Securing your fresh Windows XP install ..
How to Secure your Windows XP?
Whenever you install windows XP fresh, along with the hardware drivers, make sure you install these 3 software first.
My objective is to use the freeware alternatives. So when it comes to software firewall, I trust Comodo's Firewall Pro which is absolutely free and works like a charm. Not a resource-hog like Zone Alarm. Initially, you may feel a little annoyed by constant confirmations thrown by the Firewall pro's Defense+ mechanism. But let that be. After some days, the firewall will train itself to your applications and won't alert you. You may be required to allow the Firewall software to obtain a life-time free license.
Anti-Virus - Avast 4.8 Home Edition (Free)
Avast and AVG are two contendors in free anti-virus space. Personally I like Avast because it detects most of the viruses and helps me keep my system clean and safe.
Anti-Malware / Spyware - Spybot Search & Destroy (Free)
One of the best anti spyware around. Though a little slow, it is an acceptable trade-off for being a free software. SS&D actually helped me to clean the malware in my system previously. This nifty piece of sofware's malware signature are constantly updated and keeps your system clean.
Next Level - 3 steps to troubleshoot Malware/Trojan attacks
Installing the above 3 software may not guarentee that your system may run trouble free. In some unfortunate circumstances a virus, or malware or trojan may enter your system. In such cases, don't panic. Try the following methods.
Step 1 : Run your Anti-virus and Anti-malware software first. Enable a boot-time scan in your Anti-virus and then restart the system. Boot time scan will detect and remove most viruses.
Step 2 : Run msconfig.exe and find out if any unwanted programs are included in the Startup tab. In most cases, the trojans/viruses run as a EXE or DLL file with a random-generated filename. Check-out those suspicious files. Enable boot-time scan and restart the system. This should help in finding the trojans/viruses.
Step 3 : On a little advanced level use these two software. HijackThis and LSPFix. Hijack this is a tool which will generate a complete list of processes (as a text file) that forms your windows startup. Most of the illicit processes can be found this way. Also HijackThis offers some swiss knife tools like - Removing an entry in the next startup, etc. Such options are useful to force-disable notorious malwares which uses system startup to launch itself. LSPFix is a winsock repairer. If your windows XP's winsock layer is damaged, you cannot access internet. LSPFix will try to identify if your winsock is damaged and rectifies it.
Conclusion:
Doing the above should get rid of your problems in most cases. Always remember to update your virus signature files and spyware signature files.
Whenever you install windows XP fresh, along with the hardware drivers, make sure you install these 3 software first.
- Software Firewall
- Anti-virus
- Anit-Malware/Spyware/Trojan
My objective is to use the freeware alternatives. So when it comes to software firewall, I trust Comodo's Firewall Pro which is absolutely free and works like a charm. Not a resource-hog like Zone Alarm. Initially, you may feel a little annoyed by constant confirmations thrown by the Firewall pro's Defense+ mechanism. But let that be. After some days, the firewall will train itself to your applications and won't alert you. You may be required to allow the Firewall software to obtain a life-time free license.
Anti-Virus - Avast 4.8 Home Edition (Free)
Avast and AVG are two contendors in free anti-virus space. Personally I like Avast because it detects most of the viruses and helps me keep my system clean and safe.
Anti-Malware / Spyware - Spybot Search & Destroy (Free)
One of the best anti spyware around. Though a little slow, it is an acceptable trade-off for being a free software. SS&D actually helped me to clean the malware in my system previously. This nifty piece of sofware's malware signature are constantly updated and keeps your system clean.
Next Level - 3 steps to troubleshoot Malware/Trojan attacks
Installing the above 3 software may not guarentee that your system may run trouble free. In some unfortunate circumstances a virus, or malware or trojan may enter your system. In such cases, don't panic. Try the following methods.
Step 1 : Run your Anti-virus and Anti-malware software first. Enable a boot-time scan in your Anti-virus and then restart the system. Boot time scan will detect and remove most viruses.
Step 2 : Run msconfig.exe and find out if any unwanted programs are included in the Startup tab. In most cases, the trojans/viruses run as a EXE or DLL file with a random-generated filename. Check-out those suspicious files. Enable boot-time scan and restart the system. This should help in finding the trojans/viruses.
Step 3 : On a little advanced level use these two software. HijackThis and LSPFix. Hijack this is a tool which will generate a complete list of processes (as a text file) that forms your windows startup. Most of the illicit processes can be found this way. Also HijackThis offers some swiss knife tools like - Removing an entry in the next startup, etc. Such options are useful to force-disable notorious malwares which uses system startup to launch itself. LSPFix is a winsock repairer. If your windows XP's winsock layer is damaged, you cannot access internet. LSPFix will try to identify if your winsock is damaged and rectifies it.
Conclusion:
Doing the above should get rid of your problems in most cases. Always remember to update your virus signature files and spyware signature files.
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