welcome back to the adventure today we're talking about how to safely use windows vista
in 2022 and beyond
no operating system is perfect even with windows 11 there's always the possibility of a security
or data breach our goal here with windows vista is to minimize the risk and mitigate potential damage
to get started we need to talk about windows updates
we only want to use updates that were officially released by microsoft while unofficial service
packs sound great there is a risk that they may contain malicious code intentionally included or
not the safest approach is to only use updates officially released by microsoft for a clean
install of windows vista install the prerequisite patches to repair the windows update feature
then fully update the system this process can take a few hours to complete after the initial round of
updates has been installed check for updates again and install any additional updates that are found
repeat this process until no more updates are available to install
next we need anti-virus software the safest approach to using an antiquated operating system
is running anti-virus software so we will be using avast i get this comment or something similar at
every mention of antivirus software that you don't need antivirus software if you use common sense
and just don't click on anything suspicious don't pirate software don't click on ads
etc there is a school of thought that anti-virus software isn't needed
if you are sensible and careful enough about what you do online only visiting legitimate websites
using official software stores and policing the links you click on with a degree of scrutiny
you probably won't encounter any malware or viruses
as our goal is to use windows vista in the safest way possible we want to use antivirus software
then we need a web browser bottom line don't use internet explorer the last version of
internet explorer available for windows vista is version 9 which has not been updated in many years
in a previous video we identified a number of browsers that work
better than internet explorer and put the system at far less risk
the browser identified as best is new moon however it's not the only viable alternative
to internet explorer support for internet explorer 9 ended on january 14 2020 this means that any new
vulnerabilities identified for the browser have not been patched and never will be by microsoft
to maintain security we need to replace internet explorer
while we are on the subject of web browsers it is important to review the browser settings as
the default configuration is likely not the most secure here in the settings for new moon under
the privacy tab and tracking sub tab we want to select tell sites that i do not want to be tracked
under the security tab mark warned me when sites try to install
add-ons and i highly recommend the selecting remember passwords for sites
use two-factor authentication for any service that offers it turn on two-factor authentication yes
it is an additional step when you sign in but it's well worth the inconvenience especially
if you still use windows vista that extra step can be the difference between safe and sorry
another consideration is that internet explorer is still installed and can be
opened so in the internet options we want to increase the security setting to high
and privacy settings to block all cookies
that way if internet explorer were exploited there is less chance of a successful attack
while browsers have their own layer of security they can block access to malicious websites and
downloads that may harm your computer there are a few things we can do to further improve that
security using a program called spybot search and destroy we can immunize the browser this process
adds entries to the windows hosts file the hosts file maps host names to ip addresses
this can be used to block access to websites we can also manually update the hosts file
there are many predefined lists that you can just copy and paste another approach we can take is
using an ad blocker like you block origin like the hosts file there are filter lists available
that you can use to block ads elements of pages social media tracking etc
avoid using legacy web technologies like java flash activex and silverlight
many high traffic websites use elements made with java or flash
making it a huge target in terms of cyber security many facebook games for example ran on flash
these technologies have been moved away from and there is little to no need for java or flash
so you won't be missing out on much not using these technologies with your windows vista pc
the safest path is to disable flash if the browser you are using supports it
there are a couple settings we want to change to protect other pcs on the same network as
our vista system first we want to turn off network discovery this will prevent unwanted
communication with other computers on the network then we want to disconnect from the network
if you are using your windows vista system to perform tasks that do not require a connection
to the internet it is best to disconnect from the network if there was some potential security
issue on the same network as your system or the system has been compromised it may pose
a threat to other computers on the network if you disconnect from the network it minimizes that risk
another setting we can change for the network adapter is using a security focused dns service
in the properties for ipv4 select use the following dns server addresses then enter
the ip address for cloudflare which is 1.1.1.1 or the ip address of your preferred dns provider
to further improve security the next area we want to explore is with user accounts
most critical vulnerabilities can be exploited successfully only if the user is logged into
an account with administrative privileges so what we want to do is create a new user account
a power user so we can still install software but not an administrator that has access to all of
the system internals that can be exploited we are all set with our new user account
along with user accounts there is the user account control this setting can get a
little annoying in vista and it doesn't have adjustments like windows 7 does
i highly recommend leaving this setting enabled where the ultimate and enterprise editions of
windows vista there is an included feature called bitlocker it allows you to encrypt the hard drive
there are several benefits to this and as we are aiming for security i recommend encrypting
the hard drive with bitlocker now to turn on data execution prevention protection
data execution prevention protection or dep is designed to prevent the execution of malicious
code on parts of the computer's memory that are intended to hold data rather than program code
malicious code may be placed in these parts of memory during a buffer overflow attack
and an attempt may subsequently be made to execute it from that location
to get the maximum protection from dep ensure that it is turned on for all applications if a
particular application becomes unstable with dep turned on you may selectively disable it for that
application then we can turn off auto run when auto run is enabled and removable media such as a
usb drive is attached to the system it may attempt to do some functions specified by the setting
this can cause malicious code to execute on the system without user intervention turning this
feature off reduces the risk when using any kind of removable media next we can review windows
features that are installed several can be safely disabled especially if the pc does not support
that particular technology a great example of this is the tablet pc optional components
unless you are running vista on a tablet pc this feature can be uninstalled
if nothing else i recommend uninstalling.net framework 3.0 if it will not be used there is
a tool to consider using it's called the enhanced mitigation experience toolkit from microsoft it's
a utility that helps prevent vulnerabilities and software from being successfully exploited
the simple explanation given by microsoft for how it works is it uses mitigation technologies
as we are trying to be as secure as possible putting another layer between
an attack and the software that's being exploited seems like a good idea to me
then we want to consider the productivity software we're using like operating systems productivity
suites are not supported indefinitely by their developers while office 2010 still runs on windows
vista it may not be the best choice as it has not received any kind of security patches in many
years there are better alternatives to this and open source options that pose less security risk
keep a restore point in the event the computer does get some kind of virus
malware etc system restore may save you from having to do a full format in recovery
it's a three-step process after the virus infects the system or the malicious code
executes on your computer step one is to disconnect from the network
step two is to disable the antivirus software and step three is to attempt a system restore note
that the anti-virus software needs to be disabled first as it may cause system restore to fail
the next thing to consider is saving some tasks for systems that are currently supported by
their developers online banking for example may not be the best application for a vista system
if possible save those tasks for an android smartphone or windows 11 system
anything that's currently supported by its developer to continuously improve security
is a good option i would be remiss if i didn't mention virtual private networks
i'm sure you have seen many and various sponsored ads for vpns like this one browsing the internet
can be risky business so why don't you protect yourself and browse anonymously
with a hidden ip the bottom line is that using a vpn is safer than not using one
these are the strategies for how you can safely use windows vista
forever thanks for stopping by see you next video
you