Best ways to protect secure windows pc?

[555]

I was wondering your thoughts on the best methods to secure a Windows pc? Such as what the best free Anti virus software is, Firewall, Adware/Malware software. Is a firewall nessessary or does it improve security? Also configuration settings that should be put in place to prevent being hacked, catching virii, ect.. I know using a virtual machine is good but will slow down performance, using firefox with no script, setting file settings to see hidden files, unchecking all the remote assistance settings, selecting the browser to not accept 3rd party cookies and to delete temp internet files when the browser closes, simple things like that.. what do you think about deep freeze? thanks

[pseudo-jacobl]

i actually use firefox with https everywhere and noscript

then i disable unneeded services

then i never use any av

and i never anything that has to do with a registry cleaner/optimizer for stability reasons hint hint nvr use that kind of software

use EMET for software security

allow no exceptions in firewall and i use the windows firewall

open a command prompt and type net user guest *

and then i put a password for the guest account

then for performance i hand tweak/customize everything which takes a couple of days

to put it in as a metaphor i pretty much disable the remote assistance settings on everything

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for me deep freeze is a waste but it may be better option than a vm if you want performance

just set mozilla to delete everything on exit or use private browsing and everything will be in ram and be faster

I usually just check the program files folder and that seems to be enough to keep away from virus/malware

Normal windows firewall is what you should use

If you have your heart set on av use Microsoft security essentials or avg which i dont recommend as much

If you disable the unrelevant services in services.msc that seems to close alot of holes in security