BETTER SECURITY FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP® AND ABOVE
This is a practical introduction to a step-by-step method for establishing what I consider to be excellent security for the home computer.
My experience has shown that the sooner after Windows is first installed that the instructions that follow are implemented, the better the results will likely be—such as a fast running system that stays that way and that also both boots up and shuts down speedily.
I have chosen to cover those things that are both easy to do and also enormously effective when applied together. Also, make sure that you have your computer set to automatically download your Windows updates. For versions of Windows beyond Windows XP, be sure to have your User Account Control (UAC) activated. Having the UAC activated will keep a lot of malware from being able to install itself on your computer. Also, make the decision that you are willing to spend several hours doing this.
Note: Following the instructions in this article do not change your default user-rights because that is complicated for many users and some programs may require that you run them with administrator rights (and I discourage the use of such programs). However, if you setup and use ALL the methods in this article, truly excellent security should be obtained without changing your default user-rights. If you are very experienced and choose to also limit user-rights, that action will further enhance security.
In a separate article I briefly cover installing and running Ubuntu Linux, which is a wonderful, fast, and secure operating system that can be used as an alternative to Windows. Also see this link.