# Very slow start times for all programs



## ilman (Sep 21, 2012)

Since about a week or so I found out that all of my programs tend to take about half a minute to start, even My Computer. A friend of mine said that I have too much stuff on my Registry but since I haven't installed that many programs and I use RegFix once a month. I also ran a scan for viruses with avast and it found nothing. The funny thing is that after everything starts up, it runs absolutely normally with the exception of Flash. When I start up Chrome and I launch a video on Youtube, sometimes there is no audio and when I click the volume icon it loads then immediately freezes and after 30 seconds it's working again. These slowdowns annoy me very much. I don't want to wait a minute for Chrome to open so that I can search something on Google. Heck, my phone opens Google faster.

Is there anything I can do to fix this besides installing Windows 7 again (the last installation was 1 month ago)?

My laptop:
Model: Lenovo Ideapad Y580
Processor: quad-core Intel Core i7 3610QM @2.30Ghz (3.3 Ghz with TurboBoost)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M and Intel HD Graphics 4000
RAM: 8GB DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1


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## shadowmanwkp (Sep 21, 2012)

Probably too many things to load upon startup. I'd say clean up your startup folder in your start menu first. Any program in that folder will execute itself when you start up your pc.

After that, open the start menu and type in "msconfig" (without the quotes) followed by and enter. Win7 will ask for admin rights. Ignore the current tab and head straight to startup, here you can disable all programs you don't want to have loaded upon booting your pc by removing the checks. Note: only disable programs that you don't need, some programs might be vital for your computer, like your virus scanner.

It will speed up your startup time significantly if you take out certain programs (like office quick start, or adobe quick start). I don't really have a good solution for your flash problems, flash sometimes hangs in firefox occasionally as well and it really is beginning to become a pain. My only solution is that you can try to re-install it...


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## Originality (Sep 21, 2012)

One month and you've slowed down this much?

This type of lag I find is usually caused by too many concurrent access requests to the HDD. Simply put, it's trying to do too many things at once.

Try to remove any unnecessary bloatware or crapware that's installed on the laptop. Update all drivers if you can and look for the number of processes that run on startup.

Also, if you have a DVD in the drive, take it out.


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## ilman (Sep 21, 2012)

shadowmanwkp said:


> Probably too many things to load upon startup. I'd say clean up your startup folder in your start menu first. Any program in that folder will execute itself when you start up your pc.
> 
> After that, open the start menu and type in "msconfig" (without the quotes) followed by and enter. Win7 will ask for admin rights. Ignore the current tab and head straight to startup, here you can disable all programs you don't want to have loaded upon booting your pc by removing the checks. Note: only disable programs that you don't need, some programs might be vital for your computer, like your virus scanner.


Already tried that and all programs there are vital for my PC. Thanks for the quick reply though.




Originality said:


> One month and you've slowed down this much?
> 
> This type of lag I find is usually caused by too many concurrent access requests to the HDD. Simply put, it's trying to do too many things at once.*It has a normal amount of processes running in task manager. I don't think that's the problem here.*
> 
> ...


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

The amount of processes is like saying "there's no serial killer in the class because the class has 25 people and that's a normal amount".  It's incredibly easy for a single process to slow your computer down as much as 25 others _combined_.

"Unnecessary bloatware" usually refers to extra programs that came pre-installed on the computer.

Screenshot the "msconfig" tab?  Just because something has an entry there doesn't mean that entry is required for the program to run.  That entry makes the program run pre-emptively, that is everything in there runs on startup, whereas in reality you can uncheck some things and they'll just run when you need them to (such as yahoo/MSN messengers).

With I/O slowdown, the most common culprit is the antivirus, but there's other possibilities.  In the task manager go to the Processes tab, go to the View menu and choose "select columns".  In the new window check all of the "I/O" entries and press okay, then take some screenshots so we can see what's up in those columns.


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## ilman (Sep 21, 2012)

Screenshots of msconfig:











I think there's something wrong with the processor since it never goes to above 5% usage with the exception when playing games or running heavy programs but that might be normal.


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

There's some stuff there that's not needed for your computer to run.
Google Update - This checks for updates even when your google products aren't running.
Skype - This makes skype run on startup, whereas you may only need to use it every so often, in which case you can just run the icon when you need it.
Daemon Tools - Same deal.
Adobe Reader - Same deal with auto-start and updates.

So there's a few programs that are running in the background that you don't need.  There's also ones like the Java update checker and stuff, but those are generally more important.

Also that's normal for a modern machine, most tasks won't stress the processor.


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## ilman (Sep 21, 2012)

Rydian said:


> There's some stuff there that's not needed for your computer to run.
> Google Update - This checks for updates even when your google products aren't running.
> Skype - This makes skype run on startup, whereas you may only need to use it every so often, in which case you can just run the icon when you need it.
> Daemon Tools - Same deal.
> ...


I don't think those 4 things will cause me to wait 30 seconds to run anything.
On my old laptop I had a ton more unimportant stuff and programs took maximum 5 seconds to launch.
Anything else I can do?


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

You tend to keep skipping over stuff...



Rydian said:


> With I/O slowdown, the most common culprit is the antivirus, but there's other possibilities.  In the task manager go to the Processes tab, go to the View menu and choose "select columns".  In the new window check all of the "I/O" entries and press okay, then take some screenshots so we can see what's up in those columns.


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## ilman (Sep 21, 2012)

Rydian said:


> You tend to keep skipping over stuff...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Here you go:


Spoiler


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

136 processes is a lot more than the average computer should be running.  I'm at 68 right now, with multiple user programs open.

There's a lot of stuff I see running in the background that doesn't need to be running.

One of the many CMD.exe entries appears to be causing the problem specifically, but still, you need to trim out a lot of the shit that runs in the background.


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## ilman (Sep 21, 2012)

Ok, so I fixed the thing with cmd and my father's profile had a couple of processes running and it improved speed a little but I can't close any more processes (currently there are 114).


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-switch-user-option-in-windows-vista-and-7/

Turn off the "switch user" option, since that doesn't actually log the other person out, and it keeps their stuff running.  "Log off" should be used since it closes whatever the original user was running so their stuff doesn't interfere with the next person logging in.

See how it behaves after that.


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## tueidj (Sep 21, 2012)

Rydian said:


> With I/O slowdown, the most common culprit is the antivirus, but there's other possibilities.  In the task manager go to the Processes tab, go to the View menu and choose "select columns".  In the new window check all of the "I/O" entries and press okay, then take some screenshots so we can see what's up in those columns.


^^ This. I get people complaining all the time that their computers are too slow ("I think it must have a virus or something?") and nine times out of ten it's because their antivirus program is making everything slow as molasses. That entire industry has become a big scam, convincing people that they need something they don't and purposely underperforming so their "upgrades" seem worthwhile.

TL;DR version: get rid of avast.


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

It's most often the active full-disc scans that cause issues, generally when scheduled scans are disabled (relying on the scanning done when files are read and/or written to) performance greatly improves.


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## Originality (Sep 21, 2012)

You think we don't need AV? When you've seen as many IM worm infected PC's as I have, such ignorant opinions fly straight out the window and under someone's front tires.

Unless you enjoy paying techies to clean such computers every few months.


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## tueidj (Sep 21, 2012)

And pray tell, what adverse effects do these worms inflict? Scan all files as they are being accessed? Waste memory? Check for updates and send system info behind your back? Inject crap into your web browsing? Cost you money? Annoy you with pop-ups for things you don't need? Sounds exactly like the symptoms of using an AV program...


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

tueidj said:


> And pray tell, what adverse effects do these worms inflict? Scan all files as they are being accessed? Waste memory? Check for updates and send system info behind your back? Inject crap into your web browsing? Cost you money? Annoy you with pop-ups for things you don't need? Sounds exactly like the symptoms of using an AV program...


Suggesting that somebody change AVs to one with lesser resource usage is fine, but suggesting users run without an AV at all in modern times is *damaging advice* and I, for one, will NOT tolerate that shit.  If you're not going to take personal computer security seriously then *GET THE FUCK OUT OF THIS SECTION*.

To answer your questions, _this shit 'aint the Wii_.  Modern computers are used for all sorts of serious activities that require privacy.  Online banking and shopping, personal/family e-mails, things of that nature are things that modern criminals target.  Modern infections are designed with data mining and fear mongering tactics in order to get hold of a user's private information however they can.  Whether it's a keylogger recording their bank info or scaring a user into putting it into a fake site, they can wipe somebody's account clean in minutes.  Personal information?  I, personally, have naked pics of multiple women I've gone out with stored in a truecrypt container on my computer.  If my OS was compromised (background screen streaming, remote access while I have the volume mounted, etc.) those _very personal_ images could easily be leaked out on the internet without permission (not to mention that it's just private shit to begin with).  And what about work secrets?  Modern companies keep all sorts of records and transactions digital, and there's a growing "work from home" force that do office work from home (say, over a VPN).  If the main OS is compromised then any sort of stream or feed from the VPN could easily be rerouted elsewhere, exposing internal company data to the public.

So I'm pretty sure that "keeping a user's bank account from being emptied" is a higher priority than some CPU or I/O overhead.


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## tueidj (Sep 21, 2012)

That's probably the lulziest reply I've seen on this forum, "I'm going to prove my point by mentioning I have naked lady pics!"

If you're proposing that there is any AV program that can flawlessly protect you against all the threats you mentioned then your own advice is also negligent. The only assured protection against all those threats would be a PC that wasn't connected to any network at all. Personally I haven't used any AV for over 20 years with zero infections, currently running a win XP box that was setup in 2006 and a win7 box setup in 2010.


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## Coto (Sep 21, 2012)

AV are crap these days anyway... I don't use any.

System rollback + backup of system every 1 week = win.


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## Coto (Sep 21, 2012)

Woot now i'm idiot. o_o.. take it easy rydian..

Also, in most places rollback is one of the most essential ways of keeping track of data and prevent wasting time reinstalling OS-> restoring files -> restoring config -> etc.


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## zygie (Sep 21, 2012)

Spoiler: Offtopic/on anti-virus programs



This is really off-topic, but a good anti-virus will keep a lot of headaches away, no matter what people say. You may protect _yourself_ from viruses/trojans/malware but when the time comes that you're actually swapping a lot of files (oh no I don't have internet because I don't want to get viruses) with people via removable storage, you'll be in the shithole. This is most commonly, in school. You can't protect yourself from other people's stupidity if you don't have any precaution. Personally I have a good backup image if I ever have the need to reinstall my OS, plus regular backups on external drives for files I mind losing in such an event. But I've never had to need those because, oh, I have an anti-virus. Trust me when I say someone really screwed me over before because I had a shit anti-virus and they had a USB drive full of shit.

I'm really careful about what sites I go to and what links I click, but that doesn't mean that I can't flat out deny a report I'd have to write being given to me by my schoolmate or something because their data might have cooties. I have a relatively fast new machine and I'm only running MSE for now (waiting for my old anti-virus to expire so I can renew my 3-PC deal) and it's really light on my processor.



*TL;DR*: Anti-virus programs aren't useless, don't give destructive advice, there are always stupid people in the world that will give you headaches.

*On-topic*: I have a lesser-spec'd Lenovo Z470 which has no problems, so it must be one or more of the programs you have installed. Also, when I screwed up some OS files I just used the *OneKey Recovery feature after backing up all my shit. Worked like a charm. I didn't mind because my laptop is new, but yeah.

Edit: Fixed feature name.


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## Rydian (Sep 21, 2012)

Coto said:


> Woot now i'm idiot. o_o.. take it easy rydian..
> 
> Also, in most places rollback is one of the most essential ways of keeping track of data and prevent wasting time reinstalling OS-&gt; restoring files -&gt; restoring config -&gt; etc.


Prevention is a better alternative for home users though.  In some cases (libraries, school, etc.) it can save a lot of time to have something like DeepFreeze installed and simply use that to undo any changes because the computers are being used by tons of different people, but for a single home machine it's often more hassle than it's worth when it comes to thinks like system updates and changes that actually need to be done (especially in the case of Deep Freeze, where the machine needs to be rebooted when unfreezing and when refreezing).  For home users it's much less hassle to simply install some protection programs.

And the thing is, the whole "wipe every so often" technique doesn't keep you safe anyways.  Unless you're wiping every boot (which is sort of the function of something like Deep Freeze), it's entirely possible to get an infection shortly after a reinstall, and have it exist and functional until the next time you wipe it, so wiping it only makes sure that each potential infection has a limited lifecycle.  What's worse is that without proper security programs you're not even alerted to possible issues, outside of some browsers that have blacklists (but those are retroactive for discovered threat holds, opposed to the heuristic-based engines of modern AVs).

So not only is it a lot more effort, but it doesn't even stop things.


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## ilman (Sep 21, 2012)

Ok, so today I will uninstall Avast and I will install AVG since I've used it on all my PCs to day except this one. I'll post if this fixed the issue.



That helped a bit, but then I installed and ran TuneUp and it found about 300 registry errors and after it fixed them everything went back to normal.


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## raulpica (Sep 21, 2012)

Most of the PCs I get with "omfh viruses that don't let me log in my Windows" are full of ransom-ware and scam crap telling you to buy the latest awesome super-problem fixer.

Funny fact: All of these PCs had either AVG, Avira or Avast on them. FULLY updated.

Funny fact 2: I've got LOADS of PCs with rootkits on them (*giving full background access, keep that in mind*) and their AVs were just scratching their butt letting them stay and do whatever they pleased.

tl;dr: Antivirii are useless - but my customers expect to have one on their PCs and that's why I still care installing them.

I haven't seen an AV block a _real_ virus in AGES. The only notification I get somedays are of trigger-happy AVs which call every strangely packed program a virus based on their crippled heuristics.


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## Originality (Sep 22, 2012)

I don't know about you, but I've found Kaspersky to be rather effective.


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## zygie (Sep 22, 2012)

raulpica said:


> -snip-


Don't leave out the part where you test paid premium anti-virus programs too. Personally I don't use any of those 3 as I find them absolutely lacking overall. Also, you get what you pay for, and in those cases, if you didn't pay, then you get nothing.

This doesn't apply to all though the paid ones though. I absolutely detest Norton and McAfee and they're as bad as free ones.


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## Rydian (Sep 22, 2012)

raulpica said:


> Most of the PCs I get with &quot;omfh viruses that don't let me log in my Windows&quot; are full of ransom-ware and scam crap telling you to buy the latest awesome super-problem fixer.


*Those aren't actually viruses*, which is why they slip past easily.  This is a big issue with computer security nowadays, most AV programs do little to nothing to stop malware, claiming it's not their territory for the free editions, only packaging the protection in the paid versions... when most problems people face now are malware, not viruses.

It's like considering every type of sickness a viruses.  What if it's bacterial?  What if it's mental?  What if it's due to physical trauma?

There's all sorts of classifications now, viruses themselves are rather low on the scale as far as working numbers... but they're still the most dangerous.  Your average malware is just going to scare a user into giving it $29.95.  A motherboard rootkit can do a fuckton worse.

As for prevention malware, you usually find it installed on the systems of lazy people (or, less commonly, people who got already-fucked systems (such as windows updates disabled) from others).  The guide's prevention section covers the simple steps you can take to protect yourself from common infections of today, and it's often the steps people hate doing, such as updating their browser (I even see people downgrade because they don't like the UI, opening themselves up to a couple security holes) and doing windows updates.


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## tueidj (Sep 22, 2012)

They're only viruses when they help Rydian's arguments.


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## raulpica (Sep 22, 2012)

Huh, I also mentioned ACTUAL rootkits being there with the AVs doing nothing.

I actually find them all the time by accident while removing the malwares.

So, AVs are _still_ useless in my view.

*EDIT:* Malwares are actually far more dangerous than viruses in my opinon, as they use security holes (I'm looking at you IE, but Chrome has its fair share now too) to install themselves on the user's PC. Which a good antivirus should NEVER EVER permit. Instead they do nothing. What's stopping them from not installing a scamware, but some keylogger? Nothing at all.



zygie said:


> Don't leave out the part where you test paid premium anti-virus programs too. Personally I don't use any of those 3 as I find them absolutely lacking overall. Also, you get what you pay for, and in those cases, if you didn't pay, then you get nothing.
> 
> This doesn't apply to all though the paid ones though. I absolutely detest Norton and McAfee and they're as bad as free ones.


Might be. As you say, I've only dealt with Norton and McAfee, which I find abysmal.

I have a bad memory of Kaspersky as being far too happy of asking "SURE YOU WANT TO DO THAT? OH GAWD, ARE YOU REALLY CERTAIN?" even when I plugged in something stupid as an USB stick.


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## Originality (Sep 22, 2012)

KAV only asks me if I want to scan removable drives when I plug them in. I always do a quick scan, because I've had MANY cases where it caught worms from people I visited. Of course, I also checked myself before plugging into my main computers to see if it was just throwing false positives, and I could easily find them myself too, so I know KAV does a good job. 

Also, KAV seems to get less intrusive each year. Aside from adding about 6 seconds to bootup, it doesn't cause me any slowdowns at all and I never see it create a large memory footprint. The only thing that annoys me is when it says half the programs (and games) I run show up as potential key loggers, but it doesn't get in the way so meh.

As for AVs being useless... Don't make me whip out the example of the condom-wielding jock and the Puritan virgin...


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## Rydian (Sep 22, 2012)

tueidj said:


> They're only viruses when they help Rydian's arguments.


Congrats on being entirely unhelpful yet again, but I'll respond.

Viruses are out there and more dangerous than ever*1, however the majority of things people get infected with are not viruses any more.
@[member='raulpica']
This includes modern rookits, which are their own category.

"Infection" =/= "virus".  A virus is _a specific classification_ of infection.  To be specific, a virus is a type of infection that spreads by embedding copies of itself into pre-existing files on the user's machine.  Hidrag.A is an example of a Virus, it copies itself into .exe files and relies on one of them being transferred to another machine, where, upon running, it resumes, infecting all the files on the new machine, and so on.  Back in the P2P days where I ran across this, the basic technique was still very prevalent, and later on I actually found it in a Warez copy of Quake 2.

Nowadays, however, people are more cautious about transferring .exe files, and standard download procedures will scan and test files, so hoping somebody runs a random .exe that pops up has lower success rates than it did in the past.  This is why modern types of infections have moved away from being viruses, and moved onto being malware (often scareware).  Modern infections will generally take advantage of security holes that exist in client programs in order to automatically install themselves (for scareware, you almost always find them dropped in %appdata%/roaming), and they'll exploit flash, adobe reader, firefox, IE, chrome, whatever they can use to present themselves to the user that has write permissions _somewhere_ on the drive.  Once they do that (since locations like %appdata% aren't protected by UAC), it's simple for them to launch and start changing settings.

As for the settings they change, there's one basic set of tactics that most infections (regardless of classification) take: _removal prevention_.  Back when viruses were the most common threat the settings changed were rather simple... disable windows update, kill explorer.exe, and the average person is freaked out.

Modern infections however, can take much stronger steps.

*1 - I cleaned up an infection a few weeks ago where a virus had actually uninstalled BITS and the windows update service from the system to make sure that the system couldn't be patched for security holes, since even the downloadable patches from MS use BITS.  I had to copy clean versions of the related .dll files and re-register them in the command prompt to get BITS and WU working again to patch the system.




EDIT: My point is that the majority of what people actually get infected (at least initially*2) with initially are not viruses, because virus protection does it's job well enough.

*2 - Once the system's defenses are down it's usually "fair game" to other types of infections, which is why an infected machine usually has more than one uninvited guest.


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## raulpica (Sep 22, 2012)

Rydian said:


> EDIT: My point is that the majority of what people actually get infected (at least initially*2) with initially are not viruses, because virus protection does it's job well enough.


Then the AV would probably report it as a virus and ask the user to proceed in a certain manner (delete/quarantine, ignore, etc.). Nobody actually ever tells me of something like that.

That gets us to our next point. As you know, Virii then get quarantined and usually every virus found gets logged.

I read the logs for the lulz, and the only thing I can find in there that get detected usually are just tracking cookies (man, that's useful!) but no traces of "strong" viruses or something.

I'm not saying that they aren't floating around the internets anymore, it's just that they're SO rare nowadays that I can't see the usefulness of an AV on a modern PC. They're akin to bloatware these days, since they actually do almost nothing.


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## Rydian (Sep 22, 2012)

Raul, I work in the field doing this shit.  Computer repair is my (current) job, was my job in college, and has been my hobby for years.

Viruses are still out there and can cause lots of havoc.  Did I not JUST relate an experience I had with one recently?


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## Sterling (Sep 22, 2012)

Rydian said:


> Raul, I work in the field doing this shit.  Computer repair is my (current) job, was my job in college, and has been my hobby for years.
> 
> Viruses are still out there and can cause lots of havoc.  Did I not JUST relate an experience I had with one recently?



It seems Raul does this too.

I will say there's some major idiocy going on in this thread. It's not a good idea to be connected to the internet without some preventation measures. AV programs are an essential to modern computing. As are anti-malware and anti-spyware. If AV programs decided to be good at removing everything, they'd be bloated resource hogs (even though they are now). There isn't any miracle drug in life or computing. I personally use Microsoft Security Essentials along with Spybot Search and Destroy and I don't suffer any slowdowns or speed spikes. You may think you're safe, but many of these infections do things without any visible problems and without your knowledge. You could be infected right now and not even know it.


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## raulpica (Sep 22, 2012)

Rydian said:


> Raul, I work in the field doing this shit.  Computer repair is my (current) job, was my job in college, and has been my hobby for years.
> 
> Viruses are still out there and can cause lots of havoc.  Did I not JUST relate an experience I had with one recently?


Guess what? I do the same job as you. Since 6 years.

Cool stuff, eh?


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## Originality (Sep 22, 2012)

Rydian must get more seedy customers than Raul.

Ok, no more bad jokes from me. I'm stepping out of the argument I started.


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## Rydian (Sep 22, 2012)

raulpica said:


> Rydian said:
> 
> 
> > Raul, I work in the field doing this shit.  Computer repair is my (current) job, was my job in college, and has been my hobby for years.
> ...


Do you only work on internal machines then, LAN/MAN-only stuff, thin clients, the like?


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## raulpica (Sep 23, 2012)

Rydian said:


> raulpica said:
> 
> 
> > Rydian said:
> ...


Nope, while I do also work on internal machines, the 90% of my customers are normal people surfing teh internets, downloading stuff and using Facebook.

Which are indeed the ones at most risk of catching a virus out there, with all those fuzzy sites offering awesome offers and free software.

As I said, they DO get viruses, but their AVs do _nothing_ at all to prevent them. And I end up having to remove rootkits manually all the time.


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## Rydian (Sep 23, 2012)

I see AVs prevent viruses all the time, what I see people initially affected with aren't usually viruses (barring machines that don't get updates and the rare 0-day exploits).  The viruses come in after the initial infection disables the A/V.

Most malwares don't bother setting up a whitelist for themselves in AVs, they just disable the realtime scan functions, which opens the door for any sort of browser exploit or whatever to drop stuff in and get it to run.


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## Coto (Sep 23, 2012)

I still support the rollback stuff. Free AVs do absolutely if little, nothing to guarantee ports/IO/services checks, but heavy "ima checking files arr arr" most temporary internet files or a whitelisting from the 1996 era, because most computers I check daily being fully loaded with virusses/malware came with avast, avira or antivir.

Paid AVs will make an i5/phenomx4 (ie: norton) look like a celeron if power magamement is set to balanced or computer has internal independent-drivers doing the power management. ie:AMD. Obviously "Service packs" or windows fixes should be upgraded to prevent some more of them. but still. Also, since most modern laptops carry a shitty HDD barely bearing up to 33/66MB/s transfer data rate disks SATA, the disk caching ends up **** pretty much everything if low ram or a completely bloated full piece of AV start paging.


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## Rydian (Sep 23, 2012)

If you're behind a router (and didn't explicitly set up DMZ/+), no incoming connection can reach your computer unless you specifically authorize it by port-forwarding.

AV slowdown is often in the I/O, not the CPU (which is why the discussion started, the OP was having I/O issues).  Most of the machine relies on I/O, so an I/O bottleneck can slow down the appearance of everything.  It doesn't matter how faster your i7 is, if it takes 10 seconds for the drive to feed the program into RAM then it'll take at least 10 seconds for the program to start.

The above is mainly why SSDs are being pushed in expensive machines (and hopefully will be the future).

If an AV is paging, your system is fucked.  Avast is using


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## WiiUBricker (Sep 23, 2012)

I just clicked at a supposedly harmless video link on a harmless review site posted by some jacka** and my AV blocked access to it because it's malicious. I challenge everyone with a windows system and without an AV to click this link and see what happens.


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## Rydian (Sep 23, 2012)

Often you don't even need to click a link, advertising on known-good websites can try to install malware.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/14/malvertising-hits-the-new-york-times/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/25/malvertising

You can't even trust sites like The New York Times or GBAtemp anymore without some form of protection.


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## jalaneme (Sep 23, 2012)

WiiBricker said:


> I just clicked at a supposedly harmless video link on a harmless review site posted by some jacka** and my AV blocked access to it because it's malicious. I challenge everyone with a windows system and without an AV to click this link and see what happens.



After you...


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## Sterling (Sep 23, 2012)

jalaneme said:


> WiiBricker said:
> 
> 
> > I just clicked at a supposedly harmless video link on a harmless review site posted by some jacka** and my AV blocked access to it because it's malicious. I challenge everyone with a windows system and without an AV to click this link and see what happens.
> ...



He's daring people who say Anti-virus programs do very little to keep shit out to do it.


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## tueidj (Sep 23, 2012)

I'd be happy to do it but there's no link to click on.


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## Rydian (Sep 23, 2012)

tueidj said:


> I'd be happy to do it but there's no link to click on.


Aren't you using *NIX?

I call shenanigans.


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## tueidj (Sep 23, 2012)

Rydian said:


> Aren't you using *NIX?
> 
> I call shenanigans.





tueidj said:


> currently running a win XP box that was setup in 2006 and a win7 box setup in 2010.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 23, 2012)

Oh, my bad.


----------



## Coto (Sep 23, 2012)

Rydian said:


> If an AV is paging, your system is fucked.  Avast is using


----------



## Rydian (Sep 23, 2012)

I recommend people disable the scheduled scan because, yes, it's unnecessary.  Modern A/Vs hook into the kernel and scan all files on read/write (that's where the main protection comes from now) so as long as you keep that shield running there's no need to re-scan a file that's already been scanned and hasn't changed, outside of some edge cases.  Avast's UI (the thing in the tray you mentioned) is using 3.2MB of RAM for me while idle, the service is using another 3.2MB while idle, when giving the above numbers I was adding them together.  I used Antivir a few years ago, but their annoying tactics pushed me away (AVG's pulling the same shit now, advertisement popups, ads in the control panel, etc.).

You will most likely run across an infection eventually, just like you will most likely be involved in some sort of collision in a car in your life.  In both cases I would much rather people have protection to mitigate (if not prevent) serious damage.  Saying "you're going to get infected anyways so why use an AV" is like saying "you're going to die anyways so why use a seatbelt?"  _The answer is to stave it off as long as possible_, and so when you do run into trouble, the damage is lessened as much as possible per incident.

"Well the AV didn't stop the malware" - Yes, _and a bulletproof vest doesn't stop a headshot_, but you don't see cops dropping bulletproof vests, do you?  They still wear them because the majority of shots fired are aimed at the center of mass, so they stop most lethal shots.

Let's say you run into a site using an exploit in firefox, and it drops a (known-bad) .exe onto your harddrive and tries to run it.  With no AV, it runs.  With an AV, it's caught when it tries to run, even though it's already been deposited into your machine.


EDIT: You all can be idiots in your own home as much as you want, *but I'll be DAMNED if I let you all tell other people harmful advice*.


----------



## Sly 3 4 me (Sep 23, 2012)

This topic looks like it deviated into 'Whose opinion has more ground while all can't prove their ground' statements. It seems the OP solved his problem with fixing some registry errors. He should also keep those processes down.

I think if you would like to create a guide on your opinion of 'The Optimal Setup to not get Viruses and Slowdowns' then create a new one.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 23, 2012)

Sly 3 4 me said:


> This topic looks like it deviated into 'Whose opinion has more ground while all can't prove their ground' statements. It seems the OP solved his problem with fixing some registry errors. He should also keep those processes down.
> 
> I think if you would like to create a guide on your opinion of 'The Optimal Setup to not get Viruses and Slowdowns' then create a new one.


*cough* sticky *cough*


----------



## Originality (Sep 23, 2012)

Rather than try to argue with Rydian, why not just take onboard his main point?

He's not telling you to change your own personal habits or how you use your computer, that's up to you.
He's telling you not to pass on your bad habbits to OTHER people under the guise of "helpful" advice.

There's a reason every government encourages you to use condoms. There's a reason internet experts tell you to use an anti-virus program.
Going unprotected is like begging to get infected.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 23, 2012)

*1.* Use CCleaner to clean up your registery and Startup from all the unnecessary programs. Clean the registery after all your uninstalls to make sure that no unnecessary keys are left behind.
*2.* Type in "services.msc" in the Run... bar of your start menu and look for Services that you don't necessary require, then set them to Disabled or Manual, depending on your liking. Here's a pretty useful table with most (if not all) base Windows services, alongside recommended settings for improved performance. http://www.blackvipe...configurations/
*3.* Enter MSConfig and set the Boot affinity to two or more cores, depending on your setup. The default setting is one, wheras it can use more cores to improve boot times.
*4.* Remove unnecessary bloatware from your computer - here CCleaner is again quite useful.
*5.* Scan your computer for malware, adware and viruses you may not be aware of.
*6.* Use the Disk Cleanup utility to remove unnecessary left-overs from Windows Update installations, as well as temporary files. You can also use CCleaner to do that for you. Add the X:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp\ to the cleaning routine or remove its contents yourself - some programs omit it during cleaning.
*7.* chkdsk /f your drives to make sure that they are not affected by any errors.
*8.* Remove unnecessary Windows functions using the Disk Cleanup utility. Some of them you never use, and yet they remain a part of the system. You can get rid of whatever you don't actually use.
*9.* Disable the Indexing feature of Windows on your drives as well as the service if you are not using Windows Search very often. Using it does make file searching take less time, but running it at all times takes a toll on overall performance when using Explorer.
*10.* Once all that is taken care of, defragment your hard drives. I recommend using Auslogic's Disk Defrag - it has the option to put your System Files and most often used files in the Fast Read Area of your hard drive (closer to the center of the spindle).
*11.* Finally, make sure that you are using the proper Power Plan - many people use their laptops using Energy Saving profiles, not knowing that they can switch to Full Performance.

These routines should help you maximize your PC's performance. Regular maintenance is key when it comes to performance, so make sure to perform it every now and then - especially after removing big files or programs.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Sep 24, 2012)

tueidj said:


> I'd be happy to do it but there's no link to click on.


I haven't posted the link because I figured the moderators would have just removed it. But I guess it's ok post the comment in which the link has been posted.
http://tinyurl.com/bpnbf97

I have to say that I'm a bit embarrased to fall for something so obvious. Then again, there are so many different kind of people that would click this link, kids, not so smart people, people who think they are save because they have an AV, people who are just curious and so on. People do post those links with the intend to harm other people. There are so many places with supposedly malicious content that you don't expect, not just on porn sites.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 24, 2012)

It took me to a page with a vimeo player and some other music playing applet (which started automatically) underneath. No dropped files, no new programs in task manager, no new ports open, not a thing - and this was using my XP box.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Sep 24, 2012)

So, if this link is indeed not malicious, what was the intention of the person behind it?


----------



## tueidj (Sep 24, 2012)

They seem to be trying to sell the music featured in the clips.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Sep 24, 2012)

This link is merely an example. It may well be a false alert from my AV (after looking more closer to the report it seems the problem is the favicon).
I still think that people with enough knowledge can come up with malicious stuff with the intention to harm other people by stealing their data or whatever. Look at you, you accomplished amazing things with the Wii. I bet you could easily code something very bad for the PC that can bypass all existent AVs due to a missing entry in the AV's database. But once it's in the database people need this AV to secure themselves from it. And if you don't have an AV you are always gonna be vulnerable to it.

I can't deny that AV companies may be doing a bit scam. There has been rumors for years that some AV companies deliberately spread viruses to the internet to increase their own detection rate. Even if this happens to be true, that grain of scam doesn't make AVs completly useless imo. It's a bit like medicine. It tastes bad, but you need it.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 24, 2012)

I've never seen any "the AV companies spread viruses" claims to come from anything remotely resembling a reliable source, and when pressed for any actual information or proof, I've of course been given excuses or just cut off.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 24, 2012)

People often misunderstand AV signatures for actual viruses, I suppose?

In any case, it's true that non-stop scanning takes a toll on overall performance, but for some it's a necessary evil. If you *don't* feel like having a AV monitor turned on at all times, at the very least perform regular, periodical scanning, like in the olden days. It'll prevent you from issues later on, and we're not talking just about data loss. Identity theft and fraud are the two main interests behind infecting someone's computer in the 21st century, y'know.


----------



## Originality (Sep 24, 2012)

Rumours are like that. Someone doesn't like what someone is doing, tells a bad story (not saying true or not), and it spreads. When it gets challenged, there's usually no evidence to work with, just word of mouth.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 24, 2012)

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I pretty much ignore any "I HAD 5000 VIRUSES" talk.  People see the number of infected file results and think that's the number of viruses, when in reality it may just be one virus that's infected many files, or (more common today) one malware strain that's made up of many parts (the executable, a DLL or two, some settings file, a folder or two dedicated to it, 5-10 registry entries and suddenly malwarebytes is showing 16 results for a single infection and the user freaks out).


----------



## Originality (Sep 24, 2012)

Maybe not 5000, but I have seen a computer with over 600 unique infection types. Made me wonder how the thing runs at all (school PC).


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## Foxi4 (Sep 24, 2012)

Originality said:


> Maybe not 5000, but I have seen a computer with over 600 unique infection types. Made me wonder how the thing runs at all (school PC).


Odd. Don't schools block all the usual sites where you'd get viruses from? You know which ones I'm on about...


----------



## Originality (Sep 24, 2012)

I will also add that this is a school where I spent many IT lessons roaming the network, spotting WinX and Kazaa and many other variants. I systematically deleted them whenever I found them.

3 guesses what I found in the download folders for those programs.



Spoiler



Illegally downloaded games, music, movies, and porn. Lots of porn.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 24, 2012)

It's interesting how people with degrees in IT who teach it at schools have to call in their disciples to do basic maintenance for them.


----------



## raulpica (Sep 24, 2012)

Rydian said:


> Avast is using


----------



## Originality (Sep 24, 2012)

Better than AVG. roughly on the same level as Avira.


----------



## raulpica (Sep 24, 2012)

Originality said:


> Better than AVG. roughly on the same level as Avira.


It's way worse than both. Tested on REAL LIFE BENCHMARKStm, not random numbers.

I've confirmed that after 3 years of examinations. The PCs which had the most rootkits/viruses on them were the ones with AVAST.

Fact.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 24, 2012)

I think Originality was more concerned with the performance drop the scanner causes (hence the RAM comment) rather than the AV database it uses and its accuracy.


----------



## Originality (Sep 24, 2012)

Actually I meant AVG is the most defenceless to specific viruses. Seriously, I've never seen an AV get crippled so easily. At least Avast has its redundancy process (backup incase the core gets infected). Don't know about Avira - it could get crippled too, but took a lot more than AVG took.

I personally lament anybody using the 3 A's as an AV suite.

The only truly effective AVs I've worked with are KAV, NOD32 and SOPHOS (SOPHOS was deployed in the school a couple months before I left. It actually did a great job protecting the school computers and taking away my reason to roam the network... Also made it harder for me to roam the network, since it blocked a number of exploits I used).
EDIT: and the less said about Norton, the better.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 24, 2012)

raulpica said:


> Fact.


Bullshit.

Proof please.


----------



## raulpica (Sep 24, 2012)

Rydian said:


> raulpica said:
> 
> 
> > Fact.
> ...


I don't go around taking pics while working just to show someone on the internet that I'm right.

You can either believe me or not, just be certain that I don't like going around telling bullshit on forums just because I'm bored.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 24, 2012)

raulpica said:


> Rydian said:
> 
> 
> > raulpica said:
> ...


The thing about the whole "this is this, fact" on forums is that it's generally expected that you back yourself up when you make a statement.  People who go around saying "I have a 3DS emulator and I don't need to show it to you because I know I'm right" look crazy, right?  Same thing in the computer field.  I've been bothering to link to sources and articles for the stuff I've been saying because I know it's expected (and I've been posting some stuff a lot of people don't know).


----------



## raulpica (Sep 24, 2012)

Rydian said:


> raulpica said:
> 
> 
> > Rydian said:
> ...


I say "Fact" exactly to ironize on people saying things like that 

Since it's a "self-study" which I've never actually cared to publish or something, I've got no proof to back it up.

Call me a liar, I won't get mad.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 24, 2012)

Oh, didn't know it was satire.

Yeah, it's fine, you work with different people and the kinds of threats you run into most often are likely quite different than mine.


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## Originality (Sep 24, 2012)

The argument is over? (looks at remaining popcorn)...

Someone say something about macs not getting viruses!


----------



## Rydian (Sep 24, 2012)

Macs get Fake AVs nowadays too.

Thank god I've never run into one, I don't know OSX good enough to know where to check and all that crap.  Hell, I struggle to find my way into the application library folder half the time.


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## Foxi4 (Sep 24, 2012)

Originality said:


> The argument is over? (looks at remaining popcorn)...
> 
> Someone say something about macs not getting viruses!








Here you go. You're welcome.


----------



## zhaul (Sep 24, 2012)

This is If you suspend the "defrag" process.


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## Foxi4 (Sep 24, 2012)

zhaul said:


> This is If you suspend the "defrag" process.


Even with the defragmentation process is not suspended or disabled, it won't magically defragment the drives if you don't schedule it. That, and the built-in defragmenting software is nasty anyways.


----------



## jonthedit (Sep 24, 2012)

tueidj said:


> Rydian said:
> 
> 
> > With I/O slowdown, the most common culprit is the antivirus, but there's other possibilities.  In the task manager go to the Processes tab, go to the View menu and choose "select columns".  In the new window check all of the "I/O" entries and press okay, then take some screenshots so we can see what's up in those columns.
> ...



Avast has never caused me problems. The only issue i have with avast is that they now are starting to become like Norton > .>


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## Sterling (Sep 25, 2012)

Any opinions (verifiable, experience or otherwise) on Microsoft Security Essentials?


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## Rydian (Sep 25, 2012)

It seems to do the same basic virus protection as other softwares (lock I/O until scanned and such), while being one of the less annoying ones in regards to popups and such.


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## WiiUBricker (Sep 25, 2012)

Rydian, rumours are something that you can't prove because if you do, they become facts. I didn't call AV companies spreading viruses a fact.


----------



## Originality (Sep 25, 2012)

But that rumour reeks of the same BS as the one where America wanted 9/11 to happen. It's better off not being said.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Sep 29, 2012)

@tueidj, there is a new worm floating around that you get by clicking at this URL:
	
	



```
http://sendspace.com/pro/dl/ma8kdm?image=CENSORED
```
I have censored the last part because people would get infected. You can figure it out with google. According to reports you have to overwrite your MBR and install windows from scratch again. This worm apparently is currently not in any AV databases listed, but it will shortly I bet. If you still think an AV is not needed feel free to click the link.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 29, 2012)

This is what google tells me:
- the link is being sent from random strangers over skype.
- you have to actually download and run the worm, visiting the link does nothing.
- it steals your skype login details, uses your account to spam other people with new links (this is how it spreads itself).

I don't use skype. Problem avoided.
I don't follow links provided by random strangers in IMs. Problem avoided.
If someone did send me a message that said "Are these your pics?" and it led to an executable program, why would I download and run it? Programs are not pictures. Problem avoided.


----------



## Sterling (Sep 29, 2012)

tueidj said:


> This is what google tells me:
> - the link is being sent from random strangers over skype.
> - you have to actually download and run the worm, visiting the link does nothing.
> - it steals your skype login details, uses your account to spam other people with new links (this is how it spreads itself).
> ...



You're not an average user obviously. The average user may not have the same sense as you. These are the types of people that AVs should be used with.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 29, 2012)

That was not the point:





> If you still think an AV is not needed feel free to click the link.


Clicking the link does nothing. You have to actually download and run an unknown program, if a user is willing to do this there is no AV strong enough to protect them from their own stupidity.


----------



## Sterling (Sep 29, 2012)

tueidj said:


> That was not the point:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The point is that the AV will detect it and warn the user. If that's not protection then what is? If someone purposely ignores the warning, then yes, they're the idiot then.

EDIT: When the AV gets updated to be able to detect it I mean.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 29, 2012)

Then they will download and run the next undetectable worm. Or the next. Or the one after that...


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## Sterling (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> Then they will download and run the next undetectable worm. Or the next. Or the one after that...



Well, if there was no protection, then we'd be running into this all the time. Undetectable is only until AV developers get a hold of it and make an update for it. Until then, _every average user_ will be vulnerable to it. Did you get that? People like you and me aren't who's being targeted.

God forbid people use condoms when they could just pull out.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Sep 30, 2012)

Oh I have been told by peeps using Skye (I don't have Skype) that you get the worm just by clicking at this link. I googled more information and according to them the worm messes up your folder permissions and may leave a backdoor in your system. Everybody advises not to click this link and if you did, you have to install Windows from scratch again. Nobody mentioned a file you have to execute.

Edit: You are right. It really is a file you have to run.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 30, 2012)

Sterling said:


> God forbid people use condoms when they could just pull out.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> Sterling said:
> 
> 
> > God forbid people use condoms when they could just pull out.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 30, 2012)

So you're only entitled to complain when you do something stupid and your AV fails to stop it? That's fine because I'm not complaining about anything...


tueidj said:


> Personally I haven't used any AV for over 20 years with zero infections, currently running a win XP box that was setup in 2006 and a win7 box setup in 2010.


----------



## Sterling (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> So you're entitled to complain when you do something stupid and your AV fails to stop it?



Yes. You're not going to get much sympathy though.

Why does it have to be random people? In the example I was talking about, I was referring to pregnancy, not STIs.

@[member='Foxi4']: WiiBricker is advocating AVs.


----------



## Foxi4 (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> So you're only entitled to complain when you do something stupid and your AV fails to stop it? That's fine because I'm not complaining about anything...
> 
> 
> tueidj said:
> ...


Question à propos, if you haven't used any AV software for over 20 years, how do you know that you have zero infections? 

PARADOOOOOOOOOX!

(By the way, I'm not using any AV either. I'm a huge Performance Whore, scanners just piss me off.  I'm not complaining either, but I wouldn't cause an uproar if my computer got infected - It'd be my fault entirely)



Sterling said:


> @[member='Foxi4']: WiiBricker is advocating AVs.


I misread the quote name, will fix that now.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 30, 2012)

Just today I've seen two (non-techy) people I know with that same thing.  One of them just IMed me like 5 minutes ago with it, twice.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 30, 2012)

But the question is, did they have AV installed? And would that have made any difference since it's apparently undetected?


----------



## Sterling (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> But the question is, did they have AV installed? And would that have made any difference since it's apparently undetected?



In a day or so, this will be nixed. Corporate environments will have it even sooner. Updates for regular users are on 2 day cycles. Paid users daily.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 30, 2012)

That would be a bit late if it was as dangerous as WiiBricker had originally posted and the MBR was trashed.


----------



## Sterling (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> That would be a bit late if it was as dangerous as WiiBricker had originally posted and the MBR was trashed.



Umm, yeah? Kinda the point of a virus. This is the game we all play on the internet. It's basically the computer version of an arms race. Get infected by an unknown virus by your own stupidity? Well, now the AV companies know about it and will do what they do best and kick that virus's ass for everyone else.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 30, 2012)

And I'll say again: If you play the game of clicking and running every program you get linked to, AV isn't going to help you. Know what happens with an arms race? Either people start acting smarter or everyone dies.


----------



## Sterling (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> And I'll say again: If you play the game of clicking and running every program you get linked to, AV isn't going to help you. Know what happens with an arms race? Either people start acting smarter or everyone dies.



You're seriously pretentious if you think every virus is spread by clicking. I'm damn smart when it comes to computers and even I get a virus every once in awhile. Shit happens and when it does, I have protection to keep the shit in the toilet and not on the ceiling and walls. How do you know a virus is on a USB stick someone hands you? There is more than one method of infection.


----------



## tueidj (Sep 30, 2012)

Obviously not very smart if you haven't disabled autorun for removable drives.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 30, 2012)

tueidj said:


> But the question is, did they have AV installed? And would that have made any difference since it's apparently undetected?


An AV program won't protect you from everything (I've said as much, multiple times), especially not rare 0-day "in the wild", "holy shit the POC is actually being sent around" things.  This is one such example of something new that managed to spread rather far rather quickly.  To answer the question, a proper AV will protect you from all the types of things it can already detect, on top of heuristics.

Babies are vaccinated for hepatitis and all sorts of other "old" diseases, right?  Same sort of deal.  Prevention of a large number of things that have already been detected.  The number of already-cataloged infections out there vastly outnumbers the new ones being developed.

Also, Microsoft disabled executable autorun for optical drives with an update multiple years ago.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/967940


----------



## tueidj (Sep 30, 2012)

You mean they restricted it to optical drives, disabling it for removable drives. So catching a virus just by plugging in an infected USB stick ain't gonna happen.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 30, 2012)

Er, yeah, my bad.


----------



## Originality (Sep 30, 2012)

If they disabled auto run on removable drives years ago, then I know it's not 100% effective at preventing infections from removable drives. I came across a removable drive worm a few months ago that infected a dozen of my friends before I caught on to it. Damn thing was spreading the rogue AV message every time it popped up.

When it plugged into my PC (after cleaning up all of their systems), Kaspersky caught it straight away. I made sure to tell each of my friends that too.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Sep 30, 2012)

Here is the thing, if tueidj says he doesn't need an AV because he is smart to not click any suspicious links and download any suspicious files, then you can believe him. But this new case proves that a lot of people aren't that smart to not click any suspicious link and download any suspicious files. They need an AV that protects them from their own stupidity and curiosity. Every new viruses, worms etc. are undetectable first, but I read that Avira already detects it (by now other AVs should also be able to detect it). So people who haven't used Skype for awhile are protected against it. Imagine they don't have AVs, run Skype, see this link and get infected. I don't know what else it takes to prove to anyone without an AV that AVs are not useless.


----------



## Rydian (Sep 30, 2012)

Originality said:


> If they disabled auto run on removable drives years ago, then I know it's not 100% effective at preventing infections from removable drives. I came across a removable drive worm a few months ago that infected a dozen of my friends before I caught on to it. Damn thing was spreading the rogue AV message every time it popped up.
> 
> When it plugged into my PC (after cleaning up all of their systems), Kaspersky caught it straight away. I made sure to tell each of my friends that too.


They could have systems that aren't updated.  I see people who refuse updates all the time because the process annoys them, and as far as this updating being from years ago, people will often restore their computer to factory settings (manufacturer-given restore disc, built-in restore partition, etc.) and windows update doesn't update the version that would be restored (obviously), so when they do it they lose all the updates that came out since then.



WiiBricker said:


> Here is the thing, if tueidj says he doesn't need an AV because he is smart to not click any suspicious links and download any suspicious files, then you can believe him.


My main concern is... that's false.
http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox.html





> Critical: Vulnerability can be used to run attacker code and install software, requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing.


Which translates to "visit this site and you can get shit installed without having to give it permission".  Check out how many critical-level vulnerabilities are fixed version to version.

I'm just using firefox for an example because Mozilla itself publishes that info, there's "unofficial" vulnerability lists for most common browsers and other internet-facing programs.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Sep 30, 2012)

What I meant by saying to believe him is that you can believe him that he is in the believe of not needing an AV if he says so. He has no reason to lie since he has over 20 years of computer experience without infections (crediar btw has the same opinion about AVs like tueidj). This does NOT mean that people shouldn't use AV programs. In fact, most people will use AV programs no matter what because their common sense tells them to do that (not to mention Windows keeps bugging you to install one).


----------



## WiiUBricker (Feb 13, 2013)

Just want to say that I got rid of my Anti Virus a few weeks ago and it was one of the best decisions I have made. My PC and programs run faster including my browser and all random crashes and stuff are gone. No more stupid freezes, no more lock-ups, no more bitching from other programs, no more trolling from an AV system.

tueidj was right from the start. I admit I only got rid of my AV after some other dev said the same things as tueidj regarding AV systems. You can find lots of infos about why AV systems are crap via google.  I doubt I will ever use an AV again.


----------



## Rydian (Feb 13, 2013)

WiiUBricker said:


> Just want to say that I got rid of my Anti Virus a few weeks ago and it was one of the best decisions I have made. My PC and programs run faster including my browser and all random crashes and stuff are gone. No more stupid freezes, no more lock-ups, no more bitching from other programs, no more trolling from an AV system.
> 
> tueidj was right from the start. I admit I only got rid of my AV after some other dev said the same things as tueidj regarding AV systems. You can find lots of infos about why AV systems are crap via google.  I doubt I will ever use an AV again.


Congrats on your lack of protection, but don't you dare suggest it to other users.


----------



## Foxi4 (Feb 13, 2013)

If your PC runs slow and you have a feeling that due to its specs it _"shouldn't"_, consider disabling some unnecessary services or switching them to "Manual", run a registry scan followed closely by chkdsk /f and sfc /scannow, then continue with a Disk Cleanup, remove all unnecessary Restore Points and when you're confident that you got rid of all the crap you don't need, run a Defrag on the drive.

It's also a great idea to switch from a Dynamic pagefile to a Static one to prevent it from getting fragmented lowering the overall performance. Boot Time defragmentation is also a great idea if you want to keep it in one peace.

Did I also mention that your C:\ partition should be relatively small, the first one you create so that it's closest to the center of the disk's spindle and filled with the System and only the most essential programs?

Do that and you're set. If that fails, disable Aero and all the fancy stuff that you never really use. That, and prepare some nice Power Plans.


----------



## WiiUBricker (Feb 13, 2013)

Rydian said:


> Congrats on your lack of protection, but don't you dare suggest it to other users.


No worries. I don't care what others do to their PCs.

@Foxi: No. It felt like Windows was new born after it got rid of the AV.


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## jalaneme (Feb 14, 2013)

Rydian said:


> Congrats on your lack of protection, but don't you dare suggest it to other users.


 
his loss, lets hope we don't seem him come back a month later when his pc stops booting or he looses his data...


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