I was thinking, mbam, have you got other suggestions for Windows 10? Also, is there a good setup for when I’m running games I bought, and I don’t need active scanning of threats? (Especially for legit games that use resources intensively)

      • Most antivirus especially the free ones are not good and are kinda malware themselves. What you can do is to not download from very sketchy sites and maybe try uploading the binary to virustotal. Maybe also check if the binary is very obfuscated

        •  umbrella   ( @umbrella@lemmy.ml ) 
          link
          fedilink
          English
          3
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          cant stress this enough. read the tos on most antiviruses, they are free for a reason.

          if you are on windows, use defender, its built in and enabled by default, so no need to worry.

          use virustotal to scan files you download, and run it in a vm first if you still think it might be malicious.

            •  umbrella   ( @umbrella@lemmy.ml ) 
              link
              fedilink
              English
              1
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              VM with gpu rendering enabled (good emulation driver or passthrough), not enough for the best performance, but you can use software like fswatch (linux only, but windows certainly has something like it too) to see if the game will change anything on your system that it shouldnt.

              the best course of action for games is finding a realiably safe source for them so you don’t have to do this every single time.

          • This. Better not install any antivirus (other than windows defender) but ANY malware just a bit more sophisticated than something from a scriptkiddie can EASILY bypass windows defender. So please just don’t download from sites where you can download free games as all of those sites I have seem have malware in all their games. And remember just because you don’t see that there is a virus in your computer most malware just hide and silently mine bitcoin or other crypto and steal your credentials to for example discord

      •  mindlight   ( @mindlight@lemm.ee ) 
        link
        fedilink
        English
        3
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        If your computer is network connected you really really need antimalware running. In theory, a game server could be exploited and controlled to inject malware into game clients ( = you playing online).

        If you use a browser to access internet, there has been malware infected ads that infect your computer when you visit legitimate web sites.

        If you get infected, the malware most likely won’t do anything that makes you notice it. It all depends what the purpose of the malware is.

        Ransomware? Then it stays hidden until it has encrypted all your files and then it pops up telling you to pay or you won’t be able to use your computer.

        Collecting useful passwords? Getting full access to your Steam account is nice. Got some awesome weapons and armor in the MMORPG you play? That’s something they theoretically would script to be able to steal from you.

        Or maybe the malware just stays hidden for now, contacting it’s control center now and then to see if there is any instructions.

        Malware is business. The people behind it are businessmen and you are part of what they sell.

        If you have a fairly modern computer there shouldn’t be that much impact on the performance.

  • In recent years I’m very disappointed at antivirus software. I use a paid one, but I’m careful enough to not get into trouble, and they don’t alert for spyware/stalkerware and adware, but report and autodelete every single crack and keygen as their own category on the sole basis that they might be more risky.

    At least it’s less resource intesive, I guess. Or it just knows better when not to do scans, but that shouldn’t be that difficult for defender either.

  • I use sandboxie-plus with some games.Most of them works without problem.You can restrict net and folder access in sandboxie settings.Sometimes fitgirl repacks can be problematic.