Small windows problem

chscag

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Is the general feeling of the forum that Kaspersky is unnecessary?

Yes, remove it and be sure to completely uninstall the remnants of whatever other AV programs you installed in the past. As Ian indicated, all you need is the Malwarebytes program to scan once in awhile for malware. After you're done, run EtreCheck again.
 
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Okay, I'll give it some thought, but having used it for some years, it does seem a bit arbitrary to just bin it. And I can't see (so tell me!) the connection between Kaspersky, running quietly for several years, and my Small Windows problem, which started last autumn?

The other thing is this: etrecheck says I'm using multiple System Extensions. Not sure what this means. What does it refer to, and are there easy ways to see what in fact I'm running that are wrong 'uns?

A
 
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You should be able to look in System Preferences > Extensions, to see what “System” extensions have been installed.
 

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Okay, I'll give it some thought, but having used it for some years, it does seem a bit arbitrary to just bin it

Allen, as I said, the choice is always yours.

And may I wish you a Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Ian
 
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Bob - thanks. I have LOADS of things in there, many of which I do not recognise. Is there any way of checking, apart from going through and Googling each name to see what it's supposed to do? Does just unchecking their boxes mean they're inactive, or do they need deeper deleting?

Ian - again, understood, and in the scales of experience, I would weigh much lighter than you guys (even though I've been operating Macs for over 30 years (probably wrongly!)) But I would like a few hard bits to chew on re.Kaspersky before I ditch it, rather than it just not being recommended, i.e. what harm it does.

Christmas greetings likewise from a cold and sunny London.

A.
 
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Bob - thanks. I have LOADS of things in there, many of which I do not recognise. Is there any way of checking, apart from going through and Googling each name to see what it's supposed to do?



"many of which I do not recognise" is definitely NOT a good thing. And no, just unchecking is not enough to disable them, the "-" icon needs to be used for that to happen. Plus at least a restart for some.

To check on what each does, you can open a page here and then use the Search bar to enter the name that will take you to a description page, but start here:
https://www.macupdate.com/





- Patrick
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Allen, the challenge is that things that change the system are unpredictable, and can combine to create issues that no single one of them may do. And Antivirus software in general is notorious for exactly that side effect. So go ahead and get rid of Kaspersky because it's doing nothing beneficial at all, and may be contributing to the issues. If you do that, then re-run Etrecheck and post the results (the detailed results) here we can check the extensions for you to see what is suspect and what is not.

Happy Christmas to you there in London.
 
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Well, after a heavy dose of bronchitis (me, not the Mac), finally climbing out of it (and it is so much harder when you're old - I never believed them!), ditched Kaspersky, partly because of your good advices, partly because I discovered that were offering me renewal for around £100 and offering the same package to new subscribers for around £30.

Anyway, point being that having uninstalled K from my machine(s), the Small Windows problem seems to have gone.

I will also expunge those odd 'small' programs over time, as having ditched all my log-in stuff and had no come-back anywhere, it seems the leaner the better...

Ta.

Allen.
 

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