Changing Windows Vista/7 Control Panel Settings

If you want a folder to consolidate all your control panel settings, you can create a new folder named as Control Panel.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Speed Up Windows 7 By Turning Off Unnecessary Services

In Windows 7, click start and type services and press Enter. Avoid the temptation to access your services via Msconfig, aka the System Configuration utility. The reason is because with msconfig and Hardware Profiles, you can disable services that may be vital to boot your system. With the management console (services.msc) you cannot. Also, msconfig, while unchecking the box, is disabling the service.

BlackViper.com's list of Windows 7 services shows the default settings. I have tested safely disabling the following services - ActiveX Installer, Adaptive Brightness, Application Experience, Application Identity, Application Layer Gateway Service, Bitlocker Drive Encryption Service, Block Level Backup Engine Service, Certificate Propagation, Computer Browser, Distributed Link Tracking Client, Encrypting File System (EFS), HomeGroup Listener, HomeGroup Provider, Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), IP Helper, IPsec Policy Agent, Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service, Netlogon, Network Access Protection Agent, Parental Controls, Peer Name Resolution Protocol, Peer Networking Grouping, Peer Networking Identity Manager, Portable Device Enumerator Service, Remote Access Auto Connection Manager, Remote Desktop Configuration, Remote Desktop Services, Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator, Remote Registry, Routing and Remote Access, Smart Card, Smart Card Removal Policy, SNMP Trap, SSDP Discovery, Tablet PC Input Service, TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, UPnP Device Host, WebClient, Windows Biometric Service, Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), Windows Remote Management (WS-Management), Windows Time, WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service.

Since I am using a third party firewall, I can also disable Windows Firewall.

Antivirus or Antispyware Software

Do you really need to purchase antivirus or antispyware software? I prefer a third party firewall software installed on a computer with Windows 7 running as a standard user. You won't get all the security problems related to running as an administrator.

But, if you're a home user and concerned about security, you can install those reputable free versions of antivirus or antispyware software.

Adobe Flash Player

Do you really need Adobe flash player? My frequently visited websites listed below do not require it.

1. Engadget
2. Crave
3. PC World
   
4. Hot Hardware
5. Liliputing

I don't miss the flash videos or advertisements and I feel more secure without worrying about patching it for security vulnerabilities.

Budget 15.6" Notebook

You can buy a 15.6" Compaq Presario CQ61-314TU notebook for the price of a netbook or cheaper at $491 in Australia.

Specifications

1. Intel Celeron Dual Core T3000 1.8GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 CPU
   
2. 15.6" LCD 1366 x 768
3. Intel GMA 4500MHD
   
4. 2GB RAM
   
5. 250GB 5400rpm HDD
6. 802.11b/g WLAN
   
7. Webcam
8. Lightscribe 8x Super Multi DVD+/-RW DL
9. Windows 7 Home Premium
10. 1 year warranty
    

Drivers

1. Windows 7 (32-bit)
   
2. Windows 7 (64-bit)

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 6 Update 17

The latest version fixed several security vulnerabilities :

269869 : Command Execution Vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment Deployment Toolkit May be Leveraged to Execute Arbitrary Code

269870 : Security Vulnerability in the Java Web Start Installer May be Leveraged to Allow Untrusted Java Web Start Application to Run As Trusted Application

270474 : Buffer and Integer Overflow Vulnerabilities in the Java Runtime Environment With Processing Audio and Image Files May Allow Privileges to be Escalated

270475 : A Security Vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment With Verifying HMAC Digests may Allow Authentication to be Bypassed

270476 : Two Security Vulnerabilities in the Java Runtime Environment With Decoding DER Encoded Data and Parsing HTTP Headers may Result in a Denial of Service (DoS)

CCleaner Portable 2.27.1070

The changes are as follows :

- Added support to Wipe MFT Free Space.
- Added cleaning for Windows Explorer breadcrumb bar.
- Added cleaning for Opera beta versions.
- Added option to turn off CCleaner jumplist tasks on Windows 7.
- Added menu option to Registry Cleaner to add key to exclude list.
- Improved support for SeaMonkey 2.0.
- Improved Windows 7 Taskbar progress accuracy.
- Improved minimize to system tray functionality across all platforms.
- Improved Opera cleaning by including opcache and temporary_downloads folder.
- Improved performance of Compact database routines.
- Improved Wipe Free Space code to avoid locks.
- Improved security when deleting files.
- Minor GUI and interface improvements.
- Minor bug fixes.