Suggestion questions: Got a Win10 laptop last night, what now?

[Forkish]

Last time I had a windows machine, I was rocking windows 8.1. If course I’ve used them intermittently and turned off telemtry as they’ll allow; only connects to a subnetted travel router which is VPNed and is dns adblocking; fully updated and segregating a few unprivileged users according to use. I ran accross Tronscript which seems to be a series of batch files to automate tedious bloatware removal and the like. It seems promising. I also enabled the Linux subsystem, which leads me to a bigger question.

Any heavy suggestions towards enabling or disabling of some system features? Also do I need to enable Hypervisor to use virtual machines? 

I’ve heard malwarebytes is a good addition to windows defender.

In the next day or two I’d like to create a few linux distro startup USB sticks, which program is often preferred for that?

I’ll add anything else I can think of when it comes.

[Exmix]

6 hours ago, Spoonish said:

Any heavy suggestions towards enabling or disabling of some system features? Also do I need to enable Hypervisor to use virtual machines? 

I’ve heard malwarebytes is a good addition to windows defender.

In the next day or two I’d like to create a few linux distro startup USB sticks, which program is often preferred for that?

It's been so long since i've had to enable/disable windows features I forget what I had done, so I can't help in that aspect, sorry.

As far as Malwarebyes, I will back that up and say it is a good addition to have with Windows Defender. Also another good small piece of software from malwarebytes is their AdwCleaner.

As far as making linux distro startup USBs - Software I use and like is called Yumi. I like it because it lets me use one USB for multiple distros. I use mine for Kali, Ubuntu, Tails, Gparted, Clonezilla, etc. There is another I used in the past that i've heard is still good for various reasons is called Rufus.

[Forkish]

8 hours ago, Exmix said:

It's been so long since i've had to enable/disable windows features I forget what I had done, so I can't help in that aspect, sorry.

As far as Malwarebyes, I will back that up and say it is a good addition to have with Windows Defender. Also another good small piece of software from malwarebytes is their AdwCleaner.

As far as making linux distro startup USBs - Software I use and like is called Yumi. I like it because it lets me use one USB for multiple distros. I use mine for Kali, Ubuntu, Tails, Gparted, Clonezilla, etc. There is another I used in the past that i've heard is still good for various reasons is called Rufus.

Awesome, I’ll check out Yumi. I’ll probably grab rufus as well just to complicate things.

[Dave-ee Jones]

Just adding my voice to the singing, YUMI is great, Rufus is great and Malwarebytes is great. I use all 3 most weeks of a year.

YUMI doesn't properly support UEFI though (there is a BETA but I'm not sure how stable it is). And as far as I know it doesn't have persistent storage - there's probably a workaround though.

To enable/disable Windows features just type in "windows features" in the Start menu, you'll get it pretty quick. I would suggest enabling Hyper-V and Telnet for your case. Maybe even IIS if you're looking to have a bit of fun with web servers and stuff. Maybe even make a virtual router out of your laptop.

Also, make sure your have the Intel Virtual Machine stuff on in the BIOS.

[Bigbiz]

Pcdecrapifier is a good program, to thin out those bloatware programs.

Nodefender to shUt off windows defender.

Metesploit for windows is nice.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2018 by Bigbiz

[Exmix]

3 hours ago, Dave-ee Jones said:

YUMI doesn't properly support UEFI though (there is a BETA but I'm not sure how stable it is). And as far as I know it doesn't have persistent storage - there's probably a workaround though

lso, make sure your have the Intel Virtual Machine stuff on in the BIOS.

So far I haven't had issues with the UEFI and Yumi but I've only tried it with Ubuntu and Kali. I did see somewhere about adding persistent storage but don't remember where sadly.

The suggestion about enable the Intel virtualization is a good idea too. Forgot about that.

[Dave-ee Jones]

1 hour ago, Exmix said:

The suggestion about enable the Intel virtualization is a good idea too. Forgot about that.

Yeah, I don't think Hyper-V will work if it's off.