Hello @Plendix, crime on the streets is declining and shifting to the internet. So be careful what you reveal online, check dubious online offers, especially if something is particularly cheap or the promised returns are very high – the chance of becoming a victim of cybercrime is high. Sometimes your browser protects you and warns you about phishing sites, sometimes your antivirus software kicks in, and sometimes you get infected without even realizing it.

The most important thing is strong passwords. 12 lines with special characters, including letters, numbers, and a hash symbol (#), etc. Be careful with online banking; your laziness is increasingly leading to emptied accounts.

Malwarebytes - AdwCleaner --> www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner
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and junkware so your online experience stays optimal and hassle-free.

 

W11 latest update here and never has a problem with cracked licences. I use TinyWall beside Defender. I work securely and fast.

 

It is possible that there have been many "positive experiences", but in common scenarios, it might be "no experience whatever" to the end user.
I may have benefitted over the years without knowing it, particularly from 1995-2012 when I was downloading a lot of potentially risky stuff.
Around 2012 is when I began to avoid "riskiest" stuff (newly uploaded/available newsgroup posts, torrents, etc.)
But during that time I can't recall ever once KNOWING that I had I encountered any real virus.
I did, on occasion, look in my AV scan results & quarantine, but all I can recall is just stuff caught when I forgot to disable the AV.
(and I did use Sanboxie a lot during some time..can't recall what i was doing so risky, but once i learned to always have full system backups, there was a lot of experimentation
But it's possible that it saved my ass sometime...
These days I have excluded all non-OS drives and almost all of my OS drive, but I still allow Defender to scan most of my Appdata folders, just in case (that's where online activity & temp running processes seem to be most common.)
I haven't bothered to add exclusions there because there are so many folders in there and I can't notice any performance problems from allowing it to monitor.
Now it IS possible that Microsoft is staring at my anus hairs via some telemetry, but who the fuck really cares if Microsoft is pervy like that.
Scared of Microsoft 's big throbbing gnarled & crusty telemetry penis?

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2026 at 6:08 AM

Recent March 23rd(?) update messed up my 25H2 machine. It broke my Focusrite ASIO drivers and my legit Studio Pro would not recognize my interface any longer, plus Fender Studio Pro would hang upon launch - stuck at "scanning presets".... Ending task would cause a green screen of death kernel error, or something rather. Even after a format and update to the latest, the problem happened again, so I can truly say the recent updates can be dangerous to some people. Maybe my specific Gigabyte MB rig has a part in this, but still...

I couldn't uninstall the update either, at least fully. It seems to have installed some low-level stuff under the hood. After multiple failed attempts to get things back in working order, I eventually had to format and start fresh. I used WindowsAudio drivers to load up my DAW to deauth all my plugs. In all honesty, it was a real headache. I think it also may have messed up more than just my ASIO stuff. Took me a week to get back on track. In the end, I'm using an old 24H2 build - no updates allowed, tinywall, services.msc edits, this, that. I manually installed the new midi services... Real pain in the A$$. This is coming from a guy who has seen and dealt with it all over the past 30 years...

 

The november 2025 "patch tuesday" deployed an "update" that killed offline KMS activation among other things. So if one applies that particular update (KB5068861 for win11, a different KB for win10) your offline KMS activation (if you use it) will go bye bye. Been running offline KMS activation for years and still do - no stupid update crap == no issues.

Similar here. Running win10pro 22H2 - for internet, the update mechanism is totally removed, along with store, wallet, user exp, diag reporting, all telemetry, edge browser, defender (av & fw), etc. Running 3rd party (safe) FW and AV, static malware exploit patchers. For offline production boxen, running 0% of all that stuff just mentioned - it's not needed on an offline build.

 

That reminds me of the new Windows MIDI update. I was unable to use anything related to midi- even my midi karaoke would not work.
https://www.google.com/search?q=win...CDY2MTlqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
But yours seemed to be related to audio drivers or something? ..or everything?

 

PS, because we're talking about antivirus solutions in general a lot now, sorry OP for hijacking, but it is good time to talk about it:
When I say 'antivirus will not protect you from modern threats' this is what I mean:
https://www.heise.de/en/news/WhatsApp-malware-campaign-installs-backdoors-11244368.html

No antivirus solution will keep you from running a script with your users rights. And let's not laugh too loud about 'stupid people', could happen to any of us. In this case, a well made message over Whatsapp (desktop version), something you were expecting i.e. from someone you know who's computer has been pawned... It's late, you're tired, you think you klick on a PDF or an invoice, BAM... Could happen to any of us. This is how it goes and antivirus won't help. If antivirus would help all that criminal effort would not make sense, as defender is standard now.
That's why I'm team 'backup often to offline' and 'try to stay focused when clicking on things'. Vs 'antivirus with so many false positives I wouldn't know what to do'.

 

Excellent points all. There is no "anti-stupid" service that I know of. And, there is no better insurance than what a good offline system backup imager can provide. However, for those exploits that can activate and run autonomously before you even know what is going on, a decent AV can save your ass in that instance. I'm not talking about any of the OEM microsoft junk. I'm talking about a decent third party AV that doesn't require connecting to the ms mothership for "updates".