Anilrgowda

Well, its been a month since my Windows vs. Linux article, and this here is my 100th post. So, I thought, what would be a better way to celebrate than post another one of my articles I'm writing to add to my website. So, here it is, another one cause I was bored, and my second ever article.

Keeping Your Computer Safe
By simeandrews

It’s a fact of life – computers are at risk. Viruses and spyware can delete files, steal your information like passwords, credit card numbers, and other important things, and just screw up your computer in general. Most people know that. What most people don’t know, as I have discovered, is how to protect against them.

So, this article is to help you out there who haven’t protected their computer stay safe.

The basics – Microsoft/Windows Update

One of the most important things in keeping your computer secure are security patches and updates, straight from Microsoft. They can be received easily enough by going to update.microsoft.com. To use Microsoft Update, go to update.microsoft.com. If a security warning comes up asking you to install an ActiveX control, click “Yes” or “Install”. Make sure the ActiveX control is signed by Microsoft. Just read through the warning, it will tell you. When you get to the next page, click Express, and wait for the website to find the updates. Just click install, and do whatever it says.

But the most important thing to do while on this website is to download Windows XP Service Pack 2. This “service pack” contains a firewall, Internet Explorer security fixes, and a security center to monitor your firewall, antivirus, and automatic update status.

On your first visit, you will probably have to go a second or third time to get all the updates.

Virus protection

Another thing that is very important for keeping your computer safe is to have an antivirus program installed. If you have one installed, you can skip this section. Otherwise, read it, it has a lot of important things in it.

If you don’t know whether or not you have antivirus installed, just look through your start menu, if you can’t find anything, you don’t have one.

So, since you don’t have one, it is very, very important you get one. I recommend Norton Antivirus, but it isn’t a cheap product. If you want it, go to Norton.com, I’m sure you’ll find it. That site is designed to be easy-to-use.

If you don’t want to spend any money, I recommend AVG AntiVirus. To find out more, go here:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Both of those antivirus programs explain themselves, so I’m only going to tell you about them.

Protecting Against Spyware

Although this program is still in beta, I recommend the most for protecting from spyware Windows AntiSpyware. It’s a Microsoft product, high quality, and surprisingly free. I use it all the time, and you can schedule it to scan for spyware every day, automatically.

The reason I like Windows AntiSpyware is because of the new SpyNet technology. Let me explain. Basically, it sends information about spyware to a Microsoft database, so that Microsoft knows what threats there are, and the information is shared with others. Also, it features a very comfortable, easy to use interface, and if it finds a threat while it’s scanning in the background, it gives a big warning window. Yes, it gets in the way, but that is a good thing in this case, because you’d have to be blind not to see it, so the spyware threat can be taken care of immediately.

But you want to know how to set it up, don’t you? Alright, simple enough. The first time you set it up, it’ll show a wizard that runs through your options. It’ll ask you about joining SpyNet, choose Yes, it’ll ask you about doing a scan, choose yes and daily, it’ll ask you about updating, choose check for updates now, it’ll ask you about Real Time Protection, turn it on. When its finished, you don’t really have to do a thing. It will do the scans, send information to spynet, and check for updates.

The final steps

Well, I’m almost finished, but not quite. Theres a few small things that have to be done to make your computer even more secure.

Limited user accounts

First, make sure you are using a limited account right now. Using a computer as an administrator is, believe it or not, unsafe. That’s because as an administrator, you can nstall anything, and spyware or viruses can too. You also have access to system files, and so do the viruses. So, running as a limited user account, those viruses and spyware that do get through can’t do quite as much as they could.

Heres the user accounts I recommend having: One called admin, which has administrator functions. This is only used for installing programs. Minimal: this is for when you just want to get into your desktop and work. The startup folder is empty, so when you log on, you’re logged on. And the final one is user: this is your account. All your documents are stored here, all your startup programs, and anything else.

To do this, go into the control panel and click user accounts. Click create a new account. Type in admin, click next. Click computer administrator, click Create Account. Click on admin on the screen it brings you back to. Click add a password, and do what it says. Click next, or finish, or whatever it is. Click back. Click create a new account. Name it minimal. Click next, click limited user. Click create account. Log off, and log in as admin. Go to control panel, go to user accounts, go to the account you were just on, NOT minimal or admin. Click change the account type. Click limited, click finish. Now, log off admin and log in as minimal. Right click on start, and click explore. Double click Programs, double click startup, and delete everything in that folder. WARNING: Do not click explore all users.

Web Browsing

This is something I recommend. Internet explorer is not the safest browser out there. Using it can be very, very dangerous at times. So, I suggest using Mozilla Firefox. It has monthly security patches to make sure there’s no holes for hackers to get in, and it is more secure in general. Go to getfirefox.com and click Download Now, the rest should be self explanatory.

Conclusions

Well, Idefinitely didn’t get everything, but I got a lot, I think. If I forgot anything, tell me! This is, after all, only a rough copy. So, good luck, if you have any questions, ask me by PM’ing me or leaving a message here. This is going on my website with Windows vs. Linux, so I want it to be good, none of my friends have safe computers!