New Computer July 29, 2006
Posted by faith in technology.trackback
Delete Pre-installed Software — http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/
Or Reinstall Windows — nliteos.com
Shore up your Windows with patches (eg. Blaster, Sasser, WMF) — http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showforum=89
Use Steve Gibson’s freeware apps — http://www.grc.com/default.htm
Turn off Indexing of individual hard drives
Turn off System Restore
Turn off Autorun for CDs http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article03-018
and other devices:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=75640
http://winguides.com/registry/display.php/1142/
Turn off Administrative Shares — http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288164
Turn off dll Caching — http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/27128/27128.html
Turn off Prefetch — http://www.tweakxp.com/article37028.aspx http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=331520
Turn of useless services — majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12 http://www.dead-eye.net/WinXP%20Services.htm
http://cybercoyote.org/security/services.shtml
If you’ve got time, read this — http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1590
Run MSCONFIG & HIJACKTHIS to remove anything extraneous — http://www.optimizingpc.com/optimize/msconfig.html http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php
Check your NETSTAT -ano
Update your HOSTS file — http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
Perhaps use a PACS file — http://www.schooner.com/~loverso/no-ads/
Create a secure Admin password & a default user with restricted privileges
Turn off automatic preview in IE and OE
Image your minimalistic, clean OS to a CD or DVD — http://www.partition-saving.com/ http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/DrvImagerXP.shtml http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html
Then install the software you want — e.g. Firefox, Foxit, Media Player Classic, Real/Quicktime Alternative, FFDSHOW (Tryouts fork), Kerio (or Comodo) Firewall, Prevx, AVG Free, TrueCrypt, 7zip, Faststone, PopPeeper, DaemonTools, Isobuster, DVD Decrypter, ImgBurn, DVDInfoPro, BurnAtOnce (ideally use small, efficient programs that do not require installation, or write to the registry — see tinyapps.org)
