[OM2]

Can someone advise me of the best strategy of staying free of viruses/spamware/slowing machines down?

One conclusion I've come to: if it's Windows, then it will slowly come to a grinding slow sooner or later

So, best strategy is to have a clean install that you will recover REGULARLY?

Any comments on the above would be great

But generally, I thought of having all my data on a separate drive
AND making sure NO DATA AT ALL that I need is stored on the same drive as the OS drive with programs

The plan would be to regularly restore the clean install

A small problem I can see: updates
I can reinstall a backup from 6 months ago - but then maybe missing a few 100MB of updates easily!

Any comments or advice on the above would be great

Thanks


OM

[RootbeaR]

Dual boot with Linux.

[OM2]

what use is that?
how will that keep my windows files and operating system safe?
let me know
thanks

[DaveA]

All one needs is a good AV program, a Good Firewall program and a couple of ad ware type of programs. Some spy blockers may helps also.


BUT, these MUST be kept up to date and USED.

[vicks]

Keep your security programs updated and run them regularily. That includes one each anti virus and firewall. Multiple anti spyware programs are okay. (see one of the stickies on the general security forum for list of good programs).
Secondy, use common sense when surfing the web, be careful as to the type of sites you frequent and be VERY careful when downloading stuff.
Happy Computing.
Vicks

[TerryNet]

DaveA and vicks covered how to minimize the times you might want to reinstall or reimage Windows.

Keeping your data on a separate partition or separate drive altogether is a good strategy, but that does not eliminate or reduce the need for having at least two copies of any data you wish to keep.

If you are making an image of your clean install I suggest making a new image after major updates (especially service packs) if the system is still running well.

[lunarlander]

Also, do not play around with programs from bittorrents, keygens and cracks. They are booby trapped by hackers and seeded by hacker groups. Your antivirus program will NOT protect you here as their hacking tools/backdoors/botnet stuff are often newer than the antivirus firms' signatures.

You know about Windows update. Also know that your applications can have exploitable vulnerabilities. For example, Acrobat Reader, Flash, Firefox, Java etc. They all can be a venue of infecting your system. There is a free program from Secunia called PSI, it will notify you of newly patched and new releases of programs you have that have fixed security problems.

Practice the principle of 'least privilege'. Use a standard account for your daily work and surfing. Use the admin account only when you need to adjust system settings and install programs. Many malware will fail to infect under a standard account.

Periodically check if your antivirus is really active by attempting to download the EICAR test virus. Malware usually try to disable your defences, and you can be staring at the icon in the systray without realizing that it is actually not functioning. If the antivirus can't detect EICAR, then you know you are seriously compromised.

In Windows Defender, Tools menu, MS Spynet. Join advanced membership. Then Defender will start to tell you about the fishy things it finds. Otherwise it stays silent.

Hackers are now modifying popular sites to inject their stuff through browser security flaws. Staying with big name sites is no longer a guarrenty that you won't encounter problems. And some of these security flaws aren't known to Microsoft or Mozilla either, so they can't patch what they don't know. Sandboxie is a product that sets up a wall around the browser, and everything that comes through is contained, and cannot infect the rest of your system.

[RootbeaR]

Originally Posted by OM2

what use is that?
how will that keep my windows files and operating system safe?
let me know
thanks

Use MS online only when necessary.
Use Linux for everything else.
If MS isn't online it isn't exposed.

The more miles you put on a car, the greater the risk of an accident.
The less MS is exposed, the less likely you are to contract anything.

[Noyb]

I don’t think that a regular restore is needed .. But if my working C system even sneezes .. I replace it.

Having all my Data in separate partition makes this easy.. All I have to do is replace my working C partition ..
It only takes about 10 minutes .. And the data in the data partition remains unaffected.
This is an advantage if you’ve collected a huge amount of Data ..
I’m holding almost 200gig worth and it’s better to not have this in your C system partition.

You can do this by Imaging your Fresh install, that’s been updated, configured with all your favorite programs loaded .. to an external HDD.
Then replace your working system partition from the last fresh install backup ..
Perform a few new updates .. And make another backup Image for the next time.

Better yet .. Have a second HDD (either internal or in an external HDD enclosure) that has a freshly restored system in it ..
I have both an internal copy (backup) .. and an external HDD that has a system in it, ready to install in my computer.

I never backup (Image) my working system, but restore back to the last fresh system restore ..
Update it .. And make a new backup image in my external HDDs.

I have several ways of recovering my working system Partition … And my backup procedures have evolved over time ..
But my favorite procedure ..
Disc 6 (in an External enclosure) is my next system restore that has a mostly updated system partition in it .. ready to run.
All I have to do is physically swap HDDs (Disc 0 <> Disc 6)… perform a few new updates .. And make a new Image backup and save it in Disc 7 and Disc 8.
Then, when I think all was recovered .. I can rewrite the System partition in the external (disc 6) … for the next time.

I can also boot to Disc 1 … but the system partition in it is mostly a tool…
That I occasionally use to see if I might have a hardware problem .. or other testing.
The data partition in it is an internal backup.

So far .. Most of my problems has been caused by M$ … and by Me (a couple of times)
I don’t know of any protection software that protects me from the M$ virus .. or me.

Any Data or System partition you don’t care about .. is data you only have one copy of.
This takes some additional hardware and Acronis True Image ..
My externals are only turned on when needed.
This might be a little overkill from one who is Paranoid .. But you did ask for the Best