Vista security for non-exp user

My wife bought Acer Aspire 2920Z with Vista Home Premium. She is a non-experienced user. She is going to use the inbuilt Vista firewall. I told her to uninstall Norton and run the uninstall tool at Norton webpage. She did.

I want to give her advice. Since I run XP myself I dont know much about Vista.

She wants only FREE security products.

AV: I told her about Avira, AVG and Avast. But I dont know if their free versions run well on Vista.

AS: I dont think I need much advice here. I will tell her to use SAS on demand. And maybe one more.

Other: Im not sure. Not Prevx. Maybe Threatfire if it works with Vista. Maybe Sanboxie if it works with Vista.

I will of course tell her to use Firefox with NoScript. I can teach her about backup, and I can do the image part for her.

Any thoughts or advice?

What else to do? On my computer I have done some system hardening, but I have XP. What can we do on her Vista computer?

 

First, you need clarify if this Vista instance is 32 or 64 bit.

 

Avira, AVG, and avast all are compatible with Vista both 32-bit and 64-bit.

Threatfire and sandboxie only work with 32-bit Vista.

There not a lot of hardening for Vista but you can try xp-antispy and vispa.

 

Hi tepe2,

Ilya has a very good point as it will effect the responces and possibly narrow the suggestions. Another question would be about what level of interaction she expects to have with the final selections. Does she expect the programs to "run-out-of-the-box" with little interaction required or does she like to do extensive customization?

Mike

 

Thank you both.

I will try to find out if 32 or 64 bit.

Edit: Did not see your post Coldmoon. Thanks for your reply. I think "out-of-the-box" will suit her best, but not really a problem if not. I can help her. Also Im sure she would not like to answer a lot of pop-up questions.

 

It is 32 bit Vista.

I think maybe this free setup would be ok:

Vista firewall
Avira
SAS
Threatfire
FF w/NoScript

I can ask her if she want Sanboxie. She can try it on my computer first. I dont have it right now. I have only tested it for one day and need to test it again. On my computer I want to use SB or Defensewall, but need to test both. I probably choose the one I understand most. I have a good reliable imaging tool so we can do the testing on my computer.

 

My short advice to you is do not disable UAC. You could probably get by without SAS or Threatfire if you set up a software restriction policy. I have used Vista Firewall, Avira and FF with Vista myself, and had good results.

http://www.mechbgon.com/srp/

Absolutely free & built into Windows. Just don't check the box to monitor dll's.

 

Hi :

For a FREE AV, the Best Choice is Avast ( www.avast.com ), with its 7
"Providers/Shields" and Excellent Support Forums . Based on the latest Test
Results from www.av-comparatives.org , Avira has many false-positives,
resulting in ONLY a "Standard" rating, whereas Avast, with its few false-
positives, was given an "Advanced" rating . This Info is in their Nov 07
Retrospective/ProActive Tests .

 

I am using AVG antivirus, AdAware 2007, Advanced Windows Care, and Windows Defender on my Vista Home Premium and they all seem to work well and work with each other. and they are all free (or included with the OS). I don't know if I need it, but AVG anti-rootkit will not work on Vista. (Maybe just not yet and maybe it is not needed on Vista.)

 

I run PC Tools Firewall Plus on Vista Business (32 bit). Pop-ups are minimal and it offers many features, such as SPI, stealth mode, and protection against code injection.

 

Vista FireWall (have a look at VistFireWall Control 1.2)
Run UAC in quiet mode (download TweakUAC)
Run IE7, with Vista is better than FF and faster. You do not want her to use a crippled down browser (no scripts). In stead UAC in quiet mode will still give you the registry and file virtualisation, programs are run in LUA by default, IE runs is in protected mode.
ThreatFire
Avast free (also included AntiSpyware, freeware versions of Avira and AVG do not have it. On avaerage the AV only has a discovery rate of 85-90% of the full version at best, so applying this formula Avast is problably the best freeware deal). When you use the Web, Mail and Network shields (sort of fore checking of in-stream data before it is executed, also a feature other freeware AV's miss), you only have to set the standard shield to check at writes (not a execution or reading).

Buy her a Maxtor one touch external drive, to copy data in an easy way. Download Maxxblast and make an occasional Image Backup (external data + image recover = disaster rescue line). Maxxblast is a freeware version of Acronis for Maxtor owners.

Personally I do not have much with on demand scanners, but suggestions would be: Avira for AV, A2 Freeware for AT and SAS for AS. You run them before your monthly backup.

Regards Kees

 

Thanks to all of you

Will look at this

I did not know. Thanks.