Vista, brand new laptop and me? Suggestions to keep uninfected please.

[ImnoGuru]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to look at my thread.


I have recently purchased three (3) new Laptops with Vista preinstalled and a host of other Dell programs. None of which I am familiar.  

I would like to keep them as pure as driven snow (as the saying goes), if I can and wish to set them up so that I can learn vista and keep them safe from virus intrusion from the net.

At this stage I don't know too much about Vista, Laptops or Dell.
Generally speaking they are all clean and have McAfee preloaded as their choice of antivirus protection. I don't know if that is free or costs, or if this installation is a paid account for a period of time then I take over update payments.

I would like to keep them virus free and set them up correctly. Can someone make some recommendations as to the best way to set them up please?

The first one is a Dell Inspiron 1545 and has wireless internet available, (which I am having trouble with.... The next thread that one)
The 1545 seems as though it might be my primary unit.

I intend to use it to access the web wirelessly in my home but there is always the opportunity to access the web outside. Say at Mc Donalds or somewhere else.

The second is a Dell Inspiron 1425 also wireless and the third is a Dell Inspiron 1440 wireless internet. They all have different features like SD reader cards, bluetooth and so on.

If you need specifics I can break it up individually for you so that someone might be able to assist me.    

Just generally right now I would like to know how to best set them up, so that I can learn to use each of them.
Mind you the UAC is giving me the irrates for now but I'll deal with that issue a little later.

Thank you ImnoGuru.  

[jkolak]

Those computers at a minimum need an anti-virus and an anti-spyware program installed immediately before they are exposed to the internet.

Check your Start Menu and Control Panel (Programs and Features) to see if you already have them installed. Often new computers at least come with a trial version. You can use the search function on this forum to read about people's feelings about the various free and paid programs available.

For a quick fix while you look for your preferred product, you can download Microsoft Security Essentials which is both anti-virus and anti-malware:

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/?mkt=en-us

Be sure you remove any existing anti-virus on your computer that you don't want. You cannot have two anti-virus programs installed.

[soybean]

Be sure you remove any existing anti-virus on your computer that you don't want. You cannot have two anti-virus programs installed.

I believe you can have two anti-virus programs installed but you should not have two anti-virus programs running at the same time. So, as a general rule, it's best to only have one installed.  That way, you don't need to fuss with settings to be sure one of them is not continuously running in the background while the other is.

[ImnoGuru]

Thank you for your reply jkolak and soybean.

jkolak, I have only just heard of that program from microsoft. It seems it has certain advantages over other free programs, in that it gets more of the newer viruses that the others miss. Although McAfee is a very trusted brand too. If my McAfee is paid for say, 60 days to 1 year and then I take over a payment, I may as well use that till their expiry period at least. Give it a test so as to speak.

So is a firewall different to an antivirus program?  and Is an Anti spyware different again?
And I need all three?   

Then what is a firewall?                 Is McAfee not a firewall product?


A lot of the programs on my laptop seem to be trial optioned such as the Office Home/Student, that's a 60 day trial version. So with my recent history with MSoffice, I may as well just delete that from the drive then and get OpenOffice.org. as recommended in a previous post, and that way I wont have future issues. (Thanks soybean).

Thank you ImnoGuru

[Geek-9pm]

Pardon me.
Now if someone gave me tthree new laptops,...
I would not put them on the internet.
Instead, I would use a older  computer for internet until I was confident that I had very good Anti-Virus and Backup software on the new machines.
Like they say...
An Lance of Prevention...

Right now there is an inordinate amount of virus and orbiter evil activity going o on the internet. Mucho coming from distant  lands.

[jkolak]

Right. Download the installation files on an older computer and copy them to a CD for the new computers. Problem is, I think Avira, Avast, and AVG now use installers that download the files from the internet. If the trial version of the Anti-virus program is active on the new computers, it would, of course, be safe to use them on the net.

All that stuff that came on the new computer is called crapware. It's just propaganda to get you to spend more money. Also called foistware because I'm sure you didn't ask to have stuff put on there that will add to the price of your computers. Dump MS Office for OpenOffice, McAfee for Avira, etc.

The recent Google-China stuff in the news has led me to read a lot of other articles about malware activity by the Chinese govt and military, but the biggest spike in malware activity comes from the high profits of selling rogue (fake) anti-virus software hijacking your computer.

I don't know if McAfee includes a firewall. Recommendations I have read on this forum are for Comodo Firewall, then 2 anti-spywares - Malwarebytes Anti-malware and  SuperAntiSpyware - and then pick only one anti-virus between the three I listed above.

[ImnoGuru]

Thank you Geek-9pm and jkolak for your comments, and thus I am here.

I understand, very well the difficulties with the internet and virus's.

I bought these laptops for work. What I didn't figure on was that I would have to set everything up from scratch. Windows Home was loaded on right to the stage that I had to agree to the EULA, so were other programs. I haven't been through the lot yet.

So far, I got off the net and tried to figure out and set up the laptop to work.

The lappies are all wireless and in looking at what they were and how to fly them, logged onto my home wireless network... (which was unprotected I might add ) and I realized that there would be some problems presented in a very short time if I continued with them on the net.

This next time I fire them up, will be the 4th time I have opened them up. So I am cautious at the moment of even starting them, until I know a little bit more about them and security, for the home router too for that matter. ( I have made a separate post about that here).
Unfortunately you have to start the computer to do that, and my main laptop (for me the Dell 1545) logs onto the network automatically. (I don't know why or how, but in fiddling with the settings of the laptop and the router, I got different results, from limited connectivity to none available, according to the laptop control panel).
You see I don't know anything of Vista or how to go through the programs on it to set it up.
In fact I don't even know how to delete anything on it yet!

Crickey I don't even recognize the start menu, and all the balloons keep fading away before I can read them? Whats that about? and this big thing on the top center of screen?

Anyway I digress... McAfee out, in with Super-antispy, AVG I'm familiar with.
Comodo for firewall... Hmmm does that mean I have to get it off of the net? I'll have to see what McAfee is all about then.. ( that just means I have to try to connect with the new settings on the router... something about enable AP.

Pardon me.
Now if someone gave me three new laptops,...
I would not put them on the internet.I would use an older  computer for internet and .....  Backup software on the new machines.

How do I back up (well anything actually),  the software? How do I do that please?


Thanks for the help my computer help mentors.
I'll be back later I'm sure.

Thanks again ImnoGuru

[jkolak]

I'm going to get off this thread since it is going off topic now. I looked at your other post in networking, and I'll leave that to others as well since networking has me pulling hair at times myself. I have been using my LAN for 2 years now, but didn't have an initial learning curve because everything just worked when I set it up. Only recently have neighbors gotten on wireless such that I noticed that I needed to learn about the router's security settings to keep them off because I kept seeing their computers on my network! (while I wondered why my throughput was going down....)

I will mention that you don't delete programs with the trash can or the delete key. Go to the Control Panel and use Programs and Features to remove programs you don't want. You will get used to info balloons coming up on your System Tray and learn from them. A lot of your questions are answered in Help and Support on the Start Menu.

Best of luck with your computers.

[ImnoGuru]

Thank you jkolak, I found your posts enlightening.
I found my router wasn't secure the same way... All of a sudden I had run out of data use available. Then found out neighbors had visitors with a wireless laptop that they downloaded heaps of games and cheats that weekend.
Getting a bit more wise to it all now though.

I am also getting use to using the help features as well thanks.

[patio]

Setting up WPA

[free2ride14u]

The Mcafee protection you have is more than likely a trial. I bought a new dell laptop 32 days ago with windows 7 and it had Mcafee too. It was a 30 trial . I always use AVG free on all my machines, it works well and can be downloaded for free from "cnet downloads". As for spyware protection, a good free one is adaware and it is available from the same site.

[Allan]

AdAware is NOT a good utility - it's pretty much obsolete in fact. MalwareBytes & SuperAntispyware are good replacements. I'm not a big AVG fan either, but it's certainly better than McAfee.