Best way to set up W7?

[George Hincapie]

It's time to do a reinstall. Have 2 1TB SATA for storage and a 60GB SSD for the OS. May RAID the storage drives, haven't decided yet.

What's the best way to set up W7 from a security/ease of use POV? I seem to recall a thread from some time ago where the OP detailed a very clear process of creating non-Admin users and loads of other security precautions etc.

TIA.

 

[theheyes]

A straight-forward standard user account is good enough in the overwhelming majority of cases. Trying to create your own sandbox is a lot of effort for questionable gain. Just using the normal user model is the best balance between security and ease of use imo.

You're best off running standard user, keeping religiously up to date with Windows & Office and Chrome is arguably the best browser to use at the moment and automatically updates flash along with itself. Don't install Adobe Reader, Java, Quicktime, Silverlight unless you specifically need them, otherwise you're just increasing your attack surface.

Running any kind of scripting in your browser is inherently dodgy, but that really is a security vs convenience question that only you can answer. Aside from that, I wouldn't really get too bogged down with locking down your OS - just get on with using it. Of course you can undo all of the above by installing untrusted software, so don't.