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@Marcos He is experiencing the same firewall interactive prompt issue many here complained before. Same issue, except people don't know how to describe it properly. And he is correct, when this happens, sometimes when you reboot the system you see the prompt before logging off and the way he mentioned he can hear the sound but no popup is the same I described in another topic. Almost every issue I read regarding the firewall prompt or alert not showing is the same issue, but just described differently by different users. It's very unlikely that so many different ESET users on different computers have the same issue, unless this is a bug with the software. I have read over 100 topics now here in the forums, some old, some new of people describing the same issue, basically no prompt to allow or deny a program when using the firewall interactive mode. I think I described in fairly detail how to reproduce this.

Actually, Windows Home has BitLocker. They just don't call it that way. Windows Home has encryption, but it is not configurable by the user, which is why they just name it as Device Encryption. Nobody would buy or use a Windows tablet if they did not have encryption, which is default on Android or iOS as well. Either way, I'm not sure ESET encryption tries to target Windows Home users because they don't have BitLocker. If you look at their small business plans they offer encryption on the higher plans and that those numbers, your devices are mostly likely running Pro or Enterprise anyway if they are joined in a domain or network. I'm quite happy with Cryptomator for encryption, since I can mount local drives or even encrypt data in cloud drives like OneDrive and BitLocker takes care of the drive or external ones.

What exactly does the encryption do in the premium feature? Last time I checked, every Windows system started from 8 already has BitLocker enabled. What does it try to solve because it seems to be promoted as a small office/business solution, but Windows already has encryption on the drive when its stolen.

And it makes sense because if ESET is doing something to the browser, there is some over head added, there is no way around it, since it has to protect the memory and add it under its process when it's running for the keylogger protection. Extra security will always come with some penalty in performance. For example, Microsoft Edge has a great security feature called Enhanced Security which disables JIT compiling for JavaScript in websites. This is really a great to secure against browser attacks since most exploits in that regard, but enabling it for all websites would make all your sites slower or even break some apps. Reason the default Basic mode only runs it for less common websites you frequent. That is a good way to balance things between usability, speed and security. This is why I also prefer ESET secure browser off by default. I don't want or need a performance penalty on 99% of the sites I use when I only need it for maybe 10 sites I log in once every couple of days.

To be fair, I made a PayPal payment yesterday, and it did not redirect me to ESET, so it worked fine, but when I open PayPal.com directly it does. So it does seem to detect when you are opening it directly or are being redirected from a payment correctly using the regular browser. Today I made another payment and the PayPal popup window opened fine in my current browser for payment. So far good. One of the things I'm not a fan is that I had set up in this case ESET to ask me each time as I have more than one PayPal account, personal, business. But it remembers the session (prompts once) and does not ask again. I rarely close my browser or reboot my system. Instead of remembering the choice I would prefer if it asks me every single time, that way I can sometimes switch to the ESET browser and sometimes not instead of asking me just once and then remembering the choice until I close the browser completely. I understand that some might actually prefer that remember option until they completely close their browser. For some domains, I would actually prefer to be asked the choice every time I type the domain. A shortcut to be able to pin it or add to the start menu would also welcome instead of the extra clicks required to open it from ESET in case you want to launch it manually.

I don't want it enable for all browsers. I prefer the option that just opens specific websites only because it allows me to keep a different profile with more secure settings for that browser, example no extensions, or only specific ones, and other more private settings than my regular browser. Furthermore, I also prefer not to slow down regular browsers, as ESET clearly does something to the browser. The redirect option is better for me since as I only use the secure more for specific domains. My regular browsing is very intensive and most sites are just content or research which don't need to be secured. I prefer regular browsers to run natively on the system since Microsoft, for example in the case of Edge, already does certain memory protection and other things build into the operating system.

It probably runs different now than it did in the past when it first launched. I think in the past, it basically executed in an isolated environment that was completely reset after closing it. Hence, you could not save settings, and they were decoupled from the regular browser and cache. At least that was the case when I tested it with Edge some years back. Now it seems it just runs a different profile which allows you to save settings and browsing. At least when I launch Edge in secure browser today from ESET, it does seem to be a complete new profile with its own settings from my regular browser. As for PayPal, the issue is not with PayPal per se, but doing transactions from your regular browser, which would then switch to a secure browser once it detects PayPal.com. Example: You are buying on example.com, it asks for payment, that logs in you into PayPal, that would launch the secure browser for PayPal in the secure browser mode, but then when you log in for payment, you are now on a different browser and profile than example.com, and example.com, most shopping carts wait for the PayPal transaction to complete and PayPal redirects you back to the cart to complete the payment. It's not the same session.

The only problem with launching a new instance of the secure browser is for services that require to be on the same logged account as from which the payment is initiated. Example, PayPal, you would need to log in to the website you want to order from the secure browser, since usually PayPal is redirected back to the provider after payment, while you could set PayPal.com to launch in the secure browser I assume this could create problems with payments and having to log in separately seems very cumbersome when you are browsing and just want to pay something. And not sure if they changed this, but in the past, many years back, the secure browser erased all your history/data which means some banking systems detected each log in as a new place and require all sort of security checks before log in again every time. Not sure if they changed this, but those 2 cases were the reason I tried it once or twice and never stuck with using it. I would love to see how others are using the secure browser.

Yes, I'm aware of the sandbox in browsers, but it's mostly between tabs and decoupled with API's from the OS, mainly for JavaScript threats. Firefox sadly is the worst one when it comes to that, I guess when they completely moved to RUST it will be better. Based on your explanation, the secure browsers is the inverse of something like Edge Guard or Sanboxie, it protects the browser from malicious code running in the host operating system, but not from the browser to the operating system. Got it. But to be fair, if you operating system is already compromised, it's game over. I guess it's useful for lower type of malware or malicious apps that try to tap into the browser but for anything serious, if your operating system is infected, there are no security software that will help here since code can run with high privileges and do basically anything, including turning off all protections. I mean, the browser is the least of your concerns if you have a compromised operating system. The extensions' configuration seems great, I will check that with more detail.

I still don't know what it does in terms of security. Example, does it do something similar to what Sandboxie did with a process? Example, if I want a secure browser I would just launch EdgeGuard which is using virtualization under the hook with Hyper-V, it means the whole browser is completely isolated, reason why you can't even copy, paste between the operating system. Why would I use this over EdgeGuard? I read here in the forums someone mentioning you can disable extensions from installing or updating which is why was more interested but can't really find anything on that.

This happens when an application was updated or modified. Check if you have auto updates enabled for that software and if it has recently updated, if yes, it's normal. As a side note, a good deal of malware apps hide as Adobe Acrobat. You are probably better using your browser as a PDF reader and uninstalling it completely.

Do you mean the firewall prompt that shows to accept or deny a connection? Because if yes, there are multiple topics about the same in the forums. It seems all the issues are exactly the same bug with the notification dialog not showing correctly when it should.

Good luck with the Russian government using your computer and playing at your network. It's mostly banned now in several organizations and governments for obvious reasons.

I suspect there is nothing ESET can do here because it's basically using an Intel feature which means your processor has to be supported in order for it to work.

Can someone explain what does secure browser actually does besides creating a different browser profile? Example, for MS Edge, it basically just creates a different profile setting and launches it with a green bar. What exactly does someone gain from using it?