[HowTo] Keep windows Xp Secure and Running Fast

[WolfX2]

3. As far as antivirus is concerned. any antivirus is better than no anti virus. The chances of getting a virus even with crappy antivirus is way smaller. It is a must have especially when you connect to the network/internet. The latest av-comparitve test showed free ones are almost as good as the payed products. kav 2006 might be another one to watch out for.

i'd like to agree with that, i'm a bit fed up of people 'who know everything and aren't afraid to tell you they are the best' telling people that you may as well just not use an antivirus instead of using one 'i would never use' at the end of the day, some protection even if its not the best, is better than none!

and to those who insist they ahve used a computer for sixty thousand years and never had a virus, i guess thats because you are a super user and know everyfile in and out and how it works and commuicates with other files, as how can you know for sure you have no virus, if you have never run a virus scanner to enforce that fact? not all viruses are obvious they are there. Most people (ie normal peopel) just want there computer to email, use im and game on, they do'nt want to spend all there time checking files or logs for virus's, after all, at the end of the day they paid for a big paperwait to play solitare on, it should dam well play solitaire and if a virus comes on the computer it should dam well sort it out not to interupt solitiare!

You bet buddy! even if its not "recently updated" its better than nothing! i have proved this... listen to my story....I was working on my friends computer and her anti-virus was not updated for many months, i did a on-line virus scan and, surprise surprise, NO VIRUSES!

BUT>>>> I am not saying it is OK to go without updating your anti-virus for a month or even A WEEK! UPDATE EVERY DAY! or schedule it too

Edited March 15, 2006 by wolf74481

[the-matrix]

Go to http://www.free-av.com/ and press download where you will see call Info below you can download the User Guide - AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic, version 7 it is a pdf document. but there website have not dicect link when you press virus info it redirected you to this link http://www.avira.com/en/threats/

[WolfX2]

@the-matrix - who are you addressing this to?

[WolfX2]

[guide updated with new software hangout links]

[darkfire010]

The How To above is an interesting approach. Fast and unprotected (no anti-virus)(I do use Spybot occasionaly) does it for me. I just make a stripped down version of XP Pro and partition my HDD into two partitions; C & D. Partition C is usually 5GB because my newly installed windows is only +/- 2GB. I install all my programs and have my desktop and other high-traffic places set to be on partition D, along with a backup folder for games and such. I mostly play Valve (Half-Life and other mods), Epic (Unreal series), EA Games (the Battlefield Games), Lucas Arts (Jedi Knights II), and Blizzard (Warcraft III). And I also do a little bit of web design. I use Opera and Mozilla Firefox because secure and fast browsing is a key. The only things I have to reinstall are programs that heavily rely on the registry. (MS Office, Nero, and Adobe software) So if I do get a virus or nasty spyware or my computer just is running too slow, I spend +/-30 min. and reformat. For me that is more valuable. I sat down one saturday and spent a few hours making every thing automated using Microsoft's deploy tool, and It has been really handy. One Installation usually last me a couple of months. Windows Xp is installed in about +/- 15 min, and the other time is spent installing the software. I DONT have to redownload (through Steam) any of the Valve games because they're all on the other partition. If anyone wants any more information PM me and I will post a HOW TO.

@wolf74481

Nice work on the How To and keep up the good work. My response is not to bash yours or be negative. This way (the one I described above) is what works for me and I'm just putting it out there incase it might benefit anyone.

Edited March 29, 2006 by darkfire010

[WolfX2]

@wolf74481

Nice work on the How To and keep up the good work. My response is not to bash yours or be negative. This way (the one I described above) is what works for me and I'm just putting it out there in case it might benefit anyone.

I'm glad that works for you, for the approach you take it looks like you might have a use for Faronics Deepfreeze Edited March 30, 2006 by wolf74481

[darkfire010]

Well thats interesting. But now I've found maybe a better way. I'm working on getting VMWare to run off of a Linux Base.

[MarkXP]

i have found a wicked optimization proggy called WinXP Manager but you'd have to pay to register.

it does more than optimizes your pc you can scan and remove junk files and customize windows, enhance youre network, internet connections etc it does it

my money well worth spent

[WolfX2]

good find!

added

[Ophiel X]

Anyone who would start off a thread listing McAfee and Norton as top quality products, should be just disregarded on everything else he said.

Those two brands of software are the biggest Frauds on the market. Maybe on the planet.

As a working tech, I take that crap off of my customers' PCs all the time and improve performance by a quantum leap. It ranks right up there with viruses, trojans and spyware in my book.

AMEN. preach on Andromeda!!! you always seem to be right

[atomizer]

To those who dislike NAV, i think you have a **** good reason to. NAV is a virus IMO. Somebody said they'd rather have a virus than NAV. I agree; at least most viruses can be removed Anyway...

Are you a nOOb or a semi-experienced user, fairly well versed in the dangers that lurk as well as the configuration of your OS?

If the former, then you might be better off with a full-blown AV, like avast!. It's a quality product that scores well in the Virus Bullition tests. Free version available last i checked. As of the last time i used it, it worked very well and was highly configurable. It didn't bog down my system at all, at least not to any noticeable degree (with default background scanning on).

If the latter, then i would argue that you really do not need a full-blown AV at all. Since you're at least somewhat familiar with viruses, trojans, rootkits and other malware, and you know better than to download files from shady sites, AND you know how to harden your OS a bit, then why do you need an AV sucking up resources? For you i highly recommend ClamWin. ClamWin is an upcoming product, still in beta, that is FOSS (free, open source). I've read that the database updates occur more frequently than some popular commercial products. I've never experienced a problem with it. However, as of this point, it does not do background scanning. That's one of the reasons i like it so much though. It's strictly an on-demand scanner, so you have to manually invoke it (from an explorer context menu for instance) to scan something. It's small, fast and devoid of all the bLOAt so common in the popular commercial products. If you want, it will run a service at logon, and an associated tray icon, that keeps the def's updated an allows easy access to the UI. Does scheduling also, without relying on Task Scheduler.

[WolfX2]

I agree that Norton is a royal piece of crap, but that enough! Its been said once and it only needs to be said once! I think everyone has got the picture!

I hate it when Mcafee is coupled with Norton! IMHO mcafee is a top quality virus protection solution! It may be a little bulky, I will admit that but it has an awesome signature update time!

I also don't appreciate Andromeda saying everything I say should be disregarded because i recommend mcafee. That's just rood and ignorant!

Edited May 21, 2006 by WolfX2

[Ophiel X]

mcafee has only ever been mediocre. nothing special.

Edited May 21, 2006 by Ophiel X

[EAT MY DUST]

Nobdy is mentioning the raw sockets, disable dcom, upnp, and windows messenger.

some tools for free are here :http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
   
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
   

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\

Services\NetBT\Parameters

1. In the right-hand side of the window find an option called TransportBindName.
   
2. Double click that value, and then delete the default value, thus giving it a blank value.
   

1. Close the registry editor.
   
2. Reboot your computer.
   

After rebooting open a command prompt and in it type

netstat -an

See that your computer no longer listens to port 445.

block 139 and 445 in your router

[atomizer]

Nobdy is mentioning the raw sockets, disable dcom, upnp, and windows messenger....

Nobody except the self-proclaimed "security expert" Steve Gibson that is. And according to him, "raw sockets" was supposed to bring down the entire internet by now, no? Here's the other side of the story. More reading. And some more. And more still.

A quote from another article, emphisis is mine...

Gibson predicted the end of the world as we know it - something his buddy John McAfee had counted on. Sales of McAfee Antivirus soared despite the gloomy prospect of never again being able to defeat the bad guys.

And Gibson was not timid in his rhetoric either: no amount of secure computing, neither 32-bit protected memory nor anything else, would ever save you, he wrote.

Years later Gibson would do it again - and for the same reasons. McAfee's ZoneAlarm was totally indefensible against raw sockets, so Gibson did all in his power to brand the Berkeley Internet standard as an Armageddon.

Edited May 21, 2006 by atomizer