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Windows Defender Will Soon Start Removing Applications With Coercive Messaging: Cleaners and Optimizers Put on Notice (cso.com.au)
Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to protect Windows users from programs that use fear to convince people to buy or upgrade products. From a report: The Redmond company is taking aim at all software that use scary messaging to convince people to upgrade to a paid product that purportedly fixes a problem detected by a free version. Specifically it is targeting registry cleaners and optimizers, which Microsoft previously didn't endorse but also didn't blacklist them as unwanted programs or malware. That's changing on March 1. "We find this practice problematic because it can pressure customers into making unnecessary purchase decisions," said Barak Shein, a member of the Windows Defender security research team. From March 1 Microsoft's Windows Defender and other security products will "classify programs that display coercive messages as unwanted software, which will be detected and removed," Shein said.
Will Windows Defender protect me from APK and his spamming? Does it protect me from his hosts file manipulations?
Eh, that's mostly bullshit, you're lumping all A/V or 3rd party security products with the worst offenders.
They're all garbage. Even Windows Defender. But at least Windows Defender doesn't try to milk you for $$$.
The best security protect available is simply training users how to identify bullshit when it comes and how to react to it.
In my 25+ years of using computers, I have first-hand experienced ONLY ONE virus. ONE. In 25 years. The only thing I've ever seen a malware/virus scanner ever report as a problem is keygens and an IRC script, which were not really threats. That one virus did not come from a website, download, or anything like that. Some 'friend' sent me a file over an instant message program and that file was infected.