Ad-aware SE professional vs AVG Anti-Spyware

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: ThetechP.S I was checking out the SATA guide for newbies on your website and the part with the typical newbies LOL!

Hehe, it's obnoxious, isn't it

 

[Thetech]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: ThetechP.S I was checking out the SATA guide for newbies on your website and the part with the typical newbies LOL!

Hehe, it's obnoxious, isn't it

My fav part is:

~Take a snack break! : D

~ VERY good! : ) Cold pizza, we're talkin' all four food groups in one handy, delicious package. See, you got the crust is the grain group, the tomato sauce-- well, you know all that already. Ok, so I've got the drive plugged into the right controller, all my hardware's in place, and I've had a snack. What next?
.......

Cold pizza, like dude totally awesome!

I have one question though about switching to a limited user account, I already have all of my apps etc. installed and configured. If I switched to a limited user account how much trouble would I have to go through?(exscuse my ignorance I started using Windows XP last summer, I had been using 98 and 98SE for years.)

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Thetech

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: ThetechP.S I was checking out the SATA guide for newbies on your website and the part with the typical newbies LOL!

Hehe, it's obnoxious, isn't it

My fav part is:

~Take a snack break! : D

~ VERY good! : ) Cold pizza, we're talkin' all four food groups in one handy, delicious package. See, you got the crust is the grain group, the tomato sauce-- well, you know all that already. Ok, so I've got the drive plugged into the right controller, all my hardware's in place, and I've had a snack. What next?
.......

Cold pizza, like dude totally awesome!

I have one question though about switching to a limited user account, I already have all of my apps etc. installed and configured. If I switched to a limited user account how much trouble would I have to go through?(exscuse my ignorance I started using Windows XP last summer, I had been using 98 and 98SE for years.)

In your case, the easy solution is to

1) go to Control Panel > User Accounts and make a new account named Admin (or whatever)

2) leave that account as a Computer Administrator. Log out of your regular account, log on as that new account, go to Control Panel > User Accounts, and give that Admin account a password. The reason for having a password is so you can use Run As. Don't make it a weak one because some malware will try to guess several hundred of the most likely passwords. Thetech@AT would be a good one, having upper & lowercase and a symbol.

3) now click Change an account and change your regular account from a Computer Administrator to a Limited account.

4) log out of Admin, log on as your regular account. Now try right-clicking some programs and you see there's a Run As... on the menu (sometimes you have to hold down the Shift key for Run As... to show). You can run them as Admin this way, if they can't be coaxed into cooperating with a Limited account.

It's not a perfect solution. It can be a hassle to have two independent Desktops, Favorites, My Documents, and all that. Sometimes you get tired of typing passwords, using Run As, and whatnot. But the security enhancement is very significant.

If you have WinXP Professional Edition, you can furthermore add a Software Restriction Policy that's set to Disallowed by default, and apply it just to non-Administrators (or to Admins as well). It will forbid executing a whole bunch of filetypes from anywhere that isn't explicitly allowed (the Windows directory and the Program Files directory).

Well guess what? A Limited account can't write to the Windows directory or the Program Files directory. Catch-22 for the bad guys... even if they get a grip on your account somehow, with a browser exploit or a Trojan horse, it can't put executable files anywhere it can execute them from, and can't execute them from anywhere that it CAN put them. Gotcha! :evil:

If you set up a SRP, you'll probably want to remove the .LNK filetype from the "restricted" list, because otherwise the SRP will keep desktop icons from working.

 

[Thetech]

Sorry for a slight hijack of the thread, jadinolf.

Thank you mechbgon very much.