Auslogics Blog

Windows Vista has a lot of great security features. The trouble is that some very useful ones are not turned on by default.

Account auditing is one of them. Why is it good to have it turned on? Because with it disabled practically anyone with physical or remote access to your computer can attempt breaking into your user account for as long as they like. And you wouldn’t even know about it until it’s too late, because audit security policy is not configured to log any account logons, successful or failed, by default. So a hacker will be able to keep trying until he’s successful.

Turning on account auditing is very important – it will let you see who may be trying to break into your account.

To turn on auditing for failed logon events do the following:

1. Go to Start and type secpol.msc, then hit Enter
2. Navigate through Local Policies and Audit Policy
3. Right-click on Audit account logon events policy and go to Properties
4. Check the Failure box and click OK
5. Right-click on Audit logon events policy and go to Properties
6. Check the Failure box and click OK
7. Close Local Security Policy editor

From now on your computer will log all failed logon attempts. You will be able to view these logs in Event Viewer (run eventvwr.msc) under Windows Logs and Security.

Do you go through the tedious process of closing running applications one by one before calling it a day and shutting down your computer? If yes, then I think you would be interested to find out how to close them all at once.

To do that, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the application buttons on your taskbar. You will see that they all stay selected. Then right-click any of them and select Close Group from the menu. That’s it!

And don’t worry, if you have any unsaved files, you will be prompted to save them, just as usual.

If you are a Windows Vista user, then no doubt you know what User Account Control (UAC) is. Some people find this feature really annoying, forgetting that it’s there for a reason.

UAC automatically protects your system from potential security breeches by forcing users that are part of the local administrators group to behave as if they were regular users. Whenever a user who is a member of the local administrators group attempts to perform a task that requires administrative privileges, the operation gets halted and the user is prompted to acknowledge it before proceeding.

If the user is not a member of the local administrators group and tries to perform a task that requires such privileges, he is asked to enter valid administrative credentials. This means that unless this user is an administrator, he won’t be able to change anything on your computer, since in Vista standard users are prohibited from installing most programs, changing system settings and so on.

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If you’ve ever experienced random slowdowns and high CPU usage for no apparent reason, System Restore might be responsible for it. Believe it or not, System Restore can take up as much as 15% of your hard drive.

System Restore is a very useful feature that acts like a built-in time machine. The System Restore service creates snapshots of your system, so that you can always roll back if there are any unexpected problems.

But if you never use it and prefer other backup methods, like saving all your valuable data on an external hard disk or a DVD, it will be worth it to disable System Restore altogether.

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I’m sure that you have some sort of anti-virus software installed. But sadly it’s not enough to fully protect your system. Why? Because most basic anti-viruses do nothing when it comes to spyware and adware. They are just not made that way. That’s why your computer might get infected even if your anti-virus software is enabled and updated regularly.

Usually spyware and adware are not as harmful as viruses, but amongst other things they can seriously affect your computer performance. So, if your PC becomes unusually slow all of a sudden, or starts acting up – for example, shows you pop-up windows even when you’re not connected to the Internet, there is a fair chance that it’s infected.

Most of the times removing spyware and adware is not such a big deal – you just need the right software. But of course it’s best to not get infected in the first place. Below are three simple tips that will help you stay away from spyware and adware.

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Every Windows user has encountered the Windows Stop Error, also called the Blue Screen of Death, at least once. Quite often the problem gets solved with a simple reboot and doesn’t return. But most likely the BSOD is the first sign of some major hardware or software problems. If that is the case, your screen will keep turning that lovely shade of blue. That is frustrating, yes, but all is not lost. There are ways to deal with it. You can at least establish what exactly is wrong with your computer, or maybe even solve the problem by yourself.

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