Password protection:: Do all the usual stuff. Make a strong password and change it from time to time. How to come up with a strong yet easy code. Be imaginative. Example:: In 1997 I went on a 747 to New Zealand with my mother and sister to go skiing.
Interspersed with symbols from 1 to 4 in order. As a password this is 1997!747NZ@mum#sis$ski. Try and guess that.
How to beat a keylogger program:: Make a random document in notepad or similar and put lots of random stuff and names and fake passwords on it interspersed with you user names and passwords. Then use the cut and paste command to put your critical details into web pages. Make sure you clear the clipboard by doing one more random cut and paste.
Never reply to emails requesting any sort of personal information. Always call the company's listed phone number. And do the same for phone calls. In recent times the crims have changed to unsolicited phone calls. Recently I got a call from an institution that I thought I dealt with. When I refused to be identified over the phone and instead asked for a name and contact number to call back both turned out to be fake. And the lady sounded so real and genuine. I actually felt emabrrassed to doubt her. Had I not she would have thousands of dollars of mine right now. And the cops wouldn't give a ratz!
The Bogus Microsoft call to warn you of an attack on your computer is the best. They actually set out to talk you into letting them into your computer remotely (where they install lots of nasty stuff) and then you give them your credit card details willingly. Sweet, if your a crim!
Up until recently (the great flood of 2011) I ran at head office a 1998 computer as our main mail server. Pentium III - 450mhz - 64mb Ram - 1mbS3 video and a 600mb harddrive running Windows 98. Real Dinosaur. My staff thought I was being cheap! How wrong they were. It was great. No anti virus required. No updating, no issues. No one is targeting Windows 98. I looked at the stats on our site and we had 10,000's of hits from all and every recent operating system. However, just 1 hit (me) from Windows 98. More secure than a Bank safe. Very little spam and just as quick and efficient as anything today. Really was. Other than the fact it went 14 foot underwater I would still use it.
There is a lot of free download sites for all sorts of programs. Most of these sites are confusing to use and seemingly try to lead you to downloading an instant scan or free toolbar or such like. These can be dangerous and harmful. If you get caught by this trap react immediately. Disconnect from the internet and instantly hit the reset (usually hold down the ON button for more than 5 seconds.) By the time these little programs give you control back its always too late. And some of those toolbars are difficult to get rid of.
Brothersoft and similar sites: In the main they are what they say but be careful. I downloaded a game demo and noticed that the downloader had turned off windows defender. Sneaky. So, my practice is to straight after the download, always disconnect from the internet, remove the downloader program, do a restart and run both defender and then Spybot. All should be OK.
High CPU usage in Windows 50% when idle::
Problem solved. This
is caused by the free Open Office or Libre Office program. Or maybe some
other free program you may have installed. Java seems to be the way
in. When first
installed it is OK but then it becomes disturbed. Most likely it is not
Libre or Oracle as why would they sabotage their own program. Could be
an injection into the third party Java plugin. Most likely by those that charge for such software and
have the most to gain. Terrible behaviour.
Uninstall Libre Office
or other such free programs. Disconnect from the internet. Uninstall
all traces of Java and its updates. Turn off
windows firewall and updater. In Task manager- processes close
eveything that you can. Particularly svchostprocessor.exe. Restart
the computer. Presto. All good. Turn on windows firewall. Pre windows 7 leave updater off.
Anti virus and spyware software.
In the last 2 decades I have run more than 30 computers worldwide
with every setup from Windows 3.11 to 10. The best antivirus setup I have found so far is Windows Vista with Microsoft Defender and Spybot Search and Destroy 1.6.2. Both free programs. Regardless of the cost, combined they work better than any setup I have tried to date. Great performance with little or no interference. Make sure you remove all other virus or spyware programs. I had a windows 7 laptop with Kaspersky and it was almost unusable. Remove the Kaspersky and it was great. McAfee is even more resource intensive.
Criminals target the majority. Use a different to the norm browser, search and mail program. Most people use the default Internet Explorer and Mail from Microsoft. Think again and use an obscure browser. It will be less likely criminals will target the oddball stuff. I like Comodo Dragon and Maxthon 3 as browsers but there are many more. Comodo has a great incognito mode. I suggest you use Mozilla Thunderbird for mail or for the more technically minded try Mulberry. For a search engine I like to use Dogpile or Metacrawler. Both obscure but good enough results and quick.