Windows 8.1 Five Tips for a safer computer

Windows has long since ceased to be the operating system exposed to all kinds of threats, to become an operating system reasonably safe. 8.1 For Windows Microsoft has intensified its efforts to strengthen security, both domestically and in the corporate. But as users we can still do much to enhance the safety of our team. We show five practical tips.

Windows Updates

Keeping our updated operating system is one of the best ways to keep it safe. Microsoft released through your program updates a number of patches and fixes for potential threats to the security of our system. Besides system upgrades are focused on getting Windows more stable, providing a better user experience.

Interestingly and despite this, a good part of Windows systems users rarely update your system and although the updates are downloaded, not installed.

If we are not about to manually review the updates you want to install, simply to invest five minutes to check the status of Windows Update in our control panel. In this section we indicate that we want to download and install updates automatically.

Microsoft account

Since the advent of Windows 8, Microsoft encourages its users to use Microsoft accounts instead of keeping user management in local mode only. Use this type of account allows us to synchronize our applications and system preferences among several Windows device, very similar to what Apple does with your Apple ID or Google form.

It is worth recalling at this point the importance of a good password to protect our data from being compromised. On the other hand it is also interesting to have additional security options that Microsoft provides in this regard, such as checking account in two steps (code sent to us by e-mail or SMS) or periodically review recent activity monitor, that will show if there have been attempts to get into our account.

Of course, it is impractical to provide an e-mail alternative / phone number in case you do not remember our password, or we can access our account for any other reason.

Trust this computer

As detailed in the previous section, have a Microsoft On-line will allow us to synchronize applications andadditional information from our Windows devices.

But for this synchronization possible, we must ensure that our team is authorized. To do this we will go to " Action Center " in our "Control Panel" and under the Security tab, select the option "Trust this computer." We will repeat this on all Windows devices that want to form part of our network.Whenever you authorize a computer, recebiremos a security code via SMS which we introduce.

Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender

Microsoft Security Essentials was Microsoft's response to the competitive market and is available antivirus for Windows Vista and Windows 7. The product was discontinued with the arrival of Windows 8 and actually was integrated into Windows Defender .

Both Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender have been criticized by experts to offer little more than basic protection for computer threats.

If we are able, our recommendation goes for having a security suite alternative, such as the popular AVG or Avast . In the corporate environment as a solution G Data Antivirus is going to provide all the security you need.

Firewall

While Windows Defender is a marvel of computer security, the default Firewall integrates Windows 8.1 behaves reasonably well. Yes, if we have chosen antivirus solution also includes Firewall we choose which one we use, because usually not a good idea to work with two Firewalls at the same time.

By default the Windows Firewall blocks any incoming connection unless you are on a white list, while not blocking any connections that leave our team unless you fail to comply with a rule. If we want to be even more precise, Windows Firewall allows us to configure public and private profiles so that we can indicate for example, an application can still connect to our local network, but instead can not connect to Internet.

Although it is not enabled by default, can for example indicate a IM program is unable to connect to your server, even if a user decides to install on your computer. Moreover, and in certain circumstances can we use our firewall to block all connections (input or output) for a period of time, an option can be useful if we want to have an extra layer of security .