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Looking after your Windows PC and some useful tricks.

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Windows tips and tricks to secure your system

  1. Windows tips and tricks to secure your system
  2. Add a legal notice to the Windows login screen
  3. Write protect USB drives
  4. Disable autorun in Windows 10

Using Ccleaner to optimise the registry. The free Ccleaner application is very useful for cleaning the registry. This application has many features. Download this application from http:\\www.piriform.com/ccleaner. Down- load and install CCleaner and then run it. Click the registry section and then click the issues button. This will scan for issues with the Windows Registry. After this scan has been completed; click Fix Issues. This will prompt you to back up the registry before proceeding. This must be done. Then you may choose to either fix each issue at a time or fix all issues at once.

The two registry keys; legalnoticecaption and legalnoticetext are located in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System folder in the registry. Editing these keys allows the user to add a message that will be shown when the user boots the computer. They will be presented with this message and will have to acknowledge the message before proceeding to the logon screen. This is used to show terms of use messages to users in an organisation.

This is the registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

This registry editor sample will add a legal notice to the Windows machine to inform the user of their terms of use obligations before they log in.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"EnableVirtualization"=dword:00000001
"EnableInstallerDetection"=dword:00000001
"PromptOnSecureDesktop"=dword:00000001
"EnableLUA"=dword:00000001
"EnableSecureUIAPaths"=dword:00000001
"ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin"=dword:00000005
"ValidateAdminCodeSignatures"=dword:00000000
"EnableUIADesktopToggle"=dword:00000000
"EnableCursorSuppression"=dword:00000001
"ConsentPromptBehaviorUser"=dword:00000003
"dontdisplaylastusername"=dword:00000000
"legalnoticecaption"="Acceptable Usage Policy"
"legalnoticetext"="The use of this computer system is governed by the terms and conditions outlaid in the employee policy."
"scforceoption"=dword:00000000
"shutdownwithoutlogon"=dword:00000001
"undockwithoutlogon"=dword:00000001
"FilterAdministratorToken"=dword:00000000
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\Audit]
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\UIPI]
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\UIPI\Clipboard]
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\UIPI\Clipboard\ExceptionFormats]
"CF_UNICODETEXT"=dword:0000000d
"CF_DIBV5"=dword:00000011
"CF_PALETTE"=dword:00000009
"CF_BITMAP"=dword:00000002
"CF_TEXT"=dword:00000001
"CF_DIB"=dword:00000008
"CF_OEMTEXT"=dword:00000007

Write protect USB drives

There is a registry hack available that prevents users from copying data to an external USB drive.

Go to this Registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

And set the value of the WriteProtect DWORD to 1.

Defragmenting your hard drive is a good way to ensure that your computer is running in peak condition. Go to the start menu and type “defrag” and then click the settings option. When this opens; click your HDD and then click on the analyse option. This will scan your hard disk drive and then display the amount of hard disk defragmentation. To actually optimise your hard disk drive; click the optimize option and the hard disk will be defragmented. This is not an option on an SSD solid-state drive.

Disable autorun in Windows 10

This setting is found here.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a new DWORD value NoDriveTypeAutorun and set its value to some of the following.

  • FF – To disable AutoRun on all drives
  • 20 – To disable AutoRun on CD-ROM drives
  • 4 – To disable AutoRun on removable drives
  • 8 – To disable AutoRun on fixed drives
  • 10 – To disable AutoRun on network drives
  • 40 – To disable AutoRun on RAM disks
  • 1 – To disable AutoRun on unknown drives

This will really help to secure a computer system when it is running Windows.


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