You don’t have to be using your version of Windows for long for it to start needing the latest updates and fixes from Microsoft. And if you’re reinstalling your operating system, the actual amount of updates that have to be installed again to get everything up to the current date is becoming mind boggling, even for Windows 7 and Service Pack 1. A great utility to update your Windows from the latest Service Pack release is Autopatcher which can download and install the updates and patches automatically.

Some more experienced users often like to have a number of the Windows updates stored locally such as the latest Service Pack, Internet Explorer or even the various distributions of the .NET Framework because they can be large downloads and a waste of internet bandwidth. Professionals like network administrators also find it a time saver to be able to patch multiple machines over the network from a single location instead of each computer downloading files and updating itself.
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Microsoft has tried a few different anti piracy measures to protect Windows over the years. In XP that protection is called Windows Genuine Advantage and gets downloaded during a Windows Update session. In actual fact, there are two versions of the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) protection. They are called Notification and Validation and are separate components in that they do different things on your computer.

Notification is the component that will turn your desktop background black and place a watermark in the bottom right saying your Windows is not genuine. You will also have a system tray icon pointing you to the web and the “virtues” of owning a legitimate copy of Windows.

WGA Validation is the component that will install when you go to Windows / Microsoft Update. If your install fails validation, this will stop you updating a number of different updates including non critical ones like Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, Windows Defender and Security Essentials.
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In addition to the standard and administrator accounts created by users on a Windows computer, there are also other accounts that are built in by default. The Guest account can allow other users that don’t have their own account short term limited access on the system. Then there’s the built in Administrator account which is similar to a regular administrator account. The main difference is by default it has no permission restrictions imposed by User Account Control (UAC).

While the built in administrator is an account you could potentially use every day, it is certainly not recommended you do that. It should only be used in an emergency when you need to troubleshoot or repair other system accounts, then be disabled again. This will reduce possible security risks by leaving it active. Although the administrator account was enabled by default in Windows XP, it has been disabled by default in every version of Windows since Vista for increased security.
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The Remote Desktop that comes in Windows is a nice and handy feature where it allows you to remotely login and control the computer as if you are sitting in front of it. This feature is turned off by default and can be easily enabled by selecting an option from the Remote tab at System Properties. Then the controller can just run the Remote Desktop Connection shortcut that is found in the Start menu, enter either the IP address or hostname of the computer that will be controlled, followed by logging in with the username and password that is set to the computer.

It is logical to keep the remote desktop turned off and only turning it back on when you need it to prevent from any possible break-in. Another great way to keep your Remote Desktop servers more secure is by changing Remote Desktop default port number. However it doesn’t make sense if you’re a network administrator because the reason to use remote desktop is to save you the trouble of being in front of the computer in the first place. Although there is no visible option that you can find in Windows to enable the Remote Desktop feature remotely, there is however a way around it.
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There are many software today such as VNC, TeamViewer, CrossLoop and etc that allows a computer to be controlled remotely via LAN or Internet without much hassle. Although some of the third party remote control software are very powerful, one of the most used software is still the free Remote Desktop Connection that is built-in to Windows since XP. All you need to do is select an option in the Remote tab at System Properties and any Windows computer with a Remote Desktop Client can connect to it, provided that they know the username and password of the user account. However, only Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise can accept connections from Remote Desktop while the rest are restricted although there is a RDP Patcher tool that can bypass this restriction.

To enable Windows built-in Remote Desktop in Windows 7, right click on My Computer, select Properties and click on the Remote settings. Select either “Allow connections” option and your computer will start listening for remote access connections on the default port 3389.

It is possible to change the remote desktop default port 3389 to other port number. This is a better security measure because it will stop anyone from the local network or internet directly trying to connect to you using remote desktop although a port scanner will still find a listening server. Remote Desktop Connection also by default connect to Windows using port 3389 and there is no options where you can state what port you want to use.

This is how you can change the listening port of your remote desktop and also how you can connect to a remote desktop that’s on a different port using Remote Desktop Connection.
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With everybody who owns a computer seemingly having at least 1 USB pen stick or portable hard drive to hand these days, it’s now easier than ever to quickly transfer data from one machine to another. While this makes it great for portability, it does also mean that it’s easier than ever to just plug the device in to a USB port and copy files over, whether you want to allow them to be copied to a removable storage device or not.

Obviously you could go into Device Manager and disable all of your USB ports, or perhaps just the front ports on your desktop PC, but that’s not exactly the best way to go about it. While it does work, those USB ports are completely inaccessible until you go back into Device Manager and they are enabled again.

We have previously written an article about how to disable removable storage devices such as USB drives while still allowing your USB scanner, keyboard, and mouse working. But what if you want to disable any data from being written to the removable storage device, but still want to allow it to be accessed and data read from it? It is possible for some USB flash drives with a write-protect switch making the drive read only but it’s very rare nowadays.
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Once in a while I have a friend, or customer that needs to keep people from using the USB ports to copy data off of a system. With USB drives so common these days and people able to carry them around on keyring’s, it take’s only a matter of seconds to plug in a USB device and copy a few files to it.

For experienced users, there are a few ways to turn certain devices off. One of the ways to lock down a machine is to disable devices such as a floppy or CD-ROM in the BIOS. You can also disable USB, but the problem there is it disables USB completely meaning none of your peripherals such as keyboards, mice and printers will work either.

There is also another partial solution although again not the best idea. That is to turn off a certain USB hub or connection by disabling from Device Manager. Not ideal, but you can at least perhaps use it for something like the front USB ports on your PC if you don’t want anything at all plugged into them to be detected.
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Windows XP has now had 3 major update packages called Service Packs in the time since its release. The Packs contain most of the released hotfixes up to that point and also a few new features and enhancements. The most notable being Wifi support introduced to XP in Service Pack 2. The problem is, if you don’t have the latest version of Windows XP on your install CD, there will be literally hundreds of patches from Microsoft Update including the latest Service Pack which you have to install first and is over 300MB.

If your Windows CD doesn’t include the latest Service Pack, there is a process to be able to seamlessly integrate it onto your CD (or USB stick) and with every new installation of the Operating System from then on, the latest Service Pack is installed at the same time. This method is called “Slipstreaming” and while it creates an updated install from you CD, it also produces a much quicker and cleaner Windows installation.

Slipstreaming the latest Service Pack can actually save between 1 and 2 hours on a slow machine if you have to install it after your operating system has been installed. This makes it worthwhile for everybody with an older CD to do and is quite easy only taking a few minutes. All you need is a blank CD and the latest Service Pack 3 from Microsoft.
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