The latest version of Microsoft Windows operating system, Windows 7, is one of the most efficient computer operating systems available today. It’s not only user-friendly, but also secure in many respects. Although it has user interface elements very similar to Windows Vista, Windows 7 has much better security in place. In this article, let’s analyze these security features in detail.

Bitlocker, the new security scheme in Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7, helps encrypt the entire system drive. This security feature requires an extra hard disk partition of about 1.5 GB of free space for the installation of unencrypted boot data, to enable booting from the encrypted system drive. If you overlooked this and installed Vista without creating this additional partition, you can follow this article to get Bitlocker installed. I assume that you have some experience with Windows installation. If not, it is recommended to have a technically knowledgeable person near you.

The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool was always a very enigmatic Windows Update for me. I always installed it both on my Windows XP and Windows Vista PCs and never really understood how it works and if it works. After I installed it, I did not see any new shortcuts or programs running in the background, not even new notification messages. It was as if I installed an update which did not do anything.

Recently, I went to one of my friend's house and installed Windows Vista on his PC. Of course, Windows Update installed Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on his PC as well. When he asked me about this tool and how it works, I was not able to give him any answers. To answer his questions and any of your questions about this tool, I decided to do a little digging and write this article to share with you all there is to know about the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

One of the applications which changed quite a lot in Windows Vista, compared to Windows XP, is Windows Firewall. There are a number of new features which make it a much more reliable solution which offers a decent protection level. Unfortunately, until now we did not get the chance to feature Windows Firewall on our site. I would like to use this article and show you the following: how to find the Windows Firewall, how to use it, how to access and change defined exceptions and how to select the network connections that are protected by Windows Firewall.

This is the last article in our series about free security solutions for Windows Vista. In this article I will talk about firewalls and present to you the free alternatives I have managed to find for you. Unfortunately, there are not too many free firewalls for Windows Vista so this article will be pretty short compared to the others.

In order to write this article I have searched and tested all the free antivirus solutions I could find on the internet. The available offerings can be split in two categories: antivirus solutions which offer real-time protection and on-demand virus scanners. To keep your system safe you need to install a solution that offers real-time protection. On-demand virus scanners are good only as a "second" opinion not as a solution for primary protection. You can use them to scan your PC from time to time, to make sure your antivirus solution did not miss a virus or something.

Today we will start a series of articles showing how to keep your Windows Vista system safe from threats such as viruses, spyware, hackers, etc. In this article I will present to you a few anti-spyware solutions that can be used with no charge. Unfortunately there are not to many options available and some of the free solutions are just "crippled" versions of their commercial alternatives. However, you can keep your PC safe without paying any extra cash. The best strategy is to combine two complementary applications and benefit from their added features.

For example, you can use a free anti-spyware prevention tool such as Comodo BOClean Anti-Malware in combination with an on-demand scanner such as Ad-Aware 2007 Free. Or, you can go for my personal favorite - Spyware Terminator and use Spybot Search & Destroy as a backup, to double check your system from time to time. The choice is yours. What is important is the fact that you can keep your system safe from spyware for free.

There are cases when, for different reasons, you might need to disable or enable the Windows Vista's firewall. In this short tutorial we will show you how this can be done. Just follow the steps described below and you will be done in no time.

Even if Windows Defender is offered for free and it has decent protection features, some people might prefer other applications to secure their system from spyware and other threats. In this case there is no point in having two similar applications running at the same time, both of them consuming system resources. This is why disabling Windows Defender can be a good idea.

This is how you do it: