Microsoft has included a backup feature called System Restore in Windows since ME. It is different to other backup methods like taking an image of the whole system. This is because System Restore doesn’t backup everything but only backs up important or system files when they are likely going to be changed. A restore point can be automatically created at specific points in time, before software or driver installs, before Windows updates or manually.

If a piece of software, driver or update is causing a problem, you can then select one of the created restore points to go back to that point in time. All the files and registry information will be restored to the earlier time, hopefully eradicating the issue. System Restore can also be used offline to restore the system by booting from a Windows repair CD or installation DVD.

Depending on how you use your computer, the system may create restore points quite often. This takes up space on your hard drive or SSD. By default, System Restore uses a specific amount of drive space before older points are removed to make way for new ones. However, it’s possible to adjust the amount of space that System Restore can use. Set it lower if you don’t want restore data to take up too much room, set it higher if you make lots of restore points.

System restore reliability is hit and miss but it might just save your system from needing a complete reinstall. As a result, it’s not recommended to turn the System Restore feature off if you don’t back up your system using other methods.

Here we show you four different ways in which you can change the maximum amount of drive space System Restore can utilize to create restore points. Use more if you need it, use less if you don’t. All methods work on Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10.
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Most areas of the system are protected by User Account Control, including Program Files, the Windows folder, the registry, and many system settings. Even trying to copy or save a file to somewhere like the root of your system drive will trigger a UAC prompt. Folders that are located under your user account don’t require UAC, which is why you and programs can freely save and create files in personal folders like Documents or Music.

If a program requires access to any of these locations protected by UAC, it will need to be manually granted with the UAC prompt, which also includes when installing software or drivers. The biggest complaint about User Account Control has probably been that it bugs users too often and many people just end up clicking Yes without really looking at what is asking for access, which essentially nulls the effectiveness of UAC.
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Microsoft Windows Vista takes a lot of resources, as anybody who has used it will tell you. Anyone who moved from XP, I’ll refrain from saying “upgraded“, would have most likely had a real shock at how much memory gets used for even simple things in Vista, where XP in comparison, is pretty lean and mean. 1 Gigabyte of RAM which is plenty for most things in XP, suddenly becomes a bare minimum just to get Vista onto the desktop!

Many of you will remember, or still use a tool called nLite which has been hugely popular for letting you remove a number of features from XP that you don’t want or need. Things like the annoying search dog and the old MSN were just a few that could be removed easily. What you can also do is integrate Windows updates, Service packs, third party drivers, and also your own third party software to make a clean XP install as efficient and up to date as you want. It will then create an ISO for you to burn and then install the slipstreamed XP.

As Vista is in even greater need of slimming down by removing unneeded or useless components, a utility to perform a similar trick to nLite is not only welcome, but essential. So here is the tool for easy removal of the unwanted components in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking. vLite can also create the bootable ISO when you have finished the modifications.
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If multiple users have constant access to your Windows computer, it is always recommended to setup separate user accounts. Not only does this allow users to customize their own account with different themes and desktop wallpapers etc, it can also be better for security. Put a password on your account and it makes it more difficult for other users to access the account your personal files and data

When multiple accounts are present on the computer, while booting you will be prompted to select a user during logon. The password will also be required if that user account has one set up. Even if you are the only user on the computer, you will be still be asked to enter your password. This is obviously a good thing for security but if other accounts are very rarely used or you’re the only user that ever uses the computer, it can become a pain to constantly have to enter the password.

Thankfully Windows has the built in ability to allow a user to automatically logon without typing their password. As you might expect, the option is hidden away slightly to stop general users bypassing their own password too easily, which can reduce security. Once accessed, it is easy to setup and change, here are three different ways to enable the Windows auto logon function. All methods work on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.x and 10 unless stated.
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There are many freewares capable of generating random password for you if you couldn’t think and decide what password to use for your internet banking, emails, user account and etc… It is not that hard to code a program that does something like that, that’s why most of random password generators are offered for free. A good unbreakable password must consist of numbers, uppercase & lowercase letters, and symbols with at least 8 characters so that brute force attacks would take at least many years to be successful and by that time you might have already changed to a new password.

If you’re using a shared computer, it is very important to make sure that your user account password strength is strong enough to prevent against cracking using Ophcrack or Login Recovery. If someone cracked your user account password and logged into the computer with it, you may not even notice it unlike if your password is being reset/changed with Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor. They now have access to your files and possibly even passwords that are saved in your web browser.
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Back in 2006 after getting upset over all the pirated copies of Windows XP being used, Microsoft decided to roll out Windows Genuine Advantage. This “critical” Windows update would be installed on your machine and then the Windows Product key being used would be checked against known blacklisted keys and whether it’s been activated before. If the information in the Microsoft database doesn’t match the identity of your machine, the check for a genuine Windows will fail and cause the wallpaper and background to reset every 60 minutes.

This will throw notifications on your desktop that Windows is not a genuine copy and you won’t be able to get all important Windows updates because of the online WGA validation component. The Genuine Advantage components (WGA Notifications and WGA Validation) would be fine if they were 100% accurate, but of course they aren’t. It’s entirely possible to get a genuine failure even if your Windows is fully legitimate.
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Adding a password to your user account is an obvious way to increase security and keep your data a little bit safer. You can either setup a password when creating the account or later on when you feel the need to. It’s quite easy and you simply go to the user account options in Control Panel or Settings and use the option a create a new password. From then on the password will be required to logon and by other users for elevated privileges if you are an administrator.

If you or someone else happens to forget their password or doesn’t know because the password has been changed, then it becomes a problem. While you can create a password reset disk in Windows, you can’t create the disk if you don’t know the current password. There are also other ways to change the password within Windows but you still need to know the current password before using most of them.

There’s also several third party methods to reset or change the password. Something like Kon-Boot can bypass the password completely during logon while a utility like Offline Windows Password Editor can clear the password. Here we’ll show some easy ways to reset or change the user password without knowing the current password.
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As we all know, Windows allows you to create more than one account so different users on the computer can have a different account assigned to them. Trusted or power user can have administrator accounts while children or less experienced users might be given more restricted standard user accounts. When you reach the Windows logon screen and there is more than one account available, each user’s profile will be selectable to log in with.

All you have to do is click on the user you want to log in as and enter the password for the account if there is one. However, there may be times when you don’t want all users to show on the logon screen and wish to hide specific accounts from other users. There are, in fact, two distinct ways to hide users from the logon screen, either hide individual users or hide all accounts and force the name of the user to be typed manually.

Here we show you multiple ways to perform both methods on your computer. These methods work on Windows Vista, 7, 8.x and 10.
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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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