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Unsticking Yourself From Your Security Application

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-can't-even-unstick-from-their-spam-lists dept.

Ant writes "In Scott Dunn's Windows Secrets, he describes his informal tests of well-known computer security vendors when it comes to subscriptions and renewals. These days, most antivirus and other security products come with a subscription to update your virus definitions. He also explains ways to opt-out, users' comments, etc. Seen in EGeezer's Broadband/DSL Reports security forum thread. Always read those end user license agreements (EULAs)."

2 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But why do we need these in the first place? by StonyCreekBare · · Score: 3, Informative

    I didn't say I leave it unpatched. I just don't allow Microsoft to decide what patches I need or when I need them.

  2. Re:But why do we need these in the first place? by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'd say that is inadequate.

    Ive got mod points, but comments are more important than mods.

    1. First thing I do is disable all call-home nags from Windows, along with setting my timeserver to something local. As a default configuration, my machine has no need to go to the net. I also free up unused services that gobble ram (desktop switching gunk).

    2. I then install any sort of device drivers that I might need. These include for me are: VNC video driver, Daemon Tools (for mounting isos and other images).

    3. Then I install AVG and run it as non-resident. I know what to scan and what not to scan, so I target objects that are questionable. I also might download a decent firewall, but I'd like something with the rulesets like ipfw or iptables. I will also get AdAware for busting the few things I might get.

    4. Lastly, I then install the utility apps. Thats my biggest time right there. Ill give a list.

    a. Open Office
    b. Firefox, Thunderbird, necessary plugins
    c. Abiword (much quicker version of "open office")
    d. portaputty
    e. XMing
    f. VNCserver (if I hadn't already installed it)
    g. Winamp Pre-AOL version
    h. VideoLAN
    i. TOR
    j. Bunch of emulators with plenty-o-roms. NES/SNES/N64/MAME/PSX sure beats 'web games'.
    k. Azureus/BitTyrant (both really good bittorrent clients and servers)
    l. Video Codecs and a hacked version of VirtualDub (watching corrupt vids)
    m. DVD shrink (for sneakernet of a vid I like)
    n. Possibly Cygwin (mainly for RSYNC and DD for tough to deal with problems). Scripting in a GUI environment doesnt work well. Instead, use VBscript.
    o. Something to read PDF's. I prefer Ghostscript.

    Thats it in a nutshell.

    --