Windows 7: Explore new and improved security features

Windows 7 the newest operating system from Microsoft, simplifies computer security, making it easier for you to reduce the risk of damage caused by viruses, spyware and other malware. Windows 7 also features an improved backup solution to help keep your information safe, and its improved parental controls help you protect your family.


The Action Center: security information at your fingertips

The new Windows 7 Action Center in the Control Panel helps you make sure that your firewall is on, your antivirus software is up to date, and your computer is set to install updates automatically.

Protect your data from theft, hackers, and accidental loss

BitLocker Drive Encryption encrypts your Windows hard disk to help keep documents, passwords, and other important data safe. Once you turn on BitLocker, any file that you save on that drive is encrypted automatically.


Windows Firewall can also help protect your computer from hackers and malicious software. With Windows 7, the built-in firewall is more flexible and easier to use than before.

The Microsoft backup system is also improved for Windows 7. Backup and Restore creates copies of your most important files, so you're always prepared for the worst.

Defend your computer against viruses, spyware, and other malware

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download for Windows 7 that helps protect your computer from viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, and other malware.

Windows 7 also includes Windows Defender, software that helps protect your computer from pop-up ads, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. For more information, see Using Windows Defender.

Reduce risk by enhancing security and control

Windows 7 makes it easier and less intrusive to run your computer as a standard user instead of as an administrator. Windows Vista introduced User Account Control, a feature that warned you when a program wanted to make a change on your computer. Windows 7 improves on this feature, which means you’ll get the same level of protection, but with fewer messages than before.


Help protect your family

Windows Vista included parental controls, but they are new and improved forWindows 7. Now they're more flexible and easier to use. With Windows 7 Parental Controls you can:


Prevent your children from playing games you don't want them to play.

Keep your children from running specific programs.

Set specific time limits on your children's computer use.

With the Parental Controls in Windows Media Center (available in Windows 7 Home Premium and above), you can also block access to objectionable TV shows and movies.


Source:-www.microsoft.com

Boost Your Computer’s Performance with Windows 7 Virus Scanner

Nowadays, computer viruses are getting more and more sophisticated and can enter your computer even if it is equipped with antivirus or antispyware software in a deceitful manner. So you should be very much conscious about the security of your computer data. These viruses can ruin your computer’s memory as a consequence of which, you may face serious issues with your operating system and application software. You can even lose your entire data stored over the hard disk.

Windows 7 has been shipped with immense features, which can take care of your security concerns by scanning and diagnosing the viruses on real time. So there is no need to depend on antivirus software, which offer only limited protection and that’s too after shedding a considerable amount of money.

But you need to be careful about their status on regular basis.

Features
Inbuilt features of Windows 7 like Windows Firewall and Windows Defender play an important role to protect your computer from viruses and other malicious threats. They must be kept well configured and enabled at every moment when you are online. These are equipped with anti-spammer, effective scan engine, Guard, Quarantine, and Scheduler features, so that you can get holistic protection from all offline and online threats. They can scan and remove computer virus instantly from your computer.

Usability
With the above Windows 7 virus scanning tools, you can get good protection from viruses and other malicious software, which harms your privacy and computer’s performance in many ways. These tools monitor your computer on real-time basis, so that you can keep your memory and Windows registry in a sound condition, which will avoid probability of hardware and software conflicts and minimize chances of blue screen error, hard disk crash and sluggish performance.

Limitation
It has been noticed that Windows Firewall delivers only one-way protection. It can check either the incoming or the outgoing traffic at a time. Windows firewall often becomes problematic, when you try to download or install some application software on your computer.

Recommendation
Keep your Windows Defender and Windows Firewall in a well configured state and also ensure they are enabled. To combat with severe infection from computer viruses, you can deploy online scanner tools available on trusted website. For quick resolution, you can call your tech support provider, which can assist in real-time.

Source: http://goo.gl/TqnWC

Ultimate guide to Windows 7 security

Windows 7 has been warmly received and swiftly adopted by businesses, with the result that many IT admins are now struggling with the platform’s new security features. In addition to changes to User Account Control, BitLocker, and other features inherited from Windows Vista, Windows 7 introduces a slew of security capabilities that businesses will want to take advantage of.

Windows 7 improves on Vista with a friendlier UAC mechanism, the ability to encrypt removable media and hard drive volumes, broader support for strong cryptographic ciphers, hassle-free secure remote access, and sophisticated protection against Trojan malware in the form of AppLocker, to name just a few.

In this guide, I’ll run through these and other significant security enhancements in Windows 7, and provide my recommendations for configuring and using them. I’ll pay especially close attention to the new AppLocker application control feature, which may be a Windows shop’s most practical and affordable way to combat socially engineered Trojan malware.

New and improved

Windows 7 has literally hundreds of security changes and additions, far too many to cover in one fell swoop. While this guide focuses on the ones that most organizations will be interested in, keep in mind that plenty of others may deserve your attention. A few the biggies not discussed here are built-in support for smart cards and biometrics, the ability to force the use of Kerberos in a feature called Restrict NTLM, and support for the new DNSSec standards, which are becoming essential to prevent DNS exploitation attacks. Also noteworthy is a new feature called Extended Protection for Authentication, which prevents many sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks that can strike at some of our most trusted security protocols (such as SSL and TLS).

User Account Control

A Windows Vista feature that users loved to hate, User Account Control has been significantly improved to be both less intrusive and smarter at distinguishing between legitimate and potentially malicious activities in Windows 7. However, depending on whether you are logged on as administrator or a standard user, some installs of Windows 7 may have a default UAC security setting that’s one level lower than some experts (including yours truly) recommend. Standard users have UAC security default to the most secure setting, while administrator accounts reside a notch below the highest setting, which is potentially riskier.

Note too that, although UAC provides a much-needed mechanism to prevent the misuse of administrator privileges, it can be bypassed. If you need high security, users should not log on with an elevated user account until they need it.

Your domain environment should already be at the highest and most secure level (“Always notify”). If it isn’t, make it so. That way, users will be prompted to input their passwords to perform high risk administrative actions. No matter what else, UAC should be enabled.

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