Ultimate Windows 10 Security Guide

Since release, Windows 10 has arguably become one of the most popular operating systems, akin to its predecessors. According to Microsoft, Windows 10 is their most perfect operating system to date. And truly, with the all new start menu, metro integration and an improved interface, it’s the go-to operating system for all the die-hard Microsoft fans, but also many novice users that haven’t had much experience with this line of OS’s before.

However, there’s a certain aspect where Windows 10 could still use some work, and security is arguably one of them. There is a number of ways in which you can enhance the security of your Windows 10 machine, and make it less susceptible to malware breaches and cyber attacks.

Get the Updates

One of the easiest ways in which you can quickly bolster the security of your operating system is simply to keep up with all the updates. Make sure they’re downloaded and installed automatically at all times, and you’ll potentially prevent a nasty security breach by not actually having to do anything else at all.

In fact, the largest percentage of Windows updates nowadays are exclusively fixes and patches for various security issues that the development team comes across, and they’re offering them for free – so why not take advantage of that fact?

System Restore

Windows has a terrific fail-safe that you can use in the event that something happens to the data on your hard disk in the event of a malware breach, or even if you just happened to tinker with certain files you shouldn’t have been tinkering with and caused some kind of problem.

Put simply, what System Restore does is it takes a “snapshot” of the state of your hard drive partitions in a certain moment (this is called a “restore point”), to which it can roll back all the data on your hard drive. When you perform System Restore successfully, you’ll find your hard disk to be in the exact same state it was back when you made the restore point – as if you had turned back time. This is a really cool feature that a lot of Windows users tend to overlook, despite the fact that it’s basically the perfect fail-safe in case something goes wrong.

Built-in Anti-Virus

Windows Defender premiered way back when Windows XP SP2 was released, although it left a lot to be desired with its earlier versions. However, come Windows 10 this built-in anti-virus solution came on par with most of the pro level anti-malware I’ve encountered, so it’s a big step up from what it used to be. It’s definitely useable as an anti-virus if you can’t afford a third-party one, and might even work better in terms of resource use. I definitely recommend turning Windows Defender on and leaving it on, as it will significantly boost your overall security.




Secure Your Connection

Most people aren’t aware how easy it is to intercept and read traffic that’s been sent over an insecure Internet connection, and a few unlucky ones actually feel the consequences of that fact. And seeing that we transmit all sorts of information over the Internet these days (including our financial credentials), it’s a good idea to encrypt this data in some way. The moment that your connection reaches a VPN server, all the information transmitted across your connection is encrypted with a secure tunneling protocol and split into packets, making it very difficult for anyone to eavesdrop on your traffic and subsequently read it.

Additionally, you receive a new IP address when you use a VPN, which automatically makes you more anonymous, since all the information that someone could obtain from your IP is now hidden. This is because IP addresses are intrinsic to your Internet connection’s specific location – and when your PC connects to a VPN server, to the other party it looks like you’re actually browsing from the VPN’s location.

Local Accounts

Windows 8.1 brought a significant change to the way you log into your machine that’s been carried over into Windows 10. Specifically I’m talking about the ability to use your Microsoft account to access your machine, and from a security standpoint I would highly recommend against it. It does offer a number of advantages, but in the event that your Microsoft account gets compromised and someone changes your password, you can potentially lose access to the PC. So be smart, use a local account to sign in, and you’ll prevent any such inconveniences from happening.

About Guest Author: Thomas Milva is 28, a dedicated Analyst of Information Security, which is why he moved to Baton Rouge, where he lives now and he loves it. Thanks to being so good at his job, Tom also landed a position of consultant writer at wefollowtech.com. Thomas mostly works from home, which is why he’s contemplating of adopting another dog.