Windows 10 to get a Game Mode for Improved Performance

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Jan 14, 2017.

  1. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    Sorry but you're lacking in the subject.

    Browser isn't running in administrative mode so even if you think an exploit can execute something(which it won't unless you download something) it won't do any good because it won't have the privileges to do so.

    uBlock origin blocks 99% of junk out there anyways.

    and even running any new file windows still prompts you "are you sure you want to open this file"

    Like i said. Brain is the best anti-virus. Never gotten one on my rig, ever.
     
  2. chispy

    chispy Ancient Guru

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    I hope this new option on windows 10 works as intended and does not have big issues and problems. I welcome all free performance for games.
     
  3. PrMinisterGR

    PrMinisterGR Ancient Guru

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    This literally sounds like a driver issue. Intel is not exactly known for producing good quality GPU drivers.

    Please, enlighten me on how practically enabling an admin access token all the time is somehow ok.

    The whole point of browser exploits is that they break the sandbox they are run in. UAC ensures that they also have to bypass the normal user security token too.

    I agree that a good malware/adblock list is essential for proper security. Proactive measures like that are like... UAC. :nerd:
    Only if an executable requires admin privileges you'll get the UAC prompt. If you are closing it because it's more annoying than usual, then something is wrong with the things you run, not UAC. I barely get a prompt per day in an already setup system.
     
  4. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    The last time my pc was infected with something was Windows XP days... and I have never had uac turned on since it was introduced, maybe I am lucky? or maybe my other methods of system security is sufficient...

    I see it as something that tells me what I am doing, I don't need something telling me what I am doing when I am doing it, I can understand it's use for someone who does not know what he or she is doing with a computer... and even then, the amount of systems I have seen infected with uac enabled... I find that kind of funny.
     

  5. Cyberdyne

    Cyberdyne Guest

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    I've never seen UAC activate on anything other then launching an exe. That is the limitation of UAC, as you said, beyond the admin privileges prompt, UAC offers no extra protection. I've never heard of UAC being so proactive to be able to prompt a user within a browser. Having UAC off does not give a program any extra rights, it simply lets it run. Permissions still apply.

    To use the linux analogy, the equivalent would be to not use an Administrator account at all. But this is not linux, Windows is built so that day-to-day use can be easily done on an Administrator account, as I suspect everyone here is.

    You only get a prompt per day. Same as me or most here. If I had UAC on anyway. And that prompt is always a program I know I need. 8 years later, unaffected.
     
  6. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    Simply turning off notifications does not give admin rights to programs.

    They are still by default run in standard user, this includes the many windows administrative tools.

    Running things in standard user mode runs into permission barriers so UAC is not helping you any.

    As for the stuff you download through the browser well that again returns to the brain.. I'm not torrenting stuff or on websites that are risky.

    Maybe for people who download freemovie.exe and try to run it...

    Like you said, UAC rarely runs, but when it needs to it is very annoying.

    Windows is a buggy mess, i use gpedit, regedit, cmd, etc all the time and it's annoying as hell to have to find the damn UAC prompt behind some window.
     
  7. PrMinisterGR

    PrMinisterGR Ancient Guru

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    This is completely false guys, I'm sorry. Years of using Windows the way they were (badly) made probably made you have habits like that, but no, UAC doesn't only trigger with .exe files. It does a ton more.
    All of these programs can be invoked via Powershell commands that will never popup anything unless you have UAC activated. Just the Task Scheduler and the Firewall are enough. It is usually the attack vector preferred by most malware, since the Windows 8/10 Task Manager will show you what runs on login.

    To use the linux analogy, the equivalent would be to not use an Administrator account at all. But this is not linux, Windows is built so that day-to-day use can be easily done on an Administrator account, as I suspect everyone here is.

    I am curious, how do you know your system is clean?

    Nope. The first Windows account created on a computer is always a local administrator account (the rough equivalent of Linux's "root"). Without UAC everything will run at the maximum elevation level it requests without prompting you.
    By turning off UAC everything that requires elevation gets it silently without any prompt, like in the Windows XP days.

    This is like saying that you don't inoculate because you avoid sick people. It doesn't work that way.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2017
  8. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    lol.


    Just stick on topic and move on.
     
  9. Gen Techa

    Gen Techa Guest

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    Razor

    Razor has been doing that for years now.
     
  10. Redemption80

    Redemption80 Guest

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    Yeah, but it doesn't do anything.
    It's definitely less damaging than manual tweaking though.

    Not saying this will be any better, but can't be worse.
     

  11. Vibe

    Vibe Master Guru

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    How did this thread go using AV's or not? Act Pro all you want but theres more to malware than just avoiding suspicious sites and whatnot. Code exploits are not something you say hey, something is trying to invade my system, let me press my alt f4 key and resume my malware free system. Just never seems to work like that.
    Remember the Flash exploit that was infecting users systems just by visiting CNN or whatever major site it was cause their ads were infected?.
    How about Steam's chat client exploit or the steam browser protocol exploit back in 2012? You don't just dodge that cause your some pro antivirus renegade ya know. Even security experts use AV and layered security...all of which is annoying to a gamer in some form or fashion.

    How about the router market? Manufacturers produce large amount of routers and don't update them so if your router has security holes not patched, you cannot completely secure them. No one talks about the routers that get attacked.

    There's tons of unknown vulnerabilities to various OS components or 3rd party software all the time that require no interaction on your part and take a while to get discovered, get into an infected server and you have the exploit then that's it, you'll never know till it's too late.

    So you're never 100% secured which is why you're supposed to layer your security then you see posts from people that think they know better and don't use any of it, turning off UAC, saying no to AV, they probably use hacks to shut down Defender too...retards I swear.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2017
  12. lucidus

    lucidus Ancient Guru

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    I found this article about Game Mode.

    http://www.pcgamesn.com/microsoft/windows-10-game-mode-speed-boost

    It suggests that GM would only be available if Game DVR is enabled due to it being (currently) located in the game bar (win+g). Game bar doesn't appear if DVR is disabled, which I do for the sake of steam BPM.

    If it turns out that game mode would effectively be disabled if DVR is also disabled .... MS gonna MS :eek:c:
     
  13. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    lol retards.

    For network security i have a database grade sonicwall(supports near a million concurrent connections). Nothings going to happen on that front.

    As for my pc I use a web browser with no flash or java, both are known to be exploitable.
    Any other plugin requires permission to be run. uBlock Origin will block any adware as well as scripts on flaky websites.

    I also disable windows firewall and defender. The same thing i have been doing for a decade and never have gotten any malware.
    So yes, it's virtually impossible to get malware in such a setup evident by no malware.

    Even an average user will get viruses even with several AV programs. They can't block stupid actions.

    People who are well aware of the risks of turning off AV are likely smarter than you think.
     
  14. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    Sure, that applies for some things, not all.

    Sure it does, for knowledgeable people. UAC isn't helping me in anyway.

    The thing you are saying is UAC is an additional security layer, but in my case it is not.

    New executable that you download via web, windows will prompt 'are you sure you want to run this'.

    So, having an additional UAC prompt is not helping at all.
     
  15. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    The best part of the article was the video *__*



    [​IMG]
     

  16. lucidus

    lucidus Ancient Guru

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    haha ... amazing video! With UWP & EFS it's just as bad as the tv tv tv era but directly affects us on PC.
     
  17. Irenicus

    Irenicus Master Guru

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    Windows 8 is in no way "twice as fast as 10" in any shape or form.

    Win 10 is the best OS right now and games run faster than on any other OS, marginally at best though. No OS is twice as fast for games.

    Sounds like you have some issues with your PC, you're trolling or just don't know what you are talking about
     
  18. Irenicus

    Irenicus Master Guru

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    I'm glad someone else around here is on the same wavelength as me!

    I haven't used an anti-virus in many many years, never had a virus in all that time.

    Sure not everyone is as tech-savvy as us, but really you can educate your friends with just a few moments taken to explain what not to click on, like those big green "download now" buttons you see if you don't have something like uBlock origin installed
     
  19. PrMinisterGR

    PrMinisterGR Ancient Guru

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    First of all, nobody called anybody else a retard, no matter what we think. Let's keep it civil at least.

    No matter what kind of hardware setup you use for your routing, it's realty the software that matters for security. The only solution that seems to be safer than most is to use a Linux or a Windows Server computer as a router. I'm personally using a discarded Atom N270/2GB RAM micro PC, as an OpenWRT router that I update.

    You realize that all the measures you describe keeping you safe, are all proactive like UAC, and some of the ones you mention are much more intrusive than UAC itself. I don't understand why not using Flash is somehow more convenient than not knowing whether something is running by using an admin shell.

    No, it is not. Because you (supposedly) didn't get it, it doesn't mean that a PC with a similar setup to yours (powerful router that never gets updated, no OS firewall, no AV, unlimited privilege escalation) is safe. It isn't.

    The whole point of AV programs is that as realtime protection you only use one, not several. I personally have the AV closed and I manually scan downloaded files. But I use Edge (which is a UWP app in a sandbox that hasn't been broken yet), I have a router that I literally update like a PC, and UAC/Firewall enabled. Yet it has happened to me to find bitcoin miners sitting in the Task Scheduler, where you actually have to go look for them because they don't appear in the startup list of Task Manager.

    If you only read the article I linked you would see that UAC is not just the prompt you see. It's a whole mechanism of protecting core system and user files. The prompt in the end is literally the cherry on the cake.

    And, finally, you're missing the point. The actually good exploits don't require you to download anything. They rely on either visiting a page or simply clicking a link that breaks the sandbox of your browser and runs code on your system. UAC can stop that and ensure that unless there is an OS-level exploit that runs after the browser-specific sandbox exploit, nothing happens. It has nothing to do with you "knowing" what you download, or uBlock, or lists or whatever. They are all nice for classic style attacks, but for all you know you're part of a botnet.

    So, the "are you sure you want to run this" prompt is ok, but the "this will affect your system" prompt is a problem :infinity:
    I hope they don't integrate it to game dvr or something like that. On the other hand the GameDVR or the Xbox app seem to be the natural places for this kind of feature.
    They could also put it as a tab in the notification center, here's to hoping that it won't take them a year to realize it.
    I'm really curious as to what this mode does exactly. Some people suggested it might work like the lame tweaking programs of the past, but don't forget that Microsoft has access to much lower level stuff in Windows than anybody else. Different kernel settings can make night and day differences, as anyone playing with various Linux kernels knows. We only get the "generic" version of the Windows kernel, I wonder if they actually tweak it for this mode.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2017
  20. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    That guy above you said that, not I.
    Just lol'ing at his comment.


    It's not intrusive at all. It requires zero user interaction to do what it's supposed to do. This is why i dislike windows in general, so many obstacles compared to linux or MacOS.

    BTW Flash and java are deprecated now. None of the websites that I visit actually need either. Those are easily exploitable too so no loss there.

    Obviously a hardware firewall is not a protective software layer. But in this situation it's the only protection I need.
    BTW, if you are going to use your own firewall PC, PFsense is by far miles ahead of such a setup in speed and security.

    Of course it isn't safe for any "Joe". It's safe because of what I use my PC for and do(or don't do).

    Not quite. I said that having two prompts for the same thing is unnecessary.

    If i could turn off that i probably would too ;)

    Exactly my point.
    Your what-ifs come down to what I've been saying, the brain.

    I don't click on unknown links or go to unknown pages.
    I play games, visit forums, youtube and that's about it.

    Sure, if i were torrenting, constantly browsing for porn, downloading music from some obscure source my situation would be different.
    But like i said, for my uses everything I do is fine.

    Sure, x browser can have some exploitable bug or some website that I visit can be as well but those are what-ifs. But such a thing is highly unlikely.
    The chance of running into any issues here is near NIL, which is why I am not worried about it.

    Again, any regular person I would not recommend to do as I do.
     

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