Help me make my computer a little more secure

I'm a 'normal' user and don't need overkill protection. But I was thinking recently about the consequences of having my 'desktop replacement' laptop stolen during a break-in. My assumption is that a thief would just want to format the disk and sell it ASAP, and would only try to log-in to the Windows account or look at the disk if it was quick and easy to do.

I am looking for general advice about how to lock-out a thief from my computer without making it a pain for me having to enter passwords for absolutely everything every five minutes. I'm using Windows 7 Home.

Areas I think I need to secure the most:

Windows log-in
I don't currently use a password; I just click on the icon to log-in.
I could create a password, but I'm unsure of what protection that gives me?
A thief with a Linux password-reset CD could log into my Windows account in 2 mins?

System Partition (backed up every couple of days using AOMEI)
Once logged into my Windows account (or if they've connected the drive to another computer), I want to stop a thief from using the following programs,
because I am perpetually signed-in to the respective accounts:
· Skype
· Picassa3
Apart from manually signing-out each time, I have no idea how to set these programs up to expire the log-in every time I close them. But there must be a better way of securing the programs and their accounts than having to constantly log-in every time you want to use them?

Firefox is a huge issue - a thief mustn't be able to use my browser session and bookmarks to find and log-in to sites that I'm perpetually logged into. I've got lastpass, and could set all my websites and services not to 'remember me' (although I think quite a lot of sites these days make you explicitly sign out each time), but that is still a huge pain in the ass to have to log-in to every site every session, even if lastpass autofills them. It would be great if a thief couldn't even start Firefox.

Data Partition (backed up every couple of days using AOMEI)
I've got all my documents, photos, videos and PortableApps on this partition. Obviously encryption would work to secure this whole partition, but I'm not sure how that would affect the AOMEI backup? Further, I've read some horror stories about Truecrypt destroying data. Also, again it would be a pain in the ass to have to start an encryption program and enter a password every single time I started or turned off the computer.

OK, so any advice, workflows and software recommendations are welcome. Ideally, it would be awesome if there was an encryption program that would allow several directories dotted around the hard drive to be encrypted as one 'job', which then simply displayed a password box whenever I logged into Windows, and automatically encrypted the folders again when I shutdown/sleep/hibernate. Or perhaps some kind of 'parental control' program, which requires a password in order to start some applications?

Please try to remember, I'm not trying to keep the NSA out; I'm attempting to stop some idiot low-life from logging into my accounts, so he decides that it's better to just format the drive than try identity theft/fraud.

Thanks!

 

was gonna suggest use KeePass from flash drive but you say that its a huge pain to have to re-login to every site every session (even if LastPass autofills?) so it doesn't sound like you're really serious about security.

 

Not much you can do about physical theft, but i have both bios and windows password plus disk encryption on laptop.

 

Prey Anti-Theft can help recover your laptop.

Your proposal is very similar to TrueCrypt Favourite Volumes, but parental control is futile with direct access to the hard drive. Full disk encryption is the best way if you want all your data (Firefox included) to remain private.

TrueCrypt can encrypt your system and data partition, only one password is needed if you use System Favourite Volumes. It's still recommended to have a Windows password to lock your computer when it's on, because the data is decrypted while system is powered on after you enter the boot password.

AOMEI backup wouldn't be affected unless you image the system drive with it. Then you'll have to restore while Windows is running or create/recover a full image in LiveCD. Do note that the backups are unecrypted (better re-encrypt) unless you image when TrueCrypt isn't decrypting on-the-fly.

 

I would just stand there with a loaded gun.... waiting.... watching....



.