a brand new computer. Is this advisable just because big box store will put junk on them right off the bat before selling them? Best Buy certainly wants me to have a free copy of norton 360 and use it. I don't have the computer in hand yet, but I wasn't planning to take advantage of the offer. Is there a recommendation regarding VPNs? Does the average idiot need one and if so are some services better than others? Thanks again for all of the help! MikusR posted:Baldur's gate 3 has a mac version and is also on Geforce Now My current laptop is 12 years old, I'm glad it manages to run baldur's gate 2.
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Mar 5, 2024 16:06
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all a vpn is doing is changing where your requests for any resources online are coming from. so effectively you're paying for a company to see where all your packets go to by you giving it to them first and them pinky swearing they're not reselling data. this is marketed under the guise that you're only doing it with stuff you don't want other people to know about too soooo
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Mar 5, 2024 18:09
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A VPN is useful if you're in a country that blocks/censors websites such as China, in which you can't access gmail. In that case you can use it to reroute your traffic to a third country and China can't block it. There's also the thing where tv streaming sites tend to have different libraries in different countries and by switching to another country through a VPN you might be able to access other content. Other than that, there's no real benefit to a VPN.
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Mar 5, 2024 19:48
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If you want a VPN, get Mullvad. It's probably more trouble than it's worth, unless you are pirating stuff and your ISP gets pissy about that.
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Mar 6, 2024 13:49
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Cup Runneth Over posted:If you want a VPN, get Mullvad. It's probably more trouble than it's worth, unless you are pirating stuff and your ISP gets pissy about that.
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Mar 6, 2024 14:36
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Oldsrocket_27 posted:Thanks to everyone for the replies! I was planning on Ublock Origin, the reminder to always keep everything up to date is a good one. 2 factor forever on everything, that habit's already baked in. No sketchy downloads from strangers (or candy). Turn on device encryption, disable UPNP and remote access. Presumable Chrome is the browser I should be using? Most of the major browsers will be using the same rendering engine as Chrome so it comes mostly down to features and which company you want tracking your online activity. I use Firefox which is a good alternative. quote:Re-installing the operating system is something I've never thought to do on a brand new computer. Is this advisable just because big box store will put junk on them right off the bat before selling them? Best Buy certainly wants me to have a free copy of norton 360 and use it. I don't have the computer in hand yet, but I wasn't planning to take advantage of the offer. To wildly varying extents, laptop manufacturers and resellers will have software installed that you don't want, need or use. A clean install takes maybe 20 minutes, Cumulative Updates are actually cumulative these days. Spending an entire day installing updates for updates is largely a thing of the past. Oh yeah, don't use Norton anything. Windows Defender is decent. Go through additional security options and make sure they're all turned on. Also, find out what SSD drive is in the machine and check for a firmware update. WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Mar 11, 2024 |
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Mar 11, 2024 00:55
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Oh yeah, don't use Norton anything. When I worked tech support for an ISP in the mid-2000s I used to say that Norton Internet Security was an excellent product, because it kept its users safe by preventing them getting online in the first place.
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Mar 11, 2024 01:30
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CaptainSarcastic posted:When I worked tech support for an ISP in the mid-2000s I used to say that Norton Internet Security was an excellent product, because it kept its users safe by preventing them getting online in the first place. The Windows XP days really were rough. It seems to be when lots of normal people got desktop PCs with ADSL, making internet use more tolerable than dial-up. The downside being that the file sharing services were a virus fuckathon. I can't count how many times I spent 14 hours reformatting my mate's single core, HDD, 256MB RAM Windows XP machine because his Norton antivirus 2001 expired trial didn't detect that Spider-Man 2.exe was not a movie. The only thing that eventually stopped that poo poo happening was NOD32, whatever dark magic they used on that. Oh, and the McAfee Site Advisor in Firefox. Remember Active X? Shockwave? Flash? Needing Java installed? Dark times my friends.
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Mar 11, 2024 23:09
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Cup Runneth Over posted:If you want a VPN, get Mullvad. It's probably more trouble than it's worth, unless you are pirating stuff and your ISP gets pissy about that.
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Mar 12, 2024 03:47
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Dylan16807 posted:Mullvad got rid of port forwarding so it's not very good for pirating stuff anymore I still use it for that and haven't received any emails from my ISP about how I've been reported for  crimes, so I'd have to disagree. I do have my client set up with the Mullvad proxy, though.
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Mar 12, 2024 12:39
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WattsvilleBlues posted:The Windows XP days really were rough. It seems to be when lots of normal people got desktop PCs with ADSL, making internet use more tolerable than dial-up. The downside being that the file sharing services were a virus fuckathon. I can't count how many times I spent 14 hours reformatting my mate's single core, HDD, 256MB RAM Windows XP machine because his Norton antivirus 2001 expired trial didn't detect that Spider-Man 2.exe was not a movie. Windows’ default of not showing file extensions is the single stupidest thing they have ever done.
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Mar 12, 2024 13:57
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They did at least introduce that after the UAC prompt, right? It's been so long ago now I can't remember which came first.
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Mar 12, 2024 14:42
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the hide extensions by default thing was in XP, may have been in 98
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Mar 12, 2024 15:36
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Tesseraction posted:They did at least introduce that after the UAC prompt, right? It's been so long ago now I can't remember which came first. iirc extensions were off by default in xp and uac was vista
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Mar 12, 2024 15:37
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Jesus, it was XP? Yeah was loving stupid. Glad that my first thing on opening explorer on Windows is turning on file extensions.
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Mar 12, 2024 16:51
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Oh god I think that was 95 that did that. But was it on by default? Google seems to think it was hiding extensions by default, anyone got a VM?
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Mar 13, 2024 21:36
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down1nit posted:Oh god I think that was 95 that did that. But was it on by default? I don't have W95 in a VM but I have a VGM, a very good memory. Our early 90s school PCs running Window 3.11 always had files showing as 8.3 character file names, the .3 being the file extension. Extensions were hidden by default in Windows 95 onwards, I remember from our first PC in October 1996.
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Mar 13, 2024 23:26
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Hitchhikers page! To add, I recently got my daughter a new laptop and it came with McAfee installed begging to buy a subscription. Groveling even. In order to fully get rid of it, a McAfee technical support article(!) pointed to another piece of McAfee software you had to install in order to uninstall it since the uninstaller threw errors and didn’t work. On a brand new laptop… So we said gently caress off and blew it all away, upgrading her to win11 pro at the same time. If you work for McAfee you suck rear end. Sorry but I don’t make the rules Lenovo should also be ashamed
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Mar 14, 2024 00:44
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namlosh posted:Hitchhikers page! When you say you blew it all away, do you mean you formatted the drive and installed a bare Windows 11 install? Also can you link the support article that advised an uninstaller because the regular uninstaller was hosed? Any company that develops or deploys software like this should hang their heads in ropes. F4rt5 posted:Windows’ default of not showing file extensions is the single stupidest thing they have ever done. I get why they did that though. Most people using computers these days don't know what a file extension is. The people that do know, know how to enable it in settings. WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Mar 14, 2024 |
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Mar 14, 2024 00:51
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WattsvilleBlues posted:I get why they did that though. Most people using computers these days don't know what a file extension is. The people that do know, know how to enable it in settings. I think you have cause and effect backwards here.
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Mar 14, 2024 01:37
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It got to the point where I had both the x64 and x86 versions of every AV removal tool. Mcafee's MCPR.exe is the worst of all the tools because it has dotNet prerequisites, does not support safe mode very well, and is actually genuinely intended for removing *only* the AV portion of whatever garbage product they sell. You're stuck with the toolbar and the cleaner, privacy blocker, vpn whatever else if the tool doesn't explicitly support your package name. At least it does eventually remove Mcafee, 10/10
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Mar 14, 2024 06:40
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Most of the major browsers will be using the same rendering engine as Chrome so it comes mostly down to features and which company you want tracking your online activity. I use Firefox which is a good alternative. Thanks again for the advice. Still no computer in hand because the laptop that came in the box was the cheapest first gen G series asus instead of the new m16 I ordered (open box) and BestBuy wasn't about to exchange it for what I ordered despite missing it themselves, so I took the refund and then left on family vacation for a week.
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Mar 16, 2024 04:36
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