Help making PC disaster proof

Hi. Today I met with a PC infection which almost destroyed my data. So, to prevent such mishaps in future with everyone, I want to make a collection of tools, utilities and tips/tricks to safeguard the PC from infection, to protect data in any sort of mishap, to clean an infected system and anything and everything which can help solve a disruption in PC.

Discussion on AV is already present in the AV thread, so that can be skipped. Other than that, what all tools can one use to prevent and remove malwares. I found NPE to be very effective.

Please recommend any software/tool that you know of or have used.
 

Vignesh B

Youngling
Prevention
The more of these suggestions you follow, the fewer problems you should have. They won't solve any existing problems you have, but if you follow them all you should be able to avoid virtually all problems in the future.

Things you should NOT do -
1. Use Internet Explorer (Sadly sometimes this is unavoidable, so only use IE when the site absolutely will not work with any other browser and you cannot get that information/service anywhere else, and only use IE for that one specific site. IE 10 anyone? )
2. Open email attachments you haven't manually scanned with your virus scanner
3. Open email attachments you were not expecting, no matter who they appear to be from
4. Respond to spam messages, including using unsubscribe links
5. Visit questionable websites (e.g. po*n, warez, hacking)
6. Poke unnecessary holes in your firewall by clicking "Allow" every time some program requests access to the Internet (When it doubt over whether or not to allow some program, use Google to find out what it is and whether or not it needs access to the Internet. Otherwise, denying access is the safest course of action, since you can always change the rule later.)
7. Click directly on links in email messages

Things you SHOULD do -

1. Always have an up to date virus scanner, firewall running
2. Install all the latest security updates
3. Delete all unsolicited emails containing attachments without reading
4. Manually scan all email attachments with your virus scanner, regardless of whether it's supposed to be done automatically
5. Copy and paste URLs from email messages into your web browser
6. Inspect links copied and pasted into your web browser to ensure they don't seem to contain a second/different address
7. Establish a regular backup regimen
8. Make regular checks of your backup media to ensure it is still good (I learnt that the hard way, when my HDD failed and my backup file was corrupt. :cry:)
5. Do not poke sleeping bears (Most REAL hackers are quite content to leave you alone unless you make them take notice of you. No dinky little software firewall or consumer grade router is going to keep them out of your system. So do not go to some hacker website or chat room and start shooting your mouth off unless you're prepared to accept the consequences)
6. Do not use registry cleaners/fixers/optimizers ( The Windows registry is not some mystical black box of untapped performance tweaks for Windows, that will lead to untold improvements in system performance. Most of the tweaks will lead to very modest performance gains of 1-2% tops, and probably less than 10% all combined. There is also a good chance that you will render your system unbootable if you make a mistake when editing. Registry default settings are set that way for a reason.)

Cure
1. +1 for NPE.
2. Rkill attempts to terminate known malware processes so that your normal security software can then run and clean your computer of infections.
3. Anti-parasite suite That's a very old post, but is still valid in current scenarios.

Give this a read.
 
OP
harshilsharma63

harshilsharma63

DIY FTW!
Prevention
The more of these suggestions you follow, the fewer problems you should have. They won't solve any existing problems you have, but if you follow them all you should be able to avoid virtually all problems in the future.

Things you should NOT do -
1. Use Internet Explorer (Sadly sometimes this is unavoidable, so only use IE when the site absolutely will not work with any other browser and you cannot get that information/service anywhere else, and only use IE for that one specific site. IE 10 anyone? )
2. Open email attachments you haven't manually scanned with your virus scanner
3. Open email attachments you were not expecting, no matter who they appear to be from
4. Respond to spam messages, including using unsubscribe links
5. Visit questionable websites (e.g. po*n, warez, hacking)
6. Poke unnecessary holes in your firewall by clicking "Allow" every time some program requests access to the Internet (When it doubt over whether or not to allow some program, use Google to find out what it is and whether or not it needs access to the Internet. Otherwise, denying access is the safest course of action, since you can always change the rule later.)
7. Click directly on links in email messages

Things you SHOULD do -

1. Always have an up to date virus scanner, firewall running
2. Install all the latest security updates
3. Delete all unsolicited emails containing attachments without reading
4. Manually scan all email attachments with your virus scanner, regardless of whether it's supposed to be done automatically
5. Copy and paste URLs from email messages into your web browser
6. Inspect links copied and pasted into your web browser to ensure they don't seem to contain a second/different address
7. Establish a regular backup regimen
8. Make regular checks of your backup media to ensure it is still good (I learnt that the hard way, when my HDD failed and my backup file was corrupt. :cry:)
5. Do not poke sleeping bears (Most REAL hackers are quite content to leave you alone unless you make them take notice of you. No dinky little software firewall or consumer grade router is going to keep them out of your system. So do not go to some hacker website or chat room and start shooting your mouth off unless you're prepared to accept the consequences)
6. Do not use registry cleaners/fixers/optimizers ( The Windows registry is not some mystical black box of untapped performance tweaks for Windows, that will lead to untold improvements in system performance. Most of the tweaks will lead to very modest performance gains of 1-2% tops, and probably less than 10% all combined. There is also a good chance that you will render your system unbootable if you make a mistake when editing. Registry default settings are set that way for a reason.)

Cure
1. +1 for NPE.
2. Rkill attempts to terminate known malware processes so that your normal security software can then run and clean your computer of infections.
3. Anti-parasite suite That's a very old post, but is still valid in current scenarios.

Give this a read.
Thanks, quite useful.
 
Prevention ( it is better than cure)
1.Install an Antivirus software on your system ( obvious :) )

Vignesh has covered all the main points.

Cure :
1. Use yumi on a pen drive. This nifty little tool can run multiple tools and OSes. you can keep a Linux distro, a rescue cd iso, partion manager and many more.
This tool has almost all the things you need.

Shiva
 
OP
harshilsharma63

harshilsharma63

DIY FTW!
Prevention ( it is better than cure)
1.Install an Antivirus software on your system ( obvious :) )

Vignesh has covered all the main points.

Cure :
1. Use yumi on a pen drive. This nifty little tool can run multiple tools and OSes. you can keep a Linux distro, a rescue cd iso, partion manager and many more.
This tool has almost all the things you need.

Shiva
Any recommended rescue cd?
 

coderunknown

Retired Forum Mod
if you have softwares/games backed up in your PC, compress them using arc/rar. most malware can't affect inside compressed file (or at least in my case they were safe). other than that follow the above recommendation.
 
OP
harshilsharma63

harshilsharma63

DIY FTW!
^ is packaging them as in iso file as safe as compressing them?

^ is packaging them as in iso file as safe as compressing them?
 
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