1: Anti Virus (Microsoft Security Essentials, Avira, avast! or AVG) 2: Firewall (Windows built-in + Sphinx Firewall Control, Comodo, OutPost) 3: Backup Software (Acronis 2010, Ghost 14 or Macrum) 4: Good Malware scanner (Malwarebyte's, SpyBot Search & Destroy,A-Squared) 5: Automatic Updates "ON" and UAC "OFF" 6: CCleaner is a must! This is the security I would basically use on my own PC. Don't recommend using more than one AV or Firewall of course. As far as malware scanners I use more than one because I find that sometimes A-Squared and/or Malwarebyte's won't pick up something that the other might. I usually disable M$ built-in system restore once I have my own backed up images from Acronis 2010. I set it up to incremental back ups every couple of days. Firewall it's a toss up between the 3, it's upto you. Personal preferences I guess.
Now this is a display of true knowledge. I agree from 1 through 6, 6 being very important indeed. Right on, bro ! At least some get it right
Well the most secure would be not to plug in your cat5 at all. If that is to extreme then I agree with eaponte23.
excellent tips! thanks everyone... i disabled UAC. it's super annoying! Enabled protected mode and disabled system restore. Will take some time to try out all the suggested software... @topdnbass you may have a MAC bound IP lease (i googled it) @gentoo what about tempest?! oh noooooooooosssss i would like to add truecrypt to the list. i just ecrypted the whole hard disk including system partition. it's great if you're concerned about laptop theft. i don't like bitlocker becuase it uses a usb stick?
That's a great program, it's like PGP WDE Or Utimaco, but free Just don't forget your Pre-boot authentication passphrase. Encrypted Pron = FTW
Thanks UL, I know I have a mac bound IP lease, i just wanted more info on cloning Some good security suggestions. Id like to add on that usinga more secure browser such as firefox rather than IE will significantly reduce problems as well. Believe it or not the majority of exploits, malware, spyware only work on IE. You'd be doing yourself a world of good by using firefox or chrome. Truecrypt is amazing.
Disabling UAC is the most stupid thing to do. And those so-called registry cleaners like CCleaner are nothing but sources of trouble.
Having a nag-screen everytime I install something is pretty stupid aswell. CCleaner can be tweaked to only clean certain entries in your registry. I've used CCleaner for years and have yet to run into one single registry related issue caused by running Piriforms app... Easy Cleaner is another handy app to spruce things up, UI a lil outdated but it's reg cleaner is damn good.
ROFL I hope you are being sarcastic ? Ccleaner is a must if you want a healthy registry. And UAC is totally unnessecary...
UAC is to Windows what Sudo is to Linux. It's the best security feature you can imagine in an OS. There are many reviews all over the internet about how effective UAC is compared to other security solutions. Take your time to learn about it before declaring it unnecessary. There is no need for any registry cleaners so long as you don't install crapware on your system (which I never do).
Last time I read around about UAC it was possible to programatically bypass it. This means that UAC can save you from doing stupid things accidentally (if you're that sort of person) but it can't actually stop anything malicious from happening on your computer (which is what most people actually want). Or has MS changed their mind and fixed this?
After MS implemented UAC in Windows Vista, some users found it annoying, though it was a very good security feature. So MS decided to make UAC in Windows 7 less annoying by default and allowed certain programs to pass through it. Naturally it became less secure. But you can make it totally secure again by moving the UAC slider to the highest level. This will make it fullproof again. This is the first thing I do after installing Windows 7.
Installed Win 7. Updated. UAC off, Firewall off, Defender Off. Using ESET Smart Security, its fast and effective. Much faster then previously used Bitdefender. Have used Online Bitdefender just to check if everything is ok, occasionally.