Just a warning for everyone:

My hosts file was recently defaulted back to a blank slate, erasing any entries I had in it to block reg websites, etc. I've discovered the culprit behind my host file "hijack" in the first place: Microsoft.

www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-hosts-file-blocking-telemetry-is-now-flagged-as-a-risk/

"So it seems that Microsoft had recently updated their Microsoft Defender definitions to detect when their [telemetry] servers were added to the HOSTS file. [...] If you decide to clean this threat, Microsoft will restore the HOSTS file back to its default contents."

If you use your hosts file as a bypass, PLEASE back it up to a secure location for safety, in the event it gets defaulted back. Location: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Thanks a lot, Microsoft, you... well, language, y'know.

 

Another way is to show the file to windows defender and after the detection, you allow in the actions on defender interface that it's going to be whitelisted and you dont have to worry anymore

 

easy fix, just set your host file to "read only"

 

Things like this make me love more my old trusty windows 7

 

Or remove windows as a trusted owner of the file

 

Antiviruses are a bit overrated in my opinion. I stopped using them like 10 years ago and never had any issue with viruses or spywares or whatever. I have Windows Bitdefender telemetry blocked and basically whatever Microsoft tries to track from user activity all blocked. And everything running fine without problems. If you understand what are you doing it's hard to "get infected" with malicious programs.

 

How did you block all this in Win10? That sounds like a great idea.
Thanks!

 

I added my Host file to exclusions in defender. Hope that works also

 

i also would make it read only...and

hope is bigger then....just a few clicks
--

i think
https://www.bitdefender.com

 

Disable MS Defender. In fact, give yourself a couple of hours and disable everything you can find in W10. Case solved.

Oh, and never use any other Windows 10 but LTSC version.

Win7 *professional* without any spectre, meltdown etc. patches, still rules for audio production. [although, I hate the user interface. It's so shit. Debian Mate Linux is so much easier to use, and better looking]

 

Spot on

 

Now I'm glad I removed Windows Defender completely from my installation image before I installed Windows.
To be honest, I was glad before as well because without Defender, everything loads a lot faster, even with a different
anti virus solution installed (compared to defender).

 

r4e which app did u use for making your win10 iso ?

 

NTLite with a legit Home license.
Without license (in the free version), you're just allowed to edit simple things.
But you also could use MSMG ToolKit. It comes with a lot of features and is completely free
but it just has a batch interface, no GUI.

Using these 2 tools, I basically created my own LTSC version but with the advantage to use it with a regular pro license.
I additionally removed OneDrive, Defender, all the preinstalled ad- and bloat ware, FeedbackHub, OfficeHub, GetHelp,
added some telemetry settings, patched uxtheme.dll to use custom themes, removed unnecessary context menu entries,
integrated useful functions for my own workflow and pre-set everything that I normally do after the OS installation.

What I ended up with is a very clean Win10 which just takes 7,5GB of space (regular installation takes 12-15GB).



and no defender but the firewall when searching for

 

But there's also an option to disable defender afterwards by using Sordum Tools Defender Control.
It disables it by highly privileged policies.

 

thx mate...