[SOLVED] Questions about Windows, scanners, etc

[Badram]

I thought it would be fine to just take logs.
i haven’t been running fixes unless instructed to

Honestly don’t understand what’s going on, and there’s a lot of things I don’t know. Still wondering if taskbar icons refreshing is a concern or not, etc

 

[Badram]

also, perhaps I have system files that are corrupted, so that’s why they end up getting deleted?
not really sure how it works.
also read that they expire after 90 days, but that doesnt apply to my case.
I dont know what the optimal amount of space should be used for system restores. I think I set it to 10% a few months back.
As far as I can tell, they just deleted themselves on their own, since each one wasn’t deleted to make room for another.

 

[Badram]

Also discovered the space system restore is using has fluctuated and taken up more since that image was posted. It’s at 900MB now, and no new restore points have been created.

 

[Badram]

Another thing I’ve been meaning to ask, is if headphones can contain malware?
I recently had to get a new pair, as my previous pair stopped working. its the same brand, and they’re wired with that standard small headphone plug (I think it’s called 3.5mm or something?)

 

[Corrine]

Also discovered the space system restore is using has fluctuated and taken up more since that image was posted. It’s at 900MB now, and no new restore points have been created.

Open System Restore and from "Restore system files and settings", click Next>. Take a screen capture of the image shown and include it in your next reply.

Another thing I’ve been meaning to ask, is if headphones can contain malware?

No, they cannot.

 

[Badram]

Now it’s up to over 2 GB for some reason
I adjusted the max amount of space to 2% after the last time I posted too.

 

[Corrine]

Keep the setting at 2% and don't worry about it. You have plenty of space on your computer as well as a recent restore point. It is only necessary to create a new restore point if you are making changes to your computer.

 

[Badram]

Thank you, I’ll be sure to keep it to 2%
I’m just confused as to why the current usage keeps going up. Not familiar with how system restore works, as I’ve only used it once.
Could it be that restore point is taking up space, or is there something else that causes this.
I don’t know if this happens to anyone else.

 

[Badram]

i checked again last night, and now it’s at over 3GB, so I’m still really confused.
I’ve ran the Microsoft safety scanner, so is that causing it, or is this just a regular occurance.

 

[Badram]

for some reason, edge update appeared twice in the task manager, and i Want to say at the same time, Malwarebytes was unable to look for updates for some reason. It fixed itself shortly after, but I have no idea what’s going on half the time.

 

[Corrine]

From what I've read, the Microsoft Edge update was suspended for one of two reasons -- either the update server was busy or the computer wasn't connected at the time of checking.

As to Malwarebytes, follow this thread Malwarebytes Updates so you'll know when a new update has been released. Note, however, that just because a product has released an update, it takes time to propagate so there may be a delay in obtaining a released update.

 

[Badram]

I think that explains both errors, my internet must’ve went out or my router did something.
The issue I was having with Malwarebytes was that it displayed the error for when there is no internet when trying to search for an update.
Strange that there was two edge update instances in the task manager, though maybe that’s because my internet went down momentarily.

 

[Badram]

The restore point deleted itself. Maybe it’s related to me installing a windows update today, I’m not sure.

Also made myself paranoid today since I meant to click manage extension in Firefox in order to check for any updates, and I accidentally double clicked off the little drop down menu that appears after right clicking the extension. Made me instantly think I broke something, or something malicious occurred, despite nothing happening.
I imagine my anti-virus would’ve caught something happening, or if I somehow had a harmful extension that may be detected?

I only have two extensions installed, and they’re security related, but I get anxious constantly about this sort of thing.

 

[Badram]

I think it fluctuates based on what happens, I’m not sure. I ran the safety scanner, and the Disk space usage increased.
Not sure if that’s a concern or not.

 

[Badram]

I found out that my motherboard received another BIOS update on the 4th, I’m hesitant to update it again, since I’m afraid of something going wrong. it’s BIOS version 4805
it states “Recommended for vital update to mitigate the potential security vulnerabilities“
What these are, I have zero idea, as they don’t even list what it’s mitigating. Honestly, the thought of trying to update makes me incredibly uneasy despite the fact that I’ve done it before. Though after I was finished, I never wanted to do it again, since I was uneasy during the thing. Don’t know how impactful this is, or if I would even benefit from it, as I don’t really browse the internet at all on my PC.

 

[Badram]

I’m still on 4602 for my motherboard. I updated to that several months ago, since it also mentioned mitigating potential security issues. What these issues are, I have no idea. I wish they would actually say.

I don’t know how often people update their BIOS. The wording they use has just left me extremely confused.

 

[Badram]

Doing research, I found out that there’s a vulnerability called “zenbleed” within AMD Ryzen CPU’s (I have one of these CPU’s)
Apparently it’s not in the wild, but it will be fixed via a microcode update, and I have no idea what that is. Could it be in a windows update or something?

All this stuff reveals how little I actually know.

 

[Badram]

I don’t know if my motherboards BIOS update is related to whatever vulnerability the CPU has atm. I wish they were transparent about what this “potential security vulnerability“ actually is.

 

[Badram]

Found out that this zenbleed thing won’t be patched until november or December, so I don’t know what this latest bios update fixes.

Wanted to ask if anyone has any good safe USB recommendations, since I’d like to update my BIOS soon with a new USB. I’m just paranoid since I know about how USB’s can contain malicious software, so I’d like to get a clean one to avoid that.

 

[Badram]

I also updated Windows and bunch of software because they all got updated today, and I hope everything went fine. Dunno if I was seeing things, but when the update was installing, I thought I saw it jump back to 0%, though I was sitting a bit away so I can’t really tell.

After it restarted, taskbar refreshed, along with everything on my desktop. I ran a scheduled scan and restarted and it never happened again so I updated everything else.
Looked in the start menu and this Windows Back Up is there now, and I have no idea what it is. Also, I don’t know if this is normal but the windows security icon doesn’t have the normal green tick on it for a while after startup for some reason. There was also two instances of the windows malware protection command line in the task manager (Can’t remember the name, but it has a black version of the defender icon) They went away really quickly so I never got an image of that one.

Attaching some images to show what I’m talking about