Search Results for 'malwarebytes'

Finally, the time has come to switch from Group B to Group A.

For various reasons (life took over), I have not done any updates since May 2019. So, yesterday, I read through masses of questions and answers, which made me grateful, yet again, for the help and advice from everyone.

Lenovo H520 Win 8.1 x64. Intel® Core™ i5-3330. 6GB Ram.
Windows Defender
Malwarebytes Prem 4.1.0

My questions:
1          How best to make the change to Group A?
I’ve copied the list of updates for 8.1 into a doc, so I have the links.

2         Apart from monthly roll-ups, are there specific KBs that have to be installed separately, or in a specific order?

3          I’ll do drivers etc separately, not via MS

4          What about .NET?  And anything else like that?

5          To avoid telemetry, I’ll aim to follow abbodi86’s guide.

I’m an ‘intermediate’ in terms of tech: able to follow instructions, but wary of making errors that cause new problems.

Thanks so much in advance for any and all help!

I’m using Firefox 74.0.1, updated automatically.  I installed uBlock Origin 1.18.6 quite some time ago.  A couple of months ago uBlock Origin asked for those permissions in order to update itself.  I declined.  I use it primarily as an ad blocker, and it works very well indeed in that capacity.  It has since ceased asking for permission to update; just continues to block ads for me.

I use Windows Defender for AV/AM as well as Malwarebytes 4.1.0 with Real-Time Protection fully enabled, so I don’t feel the need to add the same sort of protections via a uBlock Origin update.  I just want it to block ads, and it doesn’t need any special permissions in order to perform that function.

And yes, I know there is a newer version of Malwarebytes, and quite some time back I was offered that update to their subscription model (yearly fee) and I declined, as mine is a lifetime license that never expires (purchased years ago), and I wasn’t ready to give that up.  As it turns out, Malwarebytes continues to honor that license, and continues to update my Malwarebytes Pro.  I was on v3.5.1 when I turned down the subscription model update.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

GeoffB wrote:

So, will I have to temporarily disable Malwarebytes again so that the March updates will download & install smoothly?  Appreciate any advice on this

I always disable my A/V service during the monthly Windows update as the A/V slows down the process considerably.
The A/V is on by default after the restart.

Just updated my Lenovo Y530 1909 Pro with March updates :
KB4551762
KB4541338
KB890830

No ill effects.

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jburk07

I recently went through  the feature update on my Win 10 1809 home laptop and I’m now on 1909 home.  When I went through the feature update, I had to temporarily disable my 3rd party a/v (Malwarebytes) and then re-enable after the successful feature update to 1909.

So, will I have to temporarily disable Malwarebytes again so that the March updates will download & install smoothly?  Appreciate any advice on this.

 

regards

GeoffB

Event Viewer Service Control Manager Event ID 7000

The WinRing0_1_2_0 service failed to start due to the following error: Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source.

I found 63 instances listed in the Event Viewer, 57 in the last 24 hours.

I have picked up something and I don’t know what it is.  I did find something about it on the below site which I found when I googled WinRing0_1_2_0

https://threatinfo.net/files/OpenHardwareMonitorLib.sys-0c0195c48b6b8582fa6f6373032118da
I followed a link on the New York Times website to a data base on County by County incidence of COVID-19 which was on GitHub.  This seems to have something to do with GitHub per this search result on product name WinRing0. [Removed link]
Windows defender, Malwarebytes, Adware Cleaner and Super Antispyware all came back clean. Not sure how to get rid of the cause.  One website referred to it as a Windows program so I was afraid to remove it.
Any help appreciated.

HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-0050 – 64 bit
Windows 10 Home Version 22H2
OS build 19045.5608
Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019
-Version 2502(Build 18526.20168 C2R)

Thanks to all of you for your comments and suggestions.

As I have been running the same suite of programs over 2 years and the slowdown has only started in the last 4 or so months, I think my only recourse is to reinstall Windows and start with a Carte Blanche.

This means changing the boot from legacy BIOS to UEFI. Thanks ELLY for the links which I have been exploring.

 

Then the windows re-install followed by the program suite installations as required – first is Malwarebytes. I have a complete list compiled by Revo Uninstaller PRO.

In anticipation, all my data will be backed up and I have prepared a recovery disk.

Once the COVID-19 crisis has passed and the civic and health authorities give the all clear, I will take the box to the computer store and upgrade the C: 250GB SDD windows drive to a terabyte or more. It is amazing how the prices have dropped.

I will inform this post of the outcome

Thanks again and STAY WELL!

Larry

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Elly

I’m on office 365 but there are traces of older versions of office on my computer. When I boot my computer I am confronted by an open, blank Microsoft Word document. To get to my computer I have to click off all sorts of error messages, sometimes 10-15. In my My Documents folder there is a strange file titled: Normal.dotm.

Both Malwarebytes and McAfee tell me I am virus free. Would it be a good idea to change the name of the Normal.dotm file to something like Normal.dotm.old and try to send it to the recycle bin?

Thank you.  Ignorance showing:  If I stay with 8.1, won’t I have to reinstall all my existing software (like Reflect, Malwarebytes, etc.)?

Dick-Y

I am buying a new Dell desktop.  Are there any recommendations for what order I should take for setting up the PC?  I will be installing the following software: Macrium Reflect; Norton Internet Security; Malwarebytes; NordVPN; MS Office Home & Student.  At what point should I run the updates?  At what point should I do a full backup?  At what point should I connect to the internet?

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Fred

System Interrupts are constantly in the range 7.8% to 15%. This is too high. My other computers have much lower numbers, and they idle overall at 1% – 2% cpu usage which is fine.

This problem is on my ACER laptop running Windows 10 Home 64-bit v. 1903. It doesn’t get used very often. This morning I noticed the high-ish S.I. amount, but it may have been there a while, not sure.

Ran a few tests including:

Malwarebytes full scan (no problems found).

DISM Restore Health (no problems found).

SFC / Scannow (no problems found).

Device Manager looks OK, too.

Any suggestions on how to get the System Interrupt % and overall idle cpu usage down to the usual level of 1% or 2%, please?

When I used Windows my antivirus would update automatically and scans were scheduled. I also ran the antivirus when downloading or if something locked up and felt odd. I also scanned with Malwarebytes fairly regularly and cleaned things up with CCleaner often. Prior to major updates I would run all three before setting a restore point.

In the six years I have had this computer I never had a virus.

Now I know Linux isn’t as prone to viruses and doesn’t seem to get clogged up as bad as Windows but old habits die hard. I have been using Clamtk and Bleachbit and wonder what your opinion of them is.

I tried Clamtk because I had to download game files from a non-repository site and wanted to make sure they were virus free.

Bleachbit is just for cleaning up the various caches and a bit of security when deleting personal stuff. I haven’t seen any warnings about frequency of use or stuff like that. I’m not going to use the root option – at least until I need to and am more familiar with Linux and Mint.

So what is your opinion on these programs?

I uninstalled Spybot and Malwarebytes and retried.

I was successful in getting 1909 installed.

Thanks to all that responded.

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Elly, b

W10 Home – was a upgrade from W8.1 that the Dell Inspiron 3847 came with.

In addition to Windows own protections, I have installed Malwarebytes and Spybot.  There is no metered connection – ethernet connection to Verizon DSL modem.

Why would I reinstall Win 7 only to then upgraded to Win 10?

[Long blog but you can jump to the end to see my conclusions and action taken]

Answer: I was using my wife’s PC (aka my backup PC) to see if a Win 10 upgrade was viable before updating my own PC. Our PC’s are almost identical, in fact hers started life as a disk image clone of mine and then had a new licence key registered. That was 5 years ago. The machines are, mine(hers):

Asus A88XM-Plus AMD Socket FM2+ (Asus A88XM-A AMD Socket FM2+),
AMD A8-7600 3.1GHz Socket FM2 Quad Core (AMD A4 5300 3.4GHz Socket FM2 Dual Core ),
16GB (8GB) memory, ITB+0.5TB+0.25TB WD HDs (ITB WD HD).
Both PCs have Win 7 Pro 64 bit.

Despite their age (5 years) they perform their roles very well. I’m even running 3D printing design and PCB design on mine.

======Windows 7 Installation ======

1st step was to upgrade her PC to 16GB and to install another 1TB HD for extra backups. I use Macrium Reflect.

2nd step was to install a fresh copy of Win 7 in VBox. This was to ensure her backup machine could run our Quicken 98 accounts system and any other Win7 only software. I already run some old 16bit software in a VBox XP VM. I defined a Win 7 VM of 2GB memory and 32GB hard disk.

3rd step. I started with Win 7 SP1 Pro 32bit CD and registered by phone when the online registration failed. After unsuccessfully hunting around the voice prompts for an option to register Win 7 I was speaking to an agent who successfully registered the product. After personalising the setup, I then exported it with the name Activated VM.

4th step was to run Windows Update. It of course failed. I need to download and install the latest IE11. This was done on the real PC and then transfer via a shared folder to the VM. I also needed to download and install KB3020369 & KB3172605 & KB3125574.

Windows Update then offered 26 Important Updates but quite a few failed to install. Another Windows Update got 2 more Important Updates. Once again some failures. I need to download an install KB4474419 — SHA-2 code signing and KB4490628 — Servicing stack update for March 2019. Finally, after numerous restarts and 4 more Important Updates, the Win 7 VM was up to date to January 2020. No Optional Updates were installed. Time for another export as Base VM.

5th step. Lastly I installed some apps including Quicken 98 (file copy including DLLs, not via an installer), Classic Shell, IrfanView, Canon Printer and Foxit PDF Reader. No internet surfing on this VM so no need for MalwareBytes or F-Prot anti-virus. Another export as Apps VM. I might install Office 97 later as I have some Excel s/s with macros.

This installation went better than I thought. It did help to have notes from 2015 on how I customised and personalised the setup.

====== Window 10 Upgrade ======

1st step was another full backup. The 1TB HD is split into partitions C: to K:

2nd step was to clean up the Win 7 by running Disk Clean Up under Device Manager. This cleared out 18GB on the C: drive – it took 4 hours to run! Even so, I felt the need to increase the C: drive by 10GB by taking 10GB from E:  C: was now 100GB and 31% free.

3rd step was to mount the Windows 10 v1903 ISO previously downloaded. I used WinCDEmu for this. The install went fine and on rebooting I was offered and accepted all the privacy setting (i.e. all off). Win 10 only rejected 1 app out of about 50 I have installed. It was Classic Shell but later I installed a fresh copy OK. Classic Shell provides an XP like Start Menu.

4th step was to delay all Windows Updates – Quality Updates for 30 days and Feature updates for 365 days and also set Delivery Optimisation off (i.e. stop downloads from other PCs). My son has a mobile only internet link and couldn’t understand why his mobile data usage was so high until he switched this off. My own internet connection is 50GB/month.

5th step was to set all the privacy permissions off. This was overdone as it stopped Skype accessing the microphone. I also stopped Searches including the internet thereby keeping Searches to my file system. My Taskbar was almost unreadable on account of the black background and after struggling to change it, I found a restart to do the trick. I added Recent Places to Explorer Quick Access – should be a default I think.

6th step was looking into a new Display Driver as Win 7 said it needed updating, but not finding one at the ASUS website I gave up as the display was OK in my mind. Windows 10 had replaced my fixed Page File with a dynamic one that filled my D: (Temp) drive, so I changed it to 4GB min and 8GB max. When I tried to moved the Dump File to M: I got an error as current paging file is disabled or less than 800MB, which it is not! Again I gave up.

7th step was resetting various file suffixes to open my choice of applications, including htm & html to be open by Firefox – it was a bit cheeky of MS to change it to Edge. It took some time and research to realise that I not only had to change .htm & .html but also the protocols http & https to Firefox.

8th step was changing my account pictures to the Win 7 ones. Win 10 doesn’t have the Win 7 ones but I found them on the net. I also needed to set the desktop to a plain background as I really hate photos but however hard I tried, I could not find a way to get rid of the background photo on the login page – yes I did change the Lock screen settings. Suddenly I found shadows on my desk top icon labels and struggled to remove them until I rebooted and then they were gone.

9th step was to repeat this Admin setup again on my wife’s login but I still need to do my own user setup. After nearly 4 days I was getting cheesed off. It reminded me of setting up Win 7 5 years ago and why I had put off moving to Win 10.

10th step and most time consuming was the microphone issues. First it took a while to realise that in Privacy setting I had disabled apps accessing the microphone but the jack microphone still was not working. Eventually after digging deep into all the settings and updating drivers I got it to work faintly at 100% volume. A USB headset faired better at 60% volume. It seems lots of people have had problems with their microphone since Win 10 came out. Buying and trying various microphone could be expensive.

11th step was some tiding up. On Ask Woody’s recommendation I let Windows Update apply the February patches. I tried to move the 29GB Windows.old file to M: but this failed due, I read, to changed user IDs under Win 10. Maybe m0ving in a DOS window as administrator will work.

Next I went to System Properties / System Protection and set on for C: 13% 12GB & F: (Apps) 10% 5GB and off for the other drives. It was then I discovered that System Restore was Off!!! So I switched it on.  Another (pleasant) surprise was that my hard disk was still MBR as I thought UEFI was mandatory on Win 10. Finally I took another backup of C:

========= Conclusions =========

An in-place upgrade to Win 10 works (but I’ve not tested all my apps) but it doesn’t do away with the time to personalise and set the privacy settings on all the accounts. And my Quicken 98 does run OK under Win 10, so maybe I didn’t need a Win 7 VM afterall.

The biggest fail was loss of the desk jack microphone so will have to buy a headset or maybe my wife can use Skype on my Linux laptop.

The biggest disappointment is how sluggish Win 10 is. I can put up with a slow start but not the slow opening of Explorer and Notepad. Also my familiar hot keys (which I use a lot) no longer work as they’ve all changed -why did you do that MS????????

Another disappointment is not being able to copy and paste from the Windows Updates, as in my NotePad  maintenance log I like to keep a note of which updates I applied.  And I find the large icons when clicking and dragging a file in Explorer to be irritating. I cannot find a solution to this on the web.

Overall, Win 10 seems a bit of a bodge with some much Win 7 and even DOS still lurking in the background. For example, there is both the old Win 7 Settings and the new Win 10 PC Settings.

========= Action =========

Win 10 will remain on my wife’s PC but I have just signed up to the Extended Support for my PC. Many thanks to Ask Woody and <span class=”author”>Susan Bradley</span> for organising this option.

Maybe in a year’s time I will buy a new PC but it saddens me that millions of people have bought a new PC just to move to Win 10. It all adds to the e-waste problem for, it seems to me, no extra benefits under Win 10.

Alternatively run Linux with Win 7 in a VM for those apps not available under Linux, but it will need care if surfing the net. New PCs should have more than enough power and memory for this.

Longer term, I get the impression that Win 10 will be totally cloud based with MS only allowing apps from the MS Store to be installed and all user data held in the cloud. No doubt there will be a annual fee to sustain MS.

And the move for apps to download and install updates (like under Android) without user intervention is a big worry as once benign apps suddenly have a malware payload.

Finally here’s a picture of my XP Start Menu on Win 10!

 

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Elly

Mr. Austin wrote:

it’s unlikely anyone would have local access to that computer

Local access doesn’t equate to physical access, that’s another security category. Local access can also be gained by using another malware to cause a program crash, just as the multitude of exploit kits targeting Flash, Reader and many other vulnerable software versions did in the recent past.

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Mr. Austin