Tips and tricks for the paranoid Windows XP user...

[Solon]

I would post this on the Computer Help and support group, but I'm not a donor(yet) and I also thought that this forum would get much greater coverage. OK, first things first, this post, in GD gives and excellent list of services to disable, and the link to www.blackviper.com for more tips on this. My suggestions are for mostly XP Home users, though some can also apply to Professional as well.

OK, first I'm going to talk about your Windows User Accounts, there are four types of accounts in Windows XP Home. The first is the "Administrator" account, most likely you have never seen it, it is invisible to the normal use except when no other accounts are present or you boot into safe mode(or recovery mode on CD-ROM boot). 99.9% of the time, this account has no password, which means that all someone has to do is press enter or click the Administrator name and they have unlimited access to all files and folders on your computer. Suggestion, password protect this account, easy to do, reboot the computer and hit "F8" on boot and select safemode, then go into User Name and Accounts and set a password for it. And don't use the word "God" or anything of that sort, please?

Another neat little thing you can do in Safemode under "Administrator" is set file permissions. Now technically Microsoft disabled this for XP Home, but as always they screw up, but this time to your benefit, for once. I would not recommend this unless you know what you are doing because making the Registry Read Only for All Accounts would make installing anything a hassle.

OK, the Next account I'm going to talk about is the default "Administrative Priveleges" account that you set up when you first install Windows XP or first boot up a new PC. This Account is the typical user account, and also a huge security hole, to put it simply, if you can mess up the system, so can someone else, remotely. Make sure to password protect it, limit its use for installing new, trustworthy programs and Windows Update (Install Programs to be recognized by all users). I would NOT recommend using this account type for web browsing or other risky activities.

Next is the Limited Account type, this is usually not set up initially, but you can create this account and password protect it as well. This account is limited in how much you can edit system files and you cannot install new programs with it, but you can run them. This is the type of account you would want to use for Web browsing and other activities of that sort.

Guest Account, not going to say much except you should disable it if it is not already disabled.

Next, as many said, install anti-virus/spyware programs and a firewall, and not Microsoft's piece of shit firewall either. Spybot and Adaware are good, as well as ZoneAlarm for the firewall. Also, download and install a Non-IE web browser, whether Firefox, Mozilla, or Opera, there are choices, make it your preference. One other thing in regards to this, if you want to never use IE again, set up Automatic Updates, and use that to keep your computer updated, if you choose.

Last thing, if you have signed up to a Passport account and it is tied to your Username on your computer, then get rid of the Passport Account, I wouldn't trust Microsoft to keep it secure, why should you?

For the REALLY paranoid web browsing experience, use a Live CD version of Linux, particularly one that doesn't access hard drives at all, like Slax, or, if you wanted to, you can go for a distro like Mepis which can read all your disks, but not write to NTFS(Windows XP) but only to Fat32/16 drives(Windows Me and below).

Also, for disaster recovery I would recommend using the utility BartPE. It uses you Windows XP installation disk to create a Live-CD version of Windows so you can rescue files, both local and network, or virus scan the system from a read only enviroment. Very useful.

Ok those are my suggestions, any comments, recommendations, and corrections welcome.

[MichiganVote]

1. Thanks!