You know, those esticks that look like a flat thumb drive. Their claim is you plug them into your lap top and they clean out all the malware and viruses in your laptop. Just curious…
@mehcuda67 more then likely your very confused. But I haven’t had to buy a retail license yet since I’m still rolling win7 licenses that upgraded to win10. on built PCs
10 is fine. Hiding the control panel and other crap is annoying but it’s not that hard to get used to. Once you disable cortana and fix some other shit
Are you sure they clean viruses you didn’t know you had, or do they install ransomware?
Please don’t be installing rando programs from “free” USB sticks.
Plenty of free anti-malware stuff out there directly from the source. A download will always be the most current. The built-in Windows anti-malware/anti-virus is actually decent.
Malwarebytes, Avast, ESET, Kaspersky, Symantec, IOBit are all fine options.
Most have expanded to include a browser plug-in that scans what your browser is loading for “drive-by” threats and sketchy sites.
Other helpful features are privacy extensions like Ghostery to block tracking cookies and such, however that often breaks ad-supported TV network streaming sites like cbs.com and nbc.com. But you can pause it for those sites or just trust that site.
I would never. Ever. Ever. In a million years. Plug something into any computer that claimed to do that. Unless I built it myself and I would never have an autorun on it. Just no.
You should never buy something like that that has software on it period.
I didn’t know the Fix Me Stick was still a thing…is it? I never fully trusted the product, based entirely on what the infomercial claimed it could do. Just seemed too easy and exploitable.
@PooltoyWolf never plug a usb into any computer that is not a blank usb from a reputable source.
You can load free programs that do bootscans after if you need one but that’s a common feature of antivirus/antimakware software and you should know you need to do it because you are already screwed. At that point I sometimes just recover files and do a full wipe to be on the safe side on a compromised system.
@earlyre For all that, we only charge you $29.99 + shipping & handling and if you order in the next 10 minutes, you’ll get a second Fix Nothing stick for only shipping and handling!
These types of devices are
a) temporally disadvantaged, as they’re running software using scripts generated by automation software, so keeping the tools/apps current is an issue and
b) holy shit why would you do this–if I were a malicious actor this is the perfect attack vector. Even if the outdated software issue weren’t a problem, the fact that it would need to be updated means it’s connecting to the internet to do so–which means these things are going to be targeted by every blackhat on the planet.
There are literally products on the market for pentesters (i.e., people who are paid to hack systems to find vulnerabilities) to do EXACTLY this. It seems like spy movie shit, but with containerization and the increase in cross-platform compatibility offered by things like the Windows Subsystem for Linux/Python’s increasing ubiquity? No fucking thank you.
@dvermilion But “paranoia” aside, it’s probably “safe” to use a product designed to remove malware. Then again, most things are pretty safe right up until they aren’t.
No, but does it work on other things? I’m looking across the couch right now.
Try malwarebytes, great piece of free software. Works for Mac or PC.
What if Windows 10 is the undesireable software?
@mehcuda67 Then you install Linux off a thumb drive.
@mehcuda67 more then likely your very confused. But I haven’t had to buy a retail license yet since I’m still rolling win7 licenses that upgraded to win10. on built PCs
10 is fine. Hiding the control panel and other crap is annoying but it’s not that hard to get used to. Once you disable cortana and fix some other shit
Run away! It’s hardware. It probably has tireless robot legs, for chasing you.
Keep running.
Are you sure they clean viruses you didn’t know you had, or do they install ransomware?
Please don’t be installing rando programs from “free” USB sticks.
Plenty of free anti-malware stuff out there directly from the source. A download will always be the most current. The built-in Windows anti-malware/anti-virus is actually decent.
Malwarebytes, Avast, ESET, Kaspersky, Symantec, IOBit are all fine options.
Most have expanded to include a browser plug-in that scans what your browser is loading for “drive-by” threats and sketchy sites.
Other helpful features are privacy extensions like Ghostery to block tracking cookies and such, however that often breaks ad-supported TV network streaming sites like cbs.com and nbc.com. But you can pause it for those sites or just trust that site.
I would never. Ever. Ever. In a million years. Plug something into any computer that claimed to do that. Unless I built it myself and I would never have an autorun on it. Just no.
You should never buy something like that that has software on it period.
I didn’t know the Fix Me Stick was still a thing…is it? I never fully trusted the product, based entirely on what the infomercial claimed it could do. Just seemed too easy and exploitable.
@PooltoyWolf never plug a usb into any computer that is not a blank usb from a reputable source.
You can load free programs that do bootscans after if you need one but that’s a common feature of antivirus/antimakware software and you should know you need to do it because you are already screwed. At that point I sometimes just recover files and do a full wipe to be on the safe side on a compromised system.
I remember reports about those years ago… IIRC, ALL it did was Delete the Cache, and Clear out Cookies.
@earlyre For all that, we only charge you $29.99 + shipping & handling and if you order in the next 10 minutes, you’ll get a second Fix Nothing stick for only shipping and handling!
KuoH
These types of devices are
a) temporally disadvantaged, as they’re running software using scripts generated by automation software, so keeping the tools/apps current is an issue and
b) holy shit why would you do this–if I were a malicious actor this is the perfect attack vector. Even if the outdated software issue weren’t a problem, the fact that it would need to be updated means it’s connecting to the internet to do so–which means these things are going to be targeted by every blackhat on the planet.
There are literally products on the market for pentesters (i.e., people who are paid to hack systems to find vulnerabilities) to do EXACTLY this. It seems like spy movie shit, but with containerization and the increase in cross-platform compatibility offered by things like the Windows Subsystem for Linux/Python’s increasing ubiquity? No fucking thank you.
Source(s): Dude trust me.
If you really want to shit your pants, consider a future where “Hey, can I borrow your cable real quick?” are ubiquitous, because the only thing stopping it right now is cost.
@dvermilion But “paranoia” aside, it’s probably “safe” to use a product designed to remove malware. Then again, most things are pretty safe right up until they aren’t.
You will pay us to install our malware for us, and you’ll like it. Tell your friends.