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[RD James]

If you insist on creating exclusions for Media Center, you only need three rules:

• Process: "Media Center 24.exe"
• Process: "JRWorker.exe"
• Folder:  "%APPDATA%\J River\Media Center 24\Plugins\"

Now Defender shouldn't touch anything relating to Media Center.
If I recall correctly, I did have to exclude more than just the "Media Center 24.exe" process for Defender's CPU usage to drop to zero during playback, but I haven't done extensive testing.

[torgny]

Thank you for clarifying, that is really a great response.  Do you think any other exclusions will harm playback or would it just open your computer up for nefarious actors?

[JimH]

Excluding MC processes can't allow any harm.  You have to trust MC if you want it to work.

[torgny]

Is the goal to get CPU usage to zero?  With the settings I have in force now, Task Manager shows 2-9% pretty much all the time with occasional spikes to 11% and during track changes it hits mid-30s - do you think something's not right?

Thanks,

TG

[JimH]

Is the goal to get CPU usage to zero?  With the settings I have in force now, Task Manager shows 2-9% pretty much all the time with occasional spikes to 11% and during track changes it hits mid-30s ...

That seems normal.  It would vary, depending on what the CPU is.

[torgny]

I'm using a mid-line laptop from about 6 years ago (Lenovo E520 - Intel i5) so nothing special there.  Well, I must say that tonite with these recent setup changes the sound quality is more like 22nd century, very ordinary CD albums sounds so incredible, I can hardly believe it. 

Right now I am listening to Trouble n' Blues as issued on a 1990's Concord CD (originally recorded for Bluesville in the 60's) and it sounds so alive you'd be forgiven to think this was recorded yesterday using digital technology and downloaded as an HD file.  And I used to think this was a pretty poor sounding album!  Absollutely amazing

Than you, J River!

TG


Now let's get those missing files I talked about in other posts to show up in the library ...

[torgny]

Yes, of course.  However, if you enter exclusions as some have suggested to exclude all files by a certain type, such as for instance FLAC, then all processes that "touch" any such file will have a free pass to spread whatever contagious thing.  Same thing if you exclude whole folders, such as the root of your music library.  Seems very dangerous to me which is why I suggest limiting the exclusions to MC processes and possibly a few other trusted applications.  The question becomes which processes exactly, and will it be effective?  Early indications are positive, we shall see. // TG

 

Excluding MC processes can't allow any harm.  You have to trust MC if you want it to work.

[JimH]

Yes, of course.  However, if you enter exclusions as some have suggested to exclude all files by a certain type, such as for instance FLAC, then all processes that "touch" any such file will have a free pass to spread whatever contagious thing. 

I don't believe so.  It just means that opening the FLAC file doesn't invoke the AV.  A malicious program itself would need to be allowed by the AV to have anything dangerous happen.
Media files aren't dangerous and shouldn't be checked every time they are opened.

[RD James]

I don't believe so.  It just means that opening the FLAC file doesn't invoke the AV.  A malicious program itself would need to be allowed by the AV to have anything dangerous happen.
Media files aren't dangerous and shouldn't be checked every time they are opened.

https://blog.avast.com/minecraft-players-exposed-to-malicious-code-in-modified-skins

Nearly 50,000 Minecraft accounts have been infected with malware designed to reformat hard-drives and delete backup data and system programs, according to Avast data from the last 30 days. The malicious Powershell script identified by researchers from Avast’s Threat Labs uses Minecraft “skins” created in PNG file format as the distribution vehicle. Skins are a popular feature that modify the look of a Minecraft player’s Avatar. They can be uploaded to the Minecraft site from various online resources.

Media files aren't dangerous until they're maliciously crafted. You shouldn't assume that they are safe - especially now that Media Center is using Java for Blu-ray menu support (the affected version of Minecraft runs on Java).

[torgny]

Thank you, RD James, you've just confirmed my fears.  Very glad I didn't permanently risk my computer with wide-open unchecked access to entire folders or file types.  Now I have only the MC processes as suggested and just hope the change didn't come too late.   These 3 exclusions seem to do the job, at least so far.  Thanks for being on the watch // TG

https://blog.avast.com/minecraft-players-exposed-to-malicious-code-in-modified-skins
 
Media files aren't dangerous until they're maliciously crafted. You shouldn't assume that they are safe - especially now that Media Center is using Java for Blu-ray menu support (the affected version of Minecraft runs on Java).

[JimH]

I don't agree with RD James.  Media files aren't a threat. 

Is it theoretically possible?  Maybe.  But the file would need to be designed to trip up a media player that had a specific known vulnerability.

That Java is used for Blu-ray menus is no thread.

I'd rather people wouldn't use the forum to spread paranoia.

[JimH]

https://blog.avast.com/minecraft-players-exposed-to-malicious-code-in-modified-skins
 

As I understand that report, it's not malicious software in the png file that caused a problem.  It's the script that installed the skin that did the dirty work.

In any case, I have never seen nor heard of a media file that caused a similar problem.