With viruses, spyware and hackers round the corner, there could be many ways by which your PC would be prone to attacks. My PC, which is installed with XP, had to be formatted 2-3 times recently due to virus attack and I had to reinstall the XP on all the occasions. Here are few simple steps to make your Windows XP more secure.
- Turn on Automatic Updates: Update is a Windows XP utility which helps to download the latest updates from Microsoft website. With this your PC will have the latest security updates. But one of the disadvantages of using Automatic updates is that it consumes a lot hard disk space.
- Turn on Windows Firewall: If you have Service Pack 2 installed in your PC, you can turn on the free Firewall provided by Windows. Although the firewall will not give you a 100% protection, it does give some protection.
- Install an Anti-virus Software: There are lot of anti-virus softwares available. Make sure you install one as viruses are the most common type of attack. Not only you install the anti-virus, update it with the latest security updates once in a while.
- Protect from Spywares and Adwares: Spywares and Adwares are other common types of attacks on your PC. There are lot of free Spyware and Adware removal tools. Install one and scan your computer once in a while.
- Be Careful while using Internet: Do not click on any malicious links and also do not download any attachments or softwares without scanning them. If you use a floppy drive or a CD drive, scan the files before you open or copy to the system.
These are fews steps to make your PC more secure. Although with these steps, it may not be 100% secure, but as wisely said-“Prevention is better than cure”
Technorati tags: WindowsXP, ProtectPC, Spyware, Adwares
Hehe, I think the most secure step is not to use the Internet or don’t use Microsoft Windows 😆
hehe Why to turn off automatic updates ..pirated versions of XP needs to be turn off automatic updates/:D
BTW i format my HDD once in 6 months:D
@Kuanhoong,
😆 That was a nice tip. But I guess its not possible with Microsoft dominance.
@Shashank,
I was talking about original version of XP. Automatic updates consumed around 3-4 GB of my hard disk. I never format my hard disk, if there is no issue with OS.
To summarize:-
Go Ubuntu. 😉
Good simple Tips. Many People tend to forget this tips, especially when they can’t hold their obsession to enter the XXX sites! They’ll need to disable antivirus that blocking their ways. 😆
Ubuntu? May be I should Study more about it. Do you have any good resources for me, Vinod! Please Kindly send me an email. I would like to know more about ubuntu! 😉
Good tips. Currently I use AVG Anti-Virus. I would like to know which is the best Anti-virus tool out there ❓
I agree automatic updates are good but they occupy lot of disk space. How do we know we are clicking on a malicious link ❓
Hahaha… I really don’t follow the first 4 steps. The fifth one is obvious and is common sense.
I wrote about this in my blog, long back (one of the posts which I moved from my previous WP.com blog)
Are “Condoms” required?
http://ashwinr.com/2006/01/08/are-condoms-required/
All we need is FX (with Adblock installed). Many of the mallwares are in form of ads or downloadable screensavers.
drop the anti virus i dont have any just service pack 2 and the latest fixes from MS
I use pirated windows. I get automatic updates without any problem.
I generally re-install XP twice in a year. I am a compulsive software tester. I install all junk on my system. So I just format and do a fresh install every 6 months. However, I havent got the time to format recently. Last format was 8 months ago.
Doesnt matter how careful you are if you install software etc Windows XP would get slow with time. No amount of registry cleaning, junk cleaning, defragging, registry defragging would help you.
Quoting Shankar
Shankar I covered that recently in my blog.Best antivirus would be either Avira AntiVir or Kaspersky. Best free Av would be AOL Active Shield (uses Kaspersky engine) or Avira Antivir Classic.
Nice and simple list. Always good to have little posts like this out there.
couldn’t more with kuanhoong and vinod 🙂
but still if u want to use windoze, a good AV like Nod32 or Kaspersky should do the work for you.. So just steps 3 and 5 are more than enough..
Hey thanks. It’s always good to follow the tips you mentioned. Thanks once again!!
I think having a good anitvirus can also be sufficient .
its a goood tip haaan
I like to back up everything on external hard drives and run the original os disks every few months, it keeps my computer really fresh