I am comparing Skype to, say, the AIM client, which appears to be a security risk nightmare. I don't exactly know why, but sounds like it is easily hacked and you are not protected from malicious links in chat (is that about right?).

So is Skype safer to use from those perspectives, and/or what makes Pidgin better? Or are these always going to be a major security concern? Encryption of conversations is not important to me (since we don't have any control of the other party's environment).

Nice job anyway.

I can't claim that Pidgin is more secure than the AIM client, but Pidgin is not a glorified adware client so I can claim that much. AIM does have some features that could expose you. (e.g. Direct IM). I also can't claim that the Skype client is more secure than any other client. The security issues that arose with AIM (re: accounts being hacked by some superuser resetting passwords) were related to the AIM network and not necessarily the AIM client. I can't verify or deny the superuser claims, though.

I believe the fears over the AIM client being a huge security risk is a bit of selection bias (i.e. Those who use the AIM client are generally less informed than Pidgin users.) It's similar to what we see with McAfee on this forum.

Chat is a security concern if you're just clicking links willy nilly. There used to be chat viruses that would infect AIM profiles and start IMing people on your buddy list. These things would be prevented with a combination of Pidgin & NoScript.

I partioned a small section of a hard drive for the page file AND the temp directories.

Worth it or not?

-----------Kitty

Not.

This is by far the most helpful thread on 2p2, thank you.

Just a noob question. I don't want to screw up the startup programs cleanup so ill ask just to make sure.

I typed msconfig and clicked "normal startup" then reset, opened win defender and removed whatever startup programs i didnt need... Do I now have to go back to msnconfig or thats it?

thx

Nope. You'll never need to touch msconfig again unless you need to diagnose a problem (which is what msconfig was designed for)

Can we remove "Dell Datasafe Online" "Dell driver reset tool" "dell support center" and "dell system restore" from programs? Don't think I've ever used those.

Also, can you suggest a program to do backups?

You can uninstall dell support center. I would leave the driver reset tool and dell system restore.

Sorry I can't recommend a backup tool as I don't use any of the commercial backup tools. For online backup: Mozy and Carbonite have received good reviews here. For local backup and drive imaging: I have used Acronis and liked it, but that was more than a year ago.

Thanks again.

1)What are your thoughts on CCleaner? If you like its uses should I run it automatically on startup or just use it once in a while.

2)I read in another thread that saving passwords in firefox isn't safe. What are your thoughts on that?

3)Do you accept donations? Post sn if you do plz.

Thanks

what do we use on vista to tweak the start-up programs? seems like i have messed with it before but i forhet how i did it.

Windows Defender. It comes installed with Vista.

1) CCleaner is fine for cleaning out temp files and other cruft. Just stay away from the registry cleaner as it is likely to do more harm than good. CCleaner also tries to install the yahoo toolbar during installation so be sure to uncheck that too. There's no reason to run CCleaner on startup. Using it once every two weeks is more than enough.

2) There is nothing wrong with storing passwords in Firefox (in addition to keepass) provided you're using a master password. I show you how to set up a master password in Part 5.

3) SN is funkyworms at FTP and Stars. I don't expect any donations but I won't turn them down.

I use SyncBack and it is excellent for my needs in local backup.

There's a freeware version, but I opted for the paid version 'cause it was good and the paid version allows you to copy files that are currently in use.

After install shouldn't you run the Stealth Port Wizard

I just scanned don't know if you mentioned it or not

I'm not asking you to do a Windows 7 series (you've already done a ton and I really appreciate it), but do you know if you're planning to? Just seeing if I should go ahead and try to apply this stuff to Windows 7, or if I should wait for a vid series from you.

I will almost certainly do a Windows 7 series but it might not be until after Oct 22. I can't seem to find my copy of Win 7 32-bit and I can't build 64-bit VMs on the machine I use to make videos.

Many of the steps will be nearly identical and you won't break anything following the steps I outline.

The restore point thing bugs. I have used restore points a couple of times and it allows me to make some edits and try some things with some level of safety.

I would never turn off restore points (well, maybe you can convince me). The resource usage in minimal and it is a good safety net.

I've gotten a little usage out of system restore, but very little. I'd have to say it's generally overrated.

You're right that the RAM and CPU usage of system restore is minimal, but the default setting is to use 12% of your hard drive. I would not consider that minimal. If you're going to use it I recommend shifting that number way down.

System restore can also become infected with malware and infect your system if you restore to a point when your computer was infected.

I think system restore is useless for most people. There are some exceptions and you may be one of them. If you like to tinker with system settings or experimental drivers then system restore could be useful. I'd say it's worthless for anyone but power users.

Is there a downside to having it use 12% of my hard drive if my hard drive isn't even close to full (my last system it was 20% full, now it's 5% full)?

Is it consistently writing to that 12% and slowing my system down, or is the only issue running out of hard drive space?

fwiw, my thinking with system restore is to disable it, 'cause if something turns to ****, i'm just going to reinstall everything anyway.

system restore = fiddling with stuff for an evening
reinstalling windows and software = fiddling with stuff for an evening

Didn't see this post earlier.

I believe it defaults with all ports stealthed.

is this with the firewall?

I have the firewall up and running.

With firefox, ftp, pidgin, and hem running i only have 27 processes running on vista so that seems pretty good.

also have had avast fora while which i might ****can because it seems to never do anything useful but yell at me when it downloads and find false positives.

Yes he's referring to my post about Comodo firewall.