Since the days of using DOS, personal computers have always had the risk of being infected with malicious software. Over the years, malware has evolved from basic viruses, to rootkits, and now ransomware that encrypts your data. With each new release of malware, it seems anti-virus software developers are always playing catch-up to make sure their software can protect a computer from the new malicious software.
The fact that anti-virus, or anti-malware, software has always been reactive to the changing threats has made such software unreliable, at times, to protecting a computer. While I am an advocate of using anti-malware tools, my entire computer security policy isn’t based on those tools alone. Computer security today requires more protection depth than just an anti-malware tool and a firewall.
To help with creating a more detailed security policy, I have compiled my list of 5 tools to secure your Windows computer. I use each of these tools, and feel confident in recommending them.
Since the days of DOS, we have been told to install an antivirus program on our computers to keep our computers protected from viruses and other malicious software. Over the years, though, malware developers have become more advanced in their development of malware to the point where many antivirus programs are constantly playing catch up, or have failed to find malware installed on a computer.
Antivirus programs have also become more advanced in how they have detected malware, but have fallen short of protecting a computer 100% from various malware. In reality, most antivirus products are “reactive protection” from malware, and not “proactive protection”, meaning that they are able to find and remove malware once the malware has infected computers. While antivirus programs are still an important piece of securing your computer, it is now recommended to have a layered defense when it comes to security.
Any software product that is installed on a computer can have vulnerabilities. When it comes to such vulnerabilities, Microsoft products are usually some of the most popular to have their vulnerabilities published. The number of Microsoft products in use have a lot to do with such publicity.
A report recently released by Avecto has shed some light on Microsoft product vulnerabilities, and how a simple change in the way we access our computers can mitigate 92% of all vulnerabilities released in 2013. The change is one that I have advocated everyone make when running Windows 7 and above, and this report shows the difference the change can make.
Windows has always been synonymous with malware. To this day, Windows systems are being targeted by malware developers because of the number of Windows systems online, as well as how many exploitable security holes are available. Much of the malware can easily be prevented if users just took the time to implement some security measures on their Windows systems.
Below I provide 5 of the best tips that I utilize on my Windows system. Since implementing these tips, I haven’t had to worry about any malware on my computer in any shape or form.
We all love Mac and their operating system. It’s rather good and reliable – at least, during a few years of usage, refreshing and other operations it didn’t bring to me any troubles. But there is a solid minus in it – a lot of software must be bought, there are no in-built tools for elementary things like HDD defragmentation, antivirus protection, log cleaning and other things that are necessary in everyday life of a common Mac user.
I think we all know that stupid belief that “antivirus protection is not really necessary on Mac computers.” A lot of people used to say so, until one sunny day they discovered that their money from credit cards has gone somewhere. Only after that they understood what an antivirus program is for and decided to buy an antivirus application.
Patch management is a process of updating a software package by changing its instructions to fix any issues there might be. This might be common knowledge to many, but how many actually know what such issues can lead to? And what are the benefits when these are fixed?
Taking time to apply some computer safety rules can help you get the best of your computer in the time when it does not produce the actual result that it supposed to produce.
The extreme rate at which computers are getting infected with virus and some other malware application has made it becomes a norm for computer users to be searching for ways to protect their systems.
In this article are five important steps you can take to make sure that your computer is always performing at the topmost rate it should be.
These five steps are in form of advice to anyone who wants to get the best results from his/her computer system every time.
If you are using Windows 7, I highly recommend that you create a standard user account in Windows 7. Most people tend to always use an administrator account, which means that every application that they run has complete access to the system. You can probably see why using such an account all the time can be a problem.
If you create a standard user account in Windows 7, and then use that account as your every day account, you will restrict applications from making changes to important directories, such as the Windows and Program Files directories. This helps secure your Windows 7 system. I will go through the steps needed to create a standard user account in Windows 7 below.
Steps to Create a Standard User Account in Windows 7
It isn’t difficult to create a standard user account in Windows 7, but you will need to use an administrative account to create a new account. If you are logged in with a standard user account, then you will be asked to supply the administrative password once you click the “Add or remove user accounts” link in the control panel.
Click the Windows icon and then select “Control Panel” from the menu.
From the “Control Panel”, click the “Add or remove user accounts” link under the “User Accounts and Family Safety” category.
Windows 7 – Add or Remove User Accounts (Click to enlarge)
Click the “Create a new account” link below the list of current user accounts.
Windows 7 – Create a New Account (Click to enlarge)
Enter the new account name and ensure the “Standard user” account option is selected.
Click the “Create Account” button.
Windows 7 – Standard User Name Details (Click to enlarge)
Once the account is created, the user account list should be displayed. Click the name of the standard user account that was just created.
Click the “Create a password” link to create a password for the new account.
Windows 7 – Change an Account (Click to enlarge)
Enter in a new password, and then confirm the password. Finally, type in a password hint.
Click the “Change password” button to change the password for the new user.
Windows 7 – Create User Password (Click to enlarge)
You have now completed the steps needed to create a standard user account in Windows 7. At this point you should now have a new user created which you can then log in with once you start Windows 7. If you are curious why you should use a standard user account instead of an administrative account, then you should continue reading.
Why You Should Create a Standard User Account in Windows 7
As I explained in the opening paragraph of this post, an administrator account has complete access to the entire computer, and can do anything to manage and administer the computer. While this may seem great, it can also cause problems.
If you are logged in as an administrator account, then any program that is run while logged in are run with the permissions of the administrator account. This means that the program has unrestricted access to your computer, including all files and folders.
With a standard user account, specific settings that affect all users, such as global settings, common directories such as Windows and Program Files can’t be changed. This also means that a program run under a standard user account will also be restricted by the account. This is a good reason why you should use a standard user account instead of an administrative account.
If you would like to install software, or setup a device, Windows 7 will prompt you for the administrator password before continuing. You don’t need to logout and login as an administrator to perform such actions, you simply provide the password in the dialog that appears.
You can also run programs under the administrator account by right-clicking the file to run and select “Run as administrator” from the context menu.
To help secure your Windows 7 system, I highly recommend that you create a standard user account in Windows 7 and use it as your main account.
