This page is designed to help you better understand how to keep your computer clean, maintained and secure. Remember that any changes you make to your systems are AT YOUR OWN RISK! Hein Computer Services, Inc. offers NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED regarding the information contained here. If you need help regarding cleaning, securing, and/or maintaining your computer systems, please don't hesitate to call.
System Updates
Malicious Software
Security Suites
Internet Filters
General Concepts
Maintenance and Cleanup
System Updates
Perhaps the most important thing to realize about keeping your system protected is keeping it up to date. If you do not keep your software up to date, then you run the risk of malicious software taking advantage of these vulnerabilities and causing problems.
Malicious Software
Since malicious software, malware for short, can get on your computer even after it has been updated, you should make sure that you have malware protection. If you are unfamiliar with the term malware, please review this helpful description from Wikipedia:
"Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. The term 'computer virus' is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses... Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware and other malicious and unwanted software."
Microsoft offers two anti-malware products: one for computers in a home called Security Essentials and one for computers in an office building called Microsoft Forefront Client Security. According to the license agreement for Security Essentials: "You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your devices in your household for use by people who reside there or for use in your home-based small business." This is different from many other software vendors who specify that their free version is only available for personal use. Security Essentials is available at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials.
Some of the reasons you may want to use this software over other alternatives include:
System Updates
Malicious Software
Security Suites
Internet Filters
General Concepts
Maintenance and Cleanup
System Updates
Perhaps the most important thing to realize about keeping your system protected is keeping it up to date. If you do not keep your software up to date, then you run the risk of malicious software taking advantage of these vulnerabilities and causing problems.
Malicious Software
Since malicious software, malware for short, can get on your computer even after it has been updated, you should make sure that you have malware protection. If you are unfamiliar with the term malware, please review this helpful description from Wikipedia:
"Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. The term 'computer virus' is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, including true viruses... Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware and other malicious and unwanted software."
Microsoft offers two anti-malware products: one for computers in a home called Security Essentials and one for computers in an office building called Microsoft Forefront Client Security. According to the license agreement for Security Essentials: "You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your devices in your household for use by people who reside there or for use in your home-based small business." This is different from many other software vendors who specify that their free version is only available for personal use. Security Essentials is available at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials.
Some of the reasons you may want to use this software over other alternatives include:
- Microsoft software often works better on Windows
- The computer can be used for commercial purposes without violating the license agreement
- It seems to be more efficient than the alternatives
- It is easy to download and install
- No registration is required
For comparisons of the various vendors, please check out http://www.av-comparatives.org.
For more information on Microsoft Forefront Client Security, click here.
Just like keeping your system up to date, it does you little good to have anti-malware software if it's not up to date. It's basically wasting resources, because it will not protect you from any new malicious software.
Security Suites
Many people purchase software security suites which include anti-malware software, but also include a variety of programs like a security center, software firewall, spam software, parental controls, identity protection, link scanners, and more.
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 all come with security centers. Most of the security suite software will disable or hide Microsoft's built-in security center and replace it with their own in order to have only one security center showing.
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 also have a built-in firewall. The firewall in Windows XP only blocks inbound connections, but the firewall in Windows Vista and Windows 7 also blocks outbound connections. The advantage of using firewall software provided by another vendor is that the firewall software will often alert you with a popup when an unknown program tries to connect to the Internet. Unfortunately, the majority of the time this causes more headache than it's worth and does not necessarily offer a greater degree of protection, since most people simply allow the program to connect in order to get rid of the annoying popup. In addition to this, often times the firewall software doesn't work correctly and blocks legitimate transactions between computers. This can be especially problematic in environments where people are trying to share files and printers among multiple computers.For more information on Microsoft Forefront Client Security, click here.
Just like keeping your system up to date, it does you little good to have anti-malware software if it's not up to date. It's basically wasting resources, because it will not protect you from any new malicious software.
Security Suites
Many people purchase software security suites which include anti-malware software, but also include a variety of programs like a security center, software firewall, spam software, parental controls, identity protection, link scanners, and more.
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 all come with security centers. Most of the security suite software will disable or hide Microsoft's built-in security center and replace it with their own in order to have only one security center showing.
Another peace of software that the security suites often include is spam software. What people often don't realize is that if they are accessing their email using a web browser (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.), then the spam software is probably not doing anything but wasting resources, because the email is read on the web site instead of going through the spam software on their computer.
Parental controls are also included with some security suites. Most people don't need them, so they again end up wasting resources.
Internet Filters
One way to protect your computer systems is by filtering the Internet. There are a couple of free options for those looking for help filtering their Internet. One option is to use Internet Explorer's built-in Content Advisor or Parental Controls included with at least some versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Another option for personal use is K9 web protection. Businesses looking for content filtering may want to look into the free or paid services provided by http://www.opendns.com
General Concepts
One of the most substantial ways to protect yourself from the most common security threats is to not use the most common software programs. That means, the less Microsoft software you use on a regular basis, the less likely you are to suffer from a Microsoft security problem. This may seem like common sense, so the reason you would want to do this is because those who want to cause the most trouble are likely to exploit the software programs that most people are using. If you use programs like Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer for web browsing, or Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Mail, then you decrease your chance of being affected by most problems on the Internet that target Microsoft software.
Maintenance and Cleanup
Securing your computer is the first step to cleaning your computer. If your computer is secure, then the only thing left to do to keep your computer clean is to remove outdated and unused files and settings. Windows supplies the Disk Cleanup Wizard for removing temporary files. There are a variety of tools that will also cleanup your registry settings as well. I've posted a few of the free options here.
If you keep your computer secure and clean, then the only maintainance a person may need to do to keep Windows performing well is to make sure the disk is defragmented. Fortunately, Windows Vista and Windows 7 automatically defrags your disk drive so you don't have to manually do it. All the latest versions of Windows supply a Disk Defragmenting tool which can be accessed using the following instructions by Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305781
You can also schedule the Windows XP disk defragmenter to automatically defrag your disk drive by following these instructions by Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305781