Setting Up Windows XP for a non-tech person

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
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Bill

I'm setting up a Windows XP laptop for a non-technical user. This is someone that
doesn't want to have to deal with alerts - in other words, he won't know how to deal
with "do you want to allow this registry change" type of stuff.

I've got Spybot S&D running in the background. The antivirus is Norton 2004, which I may
replace with McAfee that comes with AOL (AOL was not MY idea, I swear!)

Any comments on this setup?

My main question is, how good & safe is the firewall that comes with Windows XP Home
Edition?
 
The windows firewall is probably the only one worth anything. As you don't buy it seperately MS feels no need to shove it in your face with thousands of pointless messages. So you don't even know it's working which is how the plumbing should be.
 
Thanks!

But one thing I'd like the firewall to do is, block Windows applications from trying to
update themselves. Apps like Windows Media Player won't let you totally disable
updates - best I can do is select update every month (the longest time frame).

Internet access will be by dialup, so we don't want updates of working components unless
I specifically request it.


...
The windows firewall is probably the only one worth anything. As you don't buy it
Click to expand...
seperately MS feels no need to shove >it in your face with thousands of pointless
messages. So you don't even know it's working which is how the plumbing >should be.
 
All of them have horror stories. Norton doesn't have a different reputation to McAfee. People that have used one without problems swear by it, other who have had problems hate whichever one. Those of us here have heard all the horror stories from all AV programs.
 
hello.

I use avg free which you can set to basically, (almost) never show a popup
message. It runs in the background without any hassle I find, updating etc.
I don't know if avg free is comparable to norton or mcafee as you pay for
them, but I find avg free to work brilliantly. Looks a bit "cheap" but I
dont mind. What do other people think of avg free vs other av programs?

I also use zonealarm which I find very good. Still displays messages every
so often but that is just for new programs. You could sit down for 10 mins
with the computer and go through the start menu and allow or deny all the
programs your user will use. Again I dont know how comparable the free
version is to commercailly available products...
 
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