Newbee asking XP advice for friend

ahh.. yeah it is too... It's been so long since I tweaked my system that forgot that, and must have got Xteq Setup for something I liked that Tweak did not have.... nm... at least it's there, LOL...

ice:... no, not out of line, a very good option.

Jan, I will put thinking cap on during my sleeptime [ ] and see what else may be of interest for you...

Oh one thing... Services, I see you already listed Blackviper and I like this one also, very easy to follow with full explanations of each service and recommendations. Some recommendatios you will have to take into account the actual environment the setup is in. For eg: Networked, Dial-up or Cable/Other, etc. but very easy to read and follow. It's in a nice format so a printout is a good idea to follow, and that way, you can mark on the page what the sevice was before and what you changed, so if something does not work, change it back.

SECURING SERVICES

Home Page of above site it list a whole heap of Security Options... brilliant!!

http://www.uksecurityonline.com/husdg/wxpp2.php

Cheers, TAS

EDIT: Jan, if trouble occurs with stopping/disabling services and you lose what you had done, you can recover by going to here to see what MS's Default Services were on install.

MICROSOFT DEFAULT SERVICES

 

Thanks guys !

Lots of good links and advices !!!

Maybe I'll wait a little while with changing too much with respect to the "looks" of XP; it's her PC so it's her decision what she wants
But all those suggestions are really great !!!
First thing is indeed to secure things.
I forgot indeed about "Shoot the Messenger" and was looking for that thread with advices on IE 6. Problem is that I myself still have IE 5.5 SP2 and that my IEClean is also doing some of these things, so I needed indeed such guidelines.

Thanks a lot !
Keep them coming your advices

Cheers, Jan.

 

i was going to edit that shoot the messenger because i think you can use xp antispy or auto-patcher to either remove or/and disable messenger

 

Jan.. the Iceman has already given GRC site.. here is another link with all utilities listed.

http://grc.com/freepopular.htm

eg: DCOM tester...

okie. I am off..

Cheers, TAS

Edit: Yes ice XP AntiSpy does, plus disable Windows Media Player garbage and lots more...

 

htastop.exe
dsostop2.exe
http://www.wilders.org/downloads.htm

 

wmp scripting fix
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/wmpscriptingfix.html
password safe
http://sourceforge.net/projects/passwordsafe/
how many times do you think ive reinstalled xp?...lots and lots
dont know if you want this but ill add it mailwasher
http://www.mailwasher.net
and theres PGP
and i think one last program that i added to favourite freeware Poll that recovers files that you accidently deleted from recycle bin
http://www.collina.us/files/REST2514.htm
one more a boot disk

 

Jan, one more item that may be of interest. [Did not see it listed unless I am going blind].

IANAG [Iam Not A Geek, lol] ...... bit like XP Anti-Spy but has some more features in it.

Very simple to use.

http://www.iamnotageek.com/articles.php?aid=116&page=1&topic=Security

TAS

edit:

 

A very frustrated Jan here (LOL.......)

The frustration of not having your own apps, not your own OS, not etc....

Why did I ever say OK, I'll try to help ....