new laptop.. what do i download?

i think this is the section, so.. i just got a new laptop and want to know what do i download in order to make it safe/ect.
my mother bought me this laptop. its a Gateway MX6027. it has WinXP with SP2, Intel Celeron M Processor 360, 256MB, CD-RW/DVD combo.
it also says on the box.. Norton Internet Security 2005 (90 day complimentary subscription) McAfee AntiSpyware (30 day complimentary subscription)
also bought and installed is Norton AntiVirus 2006, and webroot Spy Sweeper.
with Spy Sweeper, do i still need to download a firewall? on my old lap top i had Zone Alarm free. would that be good to download?
with the Norton Internet Security 2005, will that conflict any with Norton AntiVirus 2006? ..or will the McAfee AntiSpyware conflict with anything?
what else do i need to download?? ..Spyware Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware SE, CCleaner, Spyware Doctor, Spyware Blaster, CWShredder ???
i also read about.. Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware, and Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. if i intend to download/use Firefox and not IE do i still need these 2?
if i dont intend to use the Norton Internet Security 2005, or McAfee AntiSpyware should i remove them?
im still using my old laptop and want to know what to download on the new one before i use it. i also only have a dial up connection.
any help is appriciated

 

First thing is to get rid of all the Trialware that come with the laptop before loading anything on it (A/V programs such as McAfee, and Norton). I use AVG with my laptop with no problems (lighter then Avast), and actually use the firewall built into XP, due to my Router here at home has a hardware firewall built into it.

As for the tools, I would just keep them on a USB keychain or CD for in case you need them, due to there is never a need to keep them on the drive unless you are always going to be encountering problems. Do have AdAware & Spybot on there to scan the system at least weekly if you go to multiple sites, but if only one or two that you know are clean, then maybe once a month.

 

Also, since you have a Dial-Up connection, you can actually order a CD of the tools like BARTS P.E. for a couple of dollars from a couple of places on the web.

 

thanx.
so this is what im planing on doing.. go to add/remove and remove Norton Internet Security 2005, and McAfee AntiSpyware?

download a new firewall? ..ive used Zone Alarm free for awhile now on my current laptop so i think ill download that one again.

of the spyware programs.. i only need Spybot Search and Destroy, and Ad Aware SE? i also have used CCleaner every couple days so ill download that again.

ive never ordered or really want to order anything online. i dont want to put a credit card number online.

some other things ive noticed when im in add/remove..
America Online (AOL Coach Version, AOL Connectivity Services, AOL Spyware Protection, AOL Youve Got Pictures Screensaver) - 44.07 MB. i have no use for that, so i can remove it right?

Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 - 442.00 MB. i dont think i have any use for this, is that something i can remove?

 

Keep Microsoft Office, due to you are actually getting a decent Office system for the price that you paid for the laptop. As for using your credit card online, hundreds of people are using theirs with no reprecussions.

 

There is a good chance thats a 30 day trial of Office.

 

Personally,

I would format the entire drive and create 3 partitions.
Then
1) insall the Operating System on the C: drive (8 GB of space)
2) Applications (10GB) on D: drive: Office XP, Firefox 1.5, Virus-SPyware-Adware removal tools, Adobe Reader, Bit Torrent Client, etc
3) Personal files (20GB) E: drive: your music/vid, word doc's, etc...
----------------------------
Assuming ~40GB hard drive

Don't put the OS, appliations and personal files all on the same partition. Less secure, stable that way.

 

Its just as stable and secure, either way.

 

But when anything on that one partition gets corrupted (virus, worm, etc), I think there is a greater chance of loosing everthing.
If your applications and personal files are seperate partitions, don't they stand a better chance of surviving if the OS is attacked?

 

Not necessarily, depending on the virus. Infections these days generally don't limit themselves to one drive. Of course, if you can't boot, then its a boon to have your personal files separated. If you ever have to reinstall windows, either way, you have to reinstall your applications, too.

 

thanx for the help.
im not exactly that computer smart and dont know how to format the drive and create 3 partitions.
if thats not something necessary then id rather not worry about that.

can i remove anything to do with AOL? since i have no use for it.

i downloaded Zone Alarm free for firewall. one of the programs that asked for permission is LuComServer_2_7.EXE ..is that something i need?

 

just googled it:

If you are getting rid of Norton, than don't allow access and uninstall Norton...

Personally, my sister and brother in law just got a new laptop... I went over there yesterday and loaded them up with the following programs....

Avast Antivirus
Sygate Personal Firewall (Zone Alarm is another good choice)
Spybot Search & Destroy (utilize immunize feature)
Lavasoft Adaware SE
Spyware Blaster
RegCleaner
CrapCleaner
Kill The Messenger (kills window messenger)
Firefox 1.5

they're all available here for download...

also, this was a dell computer and there were a ton of unnecessary processes running at startup... I went to www.answersthatwork.com and used their Process Library to decide what to disable.... their computer is much more stable now and runs faster...

 

Special,

to add to what ANH said...

To see a list of 'processes' running on your WinXP Operating System,
Press Control+Alt+Delete and the Windows Task Manager Opens up.
Click the Process tab and you will see a list of processes with .exe file extensions....like svchost.exe, taskmgr.exe, etc...

Also from the www.answersthatwork.com page...
I clicked the Task List button and from there you can click on a letter (A, B, C, etc...) to get descriptions of 'processes'....I believe.
Never seen this web site before. Pretty cool.

One other thing,
I recommend downloading and using Firefox web broweser over IE (internet explorer). Don't uninstall IE, keep it in case there is a web page that doesn't open with Firefox. But I would use Firefox because it is better (more secure) than Microsoft IE (which is slow to incoporate security until a threat like Firefox comes along to force the issue).
Just my opinion.

 

thanx ill check those when i get home and can check my new laptop. im on a friends computer right now and wanted more information on one thing.
the laptop comes allready with Norton Internet Security 2005. also bought and installed was Norton Antivirus 2006.
which one of those does LuComServer_2_7.EXE belong too??
Norton Antivirus 2006 will be my antivirus, so then do i still need Norton Internet Security 2005??

what is RegCleaner?? ive used CCleaner on a regular basis.

ill check the others tomarrow when i go home, again thanx for all the help

 

Don't take this the wrong way but is it too late to return the Norton 2006?

RegCleaner will clean your registry for you... When you uninstall applications, they usually leave entries in your registry... You can use RegCleaner to remove unneeded registry items and also to perform general registry cleaning... It makes backups of what it does so you are pretty safe when running it....

Id say of all those programs I listed (aside from an antivirus) the spyware applications (Spyware Blaster, Spybot, & Adaware) are the most important, as well as using Firefox over Internet Explorer....

 

im pretty sure its too late to return it.
my mother was the one who bought it when she bought the laptop. it was all a late christmas gift. she doesnt know much about computers and i imagine she got talked into it by the staff at the computer store. it was installed there so i would say no chance of returning it. i dont even know how much $$ it was.
personally i would not have bought it and just downloaded a free program online, but now since i have it i might aswell use it right? or are there even better antivirus programs i can download for free?

 

Some would argue that there are... I personally use a free AV over Norton (which i had quite some time ago)... I really don't know what the detection rates are... One could argue that if you surf the internet safely and are cautious in what emails attachments you open/download, you shouldn't bee too concerned....

The issue more so is that Norton uses a lot of computer resources, which is why people tend to call it a "resource hog"... I would say keep it for now but if you run into problems with it not functioning correctly or updating correctly, then ax it and then come to the forums to ask for a better alternative...

You could always post these types of questions in teh Malware forum as the guys over there (although they do read other parts of the site) are best suited to answer these types of questions...

 

i downloaded AntiVir setup and saved it to a CD, along with the set up for Zone Alarm and Firefox.

what im planning on doing is a system restore and starting over, and this way i have what i need on CD and wont have to download anything online while not protected.

on my new laptop i was checking the system restore function and i have a question.
in the box on the day it was bought it says.. "Removed Norton Security Center" ..would this have had to be done in order to have Norton AntiVirus 2006 installed?
also seen on a couple different days was something called "Software Distribution Service 2.0" ..i did a google search and found that this can be troublesome when trying to do a system restore, so i want to find out for sure before i actually do a system restore.

on the date the laptop was bought where it says "Removed Norton Security Center" ..is that were i would do the system restore too? when having the pointer over that it says "restores your computer to point before this program was removed"
if that is the case, after a system restore to that point before i would instal AntiVir, would i then also remove this "Norton Security Center" ?? ..and can i also remove the 2 programs with McAfee (McAfee AntiSpyware & McAfee Security Center)

after a system restore ill instal AntiVir to use as my antivirus and i guess ill just keep the CD for Norton AntiVirus

 

Do you mean System Restore, or format and reinstall?

 

i was thinking System Restore, where i could restore the laptop back to the original settings before Noron AntiVirus was installed
i have the CD/DVD for System Recovery, but wanted to make sure thats what i use?

 

If you mean the Recovery CD that you got with the PC, then that will install an image, meaning the PC will be like when you first got it. (in laymans terms)

 

the System Recovery CD should restore it to the way it was when it was ready to be sold at the computer store right?
at the computer store the day it was bought, installed at that time after buying it was Norton AntiVirus and SpySweeper.
using the System Recovery CD that should restore it with WinXP, but not with Norton AntiVirus and SpySweeper? thats the way i want it. then i can instal SpySweeper, but instead of Norton AntiVirus, i can use my own CD and instal AntiVir.
doing that i can then also remove.. Norton Security Center, McAfee AntiSpyware, and McAfee Security Center.
thanx again for the help.

 

Yes, using the Recovery CD will basically make it the same as when you purchased it or the manufacturer supplied it. ie without anything else installed later.

Once that's done, you can then go to Add/Remove and uninstall anything you don't want.

 

before i did a System Recovery i downloaded Zone Alarm free, AntiVir, Firefox, Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad Aware SE, CCleaner, RegCleaner, and Syware Blaster. i have them on CD and can instal them without having to go online yet.


im not going to use Norton AntiVirus, instead ill use AntiVir.
is it also still good to instal SpySweeper?

is it safe to remove these programs?? ..McAfee AntiSpyware, McAfee Security Center, Norton Internet Security, Norton Security Center

 

Yes safe to remove those stated programs. Just do it before doing anything else.

 

Yes it's safe to remove all the Norton and McAfee stuff. You won't be unprotected as you have the other programs on CD to install.

Yes SpySweeper should be installed if you have it.

You should only ever have one AntiVirus program installed (AntiVir is fine).

With Spyware programs, you can have (need) more than one as some pick up what others miss.

 

You could also consider WinPatrol which monitors startup programs. Basically if a virus, trojan, dialer etc snuck into your system (via however) and tries to start up this program will tell you and ask for your permission so you can stop it cold. Free version is fine:

http://www.winpatrol.com/download.html

Check out this web page and find discussions on WinPatrol (very sound and solid advice I suggest you bookmark the home page and use it as a cross/refrence (using the search option) and comp learning aid) and links:

http://www.langa.com/

His discussion on Securing Your PC (only 3 pages well worth the read):

http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177100010&pgno=1

He and others also discuss Microsoft AntiSpyware as a good solid app to have.

As well as the spyware/adware apps you have I also use Spyware Doctor (used to be free dont know where you might find the free version?) (it found trojans today yet Spybot, AVG & Ad-Aware said I was clean) this is an important point you do need several apps to compliment each other.

Once you have everything and feel secure get online and to test your firewall download LeakTest from:

http://www.grc.com/default.htm

He has many apps to test your systems security, I mean lets face it we install these security apps and yet how do we know if they are actually working?

A 3rd party defrag application (should be done maybe once a week to keep sys running well), the one MS has installed is most likely the same as mine. It takes upto 6 hours to defrag using this neanderthal but a third party one I recently tried took about 40 minutes, Diskeeper Lite 7.0 Build 418:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

Many others have said this is a good app.

I am a beginner but have done a lot of research to ensure stability, security and integrity of my system. I do not take any responsiblity for any of the info provided and it has been sourced from others on this site and its forums and from Langa.com. I suggest you cross refrence anything you feel unsure about, and as soon as your sys runs really well MAKE A BACKUP of it ASAP before you have too many files (thus takes a long time) and so you can always get back to an optimal running state.

P.s. be careful of any P2P apps

 

WinPatrol looks really good, thanx

ive started/restarted my computer numerous times now and a couple times ive gotten this message..
"To help protect your computer, Windows has closed this program.
Name: Generic Host Process for Win32 Services"

i looked through google some and found this link..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875351&Product=winxp
i havnt had that message come up the last few times ive started the laptop, but when trying these steps

my box thing wont allow me to click "Add" ..do i have to wait until this error message box comes up before i can do these steps?

under "Performance Options" and then "Data Execution Prevention" there are 2 options to click..
( ) Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only. (with a dot in this circle, the message box underneath is empty)
( ) Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select: (if i put a dot in this circle, a line comes up in the message box below for "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services")
which of those 2 should i select? and if i select the 2nd one with the box for Generic ect.. do i then check the box for that or not?

 

You are creating unnecessary problems for yourself.

For DEP, it won't let you "Add" because it's on the default setting, which is "Turn on DEP for essential Windows Programs and Services".

If you want to Add, you must select "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select".

Unless you know what you are doing, leave it on the default setting (the first one), which means you don't need to worry about "Add".

 

what do i do now about this error message that pops up?

the latest time i turned on my laptop this message popped up. i saw somewhere where this could be malware, but i havnt yet been online with this laptop since ive done the restore so i assume it isnt malware, so what do i do about this message if/when it pops up?

 

Firstly, do you have all critical Windows updates? If not, try that first.

Also, does the error message box give you a "change settings" button? If so, click it and reboot.

If not, and the error is frequent, then try adding it to DEP, although that's a last resort.

 

i havnt done any windows updates yet because i havnt been online yet with the laptop.
if i have this message where windows closes this program, am i still able to go online?
if i can go online with this program closed where would i go to do a windows update?
if i cant go online with this program closed, can i restart my laptop and then if this message does not pop up then that time the program is not closed?

there is nowhere where it says "change settings"
there is a spot where i can click "Close Message" and another spot near the bottom where it says "Data Execution Prevention helps protect against damage from viruses and other security threats. What should i do?" the line that says What should i do is able to be clicked and open another page that says..

 

That file not running shouldn't affect Windows Update or going online.

If it does or you are concerned, reboot until it goes away, then go online.

Windows Update is located in Start, All Programs, then it's up the top.


If an update doesn't fix this problem, go back to DEP and add Win32 if you can.

I've never done this or seen this error, so this is all just theory.

 

i did an update to windows and i havnt seen that message pop up again so ill assume thats all fixed.

some other questions..
windows firewall.. should this be on or off?
i currently have it set as off, and Zone Alarm is my firewall.
auto updates.. should this be on to download updates automatically? notify me but dont automatically download? or off?


i also posted a question about SIFXINST in another thread here..
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=83566

 

Firewalls are just like Virus Scanners and you should only have one in operation on your system at a time. So yes, leave XP's Firewall Off if you have Zone Alarm running otherwise you may experience conflicts between the two programs.

 

You can have more than one firewall, but there is no advantage in doing so. (They are not like virus scanners, and you wouldn't have conflicts)

The common consensus is to just have the one software firewall.

You can have a hardware firewall (like in your router) as well as a software firewall.

There is no point in having more than one software firewall though, you aren't any safer or more secure.

 

So, when you have everything seperated like that on different partitions it would be just like being on a network in your own computer, right?

 

No, it would be like having smaller hard drives in your computer, each with a different size.

 

i have a question about WINDOWS\explorer.exe
i read somewhere that explorer.exe should be like this "WINDOWS\System32\explorer.exe" so does it make any difference if the one i have doesnt have "System32" ??

because i dont use IE at all in my Zone Alarm programs i have "Internet Explorer" blocked, is thise explorer.exe something i can also block, or should i have it for allow?

 

Not sure about this but I think you better allow IE even if you dont use it as your main browser. I use FF v1.5 as primary browser, but I can only do my manual MS or Windows updates via IE, as these are both crucial for system security and functionality I would advise allowing IE.

As far as explorer.exe make sure the extension is C:\Windows\Explorer.exe or C:\WinNT\Explorer.exe and is crucial for system operation, but others will have to provide advice on allowance of this process.

 

From: http://www.answersthatwork.com/

" Explorer (1) Explorer.exe (Microsoft)

This is either your Windows Desktop or you have Windows Explorer open.
Recommendation : Vital !! Leave untouched. Note that the full path shown in The Ultimate Troubleshooter should be C:\Windows\Explorer.exe or C:\WinNT\Explorer.exe."

If listed as another name it may be a cloning trojan/virus that adopts the names of this process (I'm not sure about this but the above webiste expresses something to this effect).

Also do a google on the process for further info.