Survival struggle

[Henk]

If you don't have a good anti virus checker you must not use internet. Maybe only a very limited part of it I don't know. Might also be you bought a computer that includes a hidden virus.

[fern]

A simple thing to do is this: work without Internet connection until the moment you really need it.
There are many things we do -playing chess, etc- that can be done without being all the time connected.
Fern

[jdart]

Disabling Java means that sites that rely on client-side Java applets will not be able to render that part of the page. So you'll see a blank section on the page. But very few sites are using those any more, since other technologies are more secure/faster.

Disabling the PDF plugin means that you won't be able to open PDF files and view them in your browser. But you can still download them and look at them in an external app such as Adobe Reader.

--Jon

[Henk]

Aha I understand what he means with viruses. He means these windows updates terrorizing your computer each and every day. Nothing to do about it. Microsoft (devil) is ruling the world. Being totally incompetent to create a final product.

Also these stupid modern software development methodologies like iterative development, scrum or likewise to blame.

[corres]

Use two computers: An older and cheaper one for internet - Core 2 Duo is good for it - and a newer and stronger to analyze chess games and to work on other things. The stronger PC never connect to internet. For data transfer between the two PC you should use local network or pen drive or portable hard drive/SSD.
Naturally avoid the harmful sites like sex sites.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Disabling Java means that sites that rely on client-side Java applets will not be able to render that part of the page. So you'll see a blank section on the page. But very few sites are using those any more, since other technologies are more secure/faster.

Disabling the PDF plugin means that you won't be able to open PDF files and view them in your browser. But you can still download them and look at them in an external app such as Adobe Reader.

--Jon

Thanks Jon.
That is what I needed, a first-grader instruction.

Still, this seems a bit clumsy: not to view a file and then download it.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Use two computers: An older and cheaper one for internet - Core 2 Duo is good for it - and a newer and stronger to analyze chess games and to work on other things. The stronger PC never connect to internet. For data transfer between the two PC you should use local network or pen drive or portable hard drive/SSD.
Naturally avoid the harmful sites like sex sites.

What is life without sex, man?

[corres]

Real sex or internet (video) sex - what a difference is!

[MikeGL]

I think most tips given in previous pages would be very effective.
Including the disconnection tip by fernando, which I honestly do too if I am only playing chess, reading e-book or watching a DVD movie.

But also add to the tips above:
-don't use admin account when browsing the web, create a standard (limited) account and login to this limited account when you are not installing something or modifying some system settings. 99% of your PC time should be on this standard account.

-disable other services you don't require. to check unneeded services:
start > run > services.msc Like if you don't have a printer connected to your PC then disable Print Spooling Service or if you don't connect to your PC remotely then disable Remote Registry and all the other related Remote* blah blah stuff.

-disable NetBIOS if you are not connecting your machines to a LAN

-check all the connection of your machine
c:\netstat -noa
to list all active connections of your PC, I caught a powerful malware using this trick (but missed by my AV). If you can telnet to, or ssh into your router do a netstat inside your router also so you can verify if your machine is doing hidden connections which was not displayed by windows. be careful though, you will see your android devices connected to 12 or 14 sites doing ad and other scary stuff.

There are gazillion ways to secure your windows OS, even going to extremes like whitelisting executables to stop all modern ransomwares, but whitelisting is painful to maintain than by just doing file backups which is an easier job.

All these tips on how to secure your windows can be researched on the net.