Hi there, say I have a Windows 7 surf pc set up to be used in public, and everyone will be using it to just surf & read mail.. That's all fine, but no viruses should come in ofcourse What administrative template should I use best to harden my Windows 7? Post any recommended sites/advice/scripts/reg/adm. I was looking for NIST / NSA prebuilt scripts but couldn't find any.
Well, I'd think I'd start with a good AV program. A good firewall (software and hardware) properly tweaked certainly won't hurt. After that, I'd disable Internet Explorer and use only Firefox with certain add-ons: noscript, betterprivacy, ghostery, adblock plus and etc. I would also be a good idea to have a clean system image handy to restore if the system goes belly up or whatever. You'll likely never insulate yourself completely for internet baddies, but you can mitigate it and be prepared for disaster with the best anti malware you can afford and the ability to restore a clean system image.
I prefer pro-active protection such as DefenseWall, Sandboxie, AppGuard, etc. rather than reactive like AV programs. The first ones protect you machine against zero-day or unknown threats.
Found so far Okay, what I've found: "Turn Windows features on or off" for Internet Explorer. The people at the place prefer to use Chrome as browser so that's fine. I know Internet Explorer is the most used browser out there on a Windows platform so malwriters are coding for it the most . Also I've seen college and university students can apply for free Windows products from MS DreamSpark site. These keys are being sold on Reddit Com Softwareswap for like $15. I prefer to keep my hands off such 'opportunities' to avoid blacklist of course . Also, Windows SteadyState for Windows 7 is available again, it got delisted for XP but they're Back again! Good to know, SteadyState allows you to lock it down all automatically! Thanks for the replies, ladies and gentlemen!