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You chose to install Windows operating system on your computer or, maybe, for various technical reasons, you had to reinstall it. No matter your reasons, it’s important to keep in mind various security layers after this procedure, so your computer is safe from threats.

How to secure your PC after a fresh Windows installation

After finishing the Windows installation, whether it’s Windows 7, 10 or another operating system, we encourage you to follow these security measures below to enhance protection:

1. Keep your Windows operating system up to date

Probably the most important step to do is checking for the latest security updates and patches available for your Windows operating system.

To get the security updates automatically, go to “Control Panel” and check if your automatic updating system is enabled or follow these steps:

  1. Access the search box in your Windows operating system, type Windows Update.
  2. Select Advanced options.
  3. Click on Automatically download updates in case it is not already selected/turned on.

After checking for available updates for your Windows operating system, keep the automatic update turned on in order to download and install the important updates that can help protect your PC against new viruses or next-generation malware.

Always remember to keep your OS up to date with the latest security available. Software patching remains an essential key to improve online safety and security experts make a good case of emphasizing its importance. Cybercriminals still try to benefit from security holes found in users’ systems and PCs. That’s one of the reasons why cyber attacks still work and they make a lot of money of it.

 2. Update your software

You don’t have to update only the Windows operating system, but your software as well. Therefore, make sure all the latest updates and security patches for your main programs and apps are installed.

Needless to say that most popular pieces of software (such as Java, Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, Adobe Acrobat Reader), especially the outdated ones, are always under threat from malicious actors who exploit them to get easier access to your sensitive data.

Since these pieces of software are always under threat from criminal minds, don’t just rely on your memory to manually update every program or application you have installed.

A better option would be to start using a dedicated cybersecurity solution for you and keep your software program up to date.

3. Create a restore point

If you already installed the security updates for Windows OS, the next step recommended is to create a restore point in Windows.

You can do this by clicking on the Start button, then select Control Panel -> System and Maintenance (or System and Security) -> System. Then select System protection and click the Create button.

After installing Windows, you can create the Restore Point and name it Clean installation, and continue installing drivers and applications.

If one of the drivers causes issues on the system, you can always go back to the Clean installation restore point.

system_restore

 4. Install a traditional antivirus product

When you consider installing an antivirus program on your PC, make sure you use one from a legitimate company, because there can be fake software programs out there. It is important to have a reliable security solution on your system, which should include real-time scanning, automatic update, and a firewall.

To find the best antivirus that suits your needs, read this ultimate guide that will teach you more about antiviruses, its main features and what should you look for.

If you choose to install a security product that doesn’t have a firewall, make sure you have turned on the Windows firewall.

To turn it on, go to Control Panel, select System and Security, then Windows Defender Firewall and turn it on or off.

5. Install a proactive security solution for multi-layered protection

On our blog, we explained on many occasions why traditional antivirus is no longer the go-to solution, simply because it cannot keep up with the rise of new and advanced online threats. Financial malware especially is created to steal sensitive data and confidential information and it uses sophisticated methods to do so.

Next-gen malware usually has the ability to evade detection and bypass antivirus software that users have installed on their PCs to keep their data safe. We recommend reading these 12 examples of spam campaigns behind the scenes indicating a low detection rate for AV engines during the first stages of a cyber attack.

With the help of a proactive cybersecurity solution, you get the best protection against financial and data-stealing malware, such as Zeus or Cryptolocker.

To improve the financial control of your online banking account, you can always set banking alerts to track your account activity and apply these simple and effective financial protection tips.

 

6. Back up your system

You updated the operating system and your system applications, you have installed additional security products for your system safe and even created a Clean installation restore point for your Windows.

The steps above are meant to keep you safe from malicious software and online threats, but you may still encounter hardware issues that could endanger your private information.

To make sure your data stays safe, you should be using a twofold strategy, which should include combining external hard drive usage with an online backup service.

We need to emphasize the importance of having a backup solution that provides stability (look for a big company name), it’s easy to use (so you won’t have a headache backing up from files), allows you to synchronize your files with the online backup servers and provides some sort of security, such as encryption capabilities.

Online Backup

Our guide on how to do a data backup includes more information on the most popular backup solutions available and what the best ways to keep your data safe are.

At the same time, you could simply use your Windows Backup system. To set it up, access your Windows Control Panel and then click Backup and Restore to access the location. From this place, you can set an automatic backup, create a schedule and even choose a network location for your backup files.

7. Use a standard user account

Windows provides a certain level of rights and privileges depending on what kind of user account you have. You may use a standard user account or an administrator user account.

To secure your PC, it is recommended to have a standard account to prevent users from making changes that affect everyone who uses the computer, such as deleting important Windows files necessary for the system.

With a Standard user account, you have limited rights and cannot do things like changing system settings, or installing new software apps, hardware or changing the username and passwords. Here’s why you should use an account like this one and how to create it.

If you want to install an application or make security changes, remember that you will need an administrator account.

We also recommend that you set a strong password for your Windows user account.

Use this security guide that will help you set unique and strong passwords and manage them like an expert.

Top Security Tip:
Using a standard account ensures that a piece of malware which infects a limited-user account won’t do much damage as one infecting an administrator account.

Windows account

8. Keep your User Account Control enabled

User Account Control (UAC) is an essential security feature of Windows that prevents unauthorized changes to the operating system. Many users have the tendency to disable it after installing/reinstalling the Windows operating system.

We don’t recommend to turn it off. Instead of disabling the UAC, you can decrease the intensity level using a slider in the Control Panel.

UAC monitors what changes are going to be made to your computer. When important changes appear, such as installing a program or removing an application, the UAC pops up asking for an administrator-level permission.

In case your user account is infected with malware, UAC helps you by keeping suspicious programs and activities from making changes to the system.

 

UAC

 

9. Secure your web browser before going online

Here’s another thing to do after installing Windows: pay attention to browser security. Since our web browser is the main tool used to access the Internet, it is important to keep it safe before going online.

The vulnerabilities in your web browser are like open door invitations to cybercriminals who find creative ways to harvest your most important data. For example, if you are using Adobe Flash, be aware of its security flaws and how it can expose you to attacks.

To stay safe while accessing various web pages, follow these steps:

  1. Choose the latest version for your browser.
  2. Keep it updated.
  3. Choose a private browsing session when you access a website you are not sure about. Choosing this mode will prevent authentication credentials (or cookies) from being stored and steal by attackers.
  4. Since data-stealing malware spreads through malicious code embedded in pop-up windows even in legitimate websites, make sure your web browser can block pop-ups:

And there’s, even more, you can do. Use these step-by-step instructions to enjoy the best secure browsing.

10. Use an encryption software tool for your hard drive

Even if you set a password to your Windows account, malicious actors can still get unauthorized access to your private files and documents. They can do this by simply booting into their own operating system – Linux, for example – from a special disc or USB flash drive.

A solution for this case is to encrypt your hard drive and protect all your sensitive files. It is recommended to use this level of security if you have a laptop, which can be very easily stolen. The same thing applies to a computer.

A free encryption tool you can use is BitLocker, which is available on the latest Windows operating systems and you can enable it at any moment. Even after you have enabled the BitLocker protection, you won’t notice any difference because you don’t have to insert anything else but your normal Windows user account password. The benefits of using this encryption tool:

  • It encrypts your entire drive, which makes it impossible for malicious actors stealing your laptop to remove the hard drive and read your files.
  • It’s also a great encryption software if it happens to lose your PC/laptop or get it stolen.
  • Easy to use and already integrated into your Windows OS, so there’s no need to add another encryption software.

If you’d rather want to use another solution, here’s a full list of encryption software tools you can choose to protect your data.

 11. Be careful online and don’t click on suspicious links

To make sure you won’t be infected by clicking on dangerous links, hover the mouse over the link to see if you are directed to a legitimate location. If you were supposed to reach your favorite news website, such as “www.cnn.com”, but the link indicates “hfieo88.net“, then you probably shouldn’t access it. Chances are you’ll be infected with malware and cybercriminals steal your sensitive data.

It’s worth trying shortening services, such as goo.gl or tinyurl. But in some cases, an unknown link may send you to a malicious site that can install malware on the system.

So, how can you know where you’ll arrive if you click it?

To make sure you are going to the right direction, use a free tool such as Redirect Detective that will allow you to see the complete path of a redirected link. Another tool which can provide very helpful in checking suspicious links is the reliable URL checker, VirusTotal.

For more information on how to maximize your financial data protection, check out this article.

 Conclusion

It’s not just about staying safe. 

This guide above is meant to keep you safe online. But, at the same time, following these security measures mean that you also set up your system to work smoothly for online browsing and financial operations, activities you do every day.

Since there are many other solutions to protect a system after a Windows installation, we would like to know your opinion on this.

How do you increase your security after a Windows installation?
Do you have a particular routine?
We’d love to add your tips to the list, so share them in the comments below.

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Author Profile

Ioana Rijnetu

Cyber Security Enthusiast

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I am a thinker and dreamer human being. Passionate about online marketing and technology. Naturally curious and life long learner.

Comments

am aware,that some virus automatically turn to army squad virus,that will crash and stealth your system imformation without changing any thing,but keep forcing you to get an update,and the update is only way they will transifer your personnal information to their server. but am advise you to study how each update work before forcing peoples to it,since we believe hacker paying attention for new software instead of an old,so i can recommend automatic update be aware you are at risk !!!

No security updates and no security software will guard you against government mass surveillance.

“The NSA also devotes considerable resources to attacking endpoint computers. This kind of thing is done by its TAO – Tailored Access Operations – group. TAO has a menu of exploits it can serve up against your computer – whether you’re running Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, or something else – and a variety of tricks to get them on to your computer. Your anti-virus software WON’T DETECT THEM, and you’d have trouble finding them, even if you knew where to look. These are hacker tools designed by hackers with an essentially unlimited budget. What I took away from reading the Snowden documents was that if the NSA wants in to your computer, it’s in. Period.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-how-to-remain-secure-surveillance

Can you show, to your readers, a proof about how Heimdal can protect them against TAO, ECHELON, PRISM, CARNIVORE, and tenths of other mass surveillance projects? If no, your advice are somehow useless. The patched programs also contain [unknown] security vulnerabilities. The Source Lines of Code are inherited.

From your point of view, as Security Solutions developers, is it OK to be spied on by “agencies”? Is it true that Heimdal products protect ONLY against the civilian intelligence thieves, not against the governmental ones?

Getting 0xc00d5212 error when I re-install windows.

Vladimir Unterfingher on October 17, 2019 at 3:01 pm

Hey Petter,

Quick question: does this happen when you boot into Windows or when you try to play a video file?

Oh.. and by the Way. It dosent matter if ur running Macos , Linux, unix, or windows,. They bring false Security to the table thats all….
You should read a bit on the OSI Network model And tcp/ip
Aducate yourself to be safe… Learn the hackers way, and you Will know what to prevent… yall have a good Day.. DebuG out….

This is exactly what i was looking for! There are several other websites which mentions the first steps after installation as
– updating theme, customizing taskbar etc. This one is brilliant. Well done. Thank you for the article.

People prefer cracked windows because fof its price they dont even know they may get hacked . I is better to stay with mac os .

Personally, I prefer to install anti-virus software first, before installing anything. Many thanks for this guide.

Hello and thank you so much for your kind words! Happy this guide was useful and you shared it with your colleagues.

This may be the most comprehensive walk though I have ever seen for Windows. I am also a Security engineer for a major international enterprise entity. I really appreciate this effort. Very impressive!

When it comes to PC cleaner, I used CCleaner

Hello, Hannah! Thank you so much for your feedback! Happy to know this guide was useful! Thanks for reading our blog!

Why don’t you have an option for an easy PRINT function. It’s so simple yet so many sites are not doing this anymore. Makes me wonder because it forces you to download much more ‘unknown’ crap than one needs. Your page does not save well at all. Thanks.

Good blog and very useful blog for service people. Hard disk issue can cause boot disk failure error and system might not work. We are into Laptop service in Chennai and hard disk issues are very common.

Nice article. I’ve recently acquired a windows PC and it’s lack of out of the box security drove me to search for solutions. This covers all the basics and gives good links to more information. Thanks!

So glad yo hear that we were able to help, Samantha! Enjoy your new PC!

Florence Catherine on August 19, 2016 at 4:32 am

A very useful and informative article. Appreciate the effort in making this as detailed (with useful links and references) and updated. Gone are the days when you only had to rely on 2-3 programs to preserve online security and privacy.

Updating virus signature databases is essential to make an anti-virus software more effective. Everyday, new malwares are infecting web and local networks. Its a good thing that ESET Antivirus has daily updates for that.I am very much confident that new viruses cannot infect my business systems. Thank you for posting this article.

Global Nomad couple on March 15, 2016 at 2:42 pm

It appears that updates made by Microsoft are currently the biggest security risk for all Windows users not running Windows 10. They are desperately pushing 10 and uploading secretly installation files, masking adware as security updates and doing whatever they can to force users to migrate to Windows. And with Windows 10 there are no longer options for disabling updates making users lose the control of their system.

In that sense turning automatic updates on opens the computer to Microsoft attacks and malware and is pretty irresponsible. And the same applies to all software. You should update your software only when there is a reason to do that, such as a specific feature you need or a fix to issue that is important to you.

I will have to politely disagree with this. And it’s not just me saying that software updates are crucial to your cyber security, but security experts which have a lot more say and experience. I recommend you read this article on the subject: https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/most-common-mistakes-27-cyber-security-experts/

Global Nomad couple on March 15, 2016 at 3:37 pm

Are you sure the link was correct? I found there only one mention regarding updates (“…not applying patches or software updates, leaving people exposed to exploits cybercriminals actively leverage.”) with not a single arguments. It would make more sense for cybercriminals to exploit buggy automatic updates or new, unknown exploits created by crappy updates.

Do you seriously think that updating e.g. flash is good for security? The only sustainable way to secure flash is to remove it from your system completely and keep it out.

The opinions of “security experts” depend on who is paying their salary. Please provide arguments why you believe so strongly in updates so we can have a discussion.

We are preparing a much bigger guide on the matter, but you can find references related to patching in almost all of our articles. While some users can eliminate certain plugins and types of software entirely (as they don’t need them), on a corporate level, things aren’t always that simple.

And there are users who still want to use Flash or Java, but do it safely (to the extent of which that is possible). So, in order to do that, updates are absolutely essential. They are not perfect, but they do solve a series of problems with the risk of creating new ones (which is an entire debate I don’t think is worth starting here).

The same goes for operating systems. Air tight security is impossible by itself, so we have to remain grounded and understand the benefits and disadvantages of each type of software and so on. But not everyone cares as much for their online safety. Outdated software is creating problems for the entire ecosystem that is the web, but not updating it is certainly not the answer.

And we do have to take into account that not all expert opinions are biased and generalizations are not healthy for any constructive discussion.

Global Nomad couple on March 15, 2016 at 4:05 pm

I fail to see any reason why eliminating insecure software instead of frantically updating it would not work on a corporate level as well.

Updating does not help with flash or java as they are simply way too badly made to be ever safe. Advising people to update them is like pissing in the wind and will only provide them false feeling of security. It is actually pretty irresponsible.

I still fail to see how outdated software could create problems. People should use those versions of software that work best for them, no matter are they new or old, updated or outdated. An old version is not automatically bad, risky and insecure. On the contrary, the old oudated systems tend to attract attacks way less than new one. I am pretty sure that for example Windows XP is currently one of the safest Windows versions although it is outdated and Microsoft does not support it any longer.

Everyone is biased. Understanding and accepting that is IMHO part of all healthy and constructive discussions.

You are absolutely correct, mate. You shouldn’t update unless you are sure that update isn’t messing things up as we hear in a lot of stories/has some fixes you need or features you want. Also, the Windows 10 part was damn right. I personally used it for like 2 months or so and now I’m back to windows 7.

Equifax breach was because a simple software patch was not installed. WannaCry outbreak was because of un-patched software (Windows 7). Patching and updating software is a vital part of securing your system and network. No argument that Flash and Java are security risks no matter how updated and patched they are. also updates and patches do cause plenty of problems.

I don’t agree or understand your position on Microsoft and software updates exposing users to malware and attacks, the patches and updates are to fix the software of the flaws that allow malware and attacks. Software such as Metaspoit is specifically made to exploit software flaws to gain access to a system. But I respect your opinions, too each their own.

The piece of advice that I want to give to you and would applly to any operating system; you install no matter if it is widow, Linux, vista, Mac OS X, window XP or window 8. The first thing is to check for security updates. People don’t know how important updates are for their systems.

If you want to clone your Windows drive without a boot CD, however, Drive Image XML can do it on the fly. It has options to save to a disk image (as opposed to simply cloning) to another drive, but since you need to save the data to a separate drive anyway, you’re probably better off doing an actual clone than a disk image.

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