So, you’ve just bought a new PC or installed a fresh version of Windows. The simple fact is it's not as secure as it could be.

It doesn’t take much to tighten up your PC’s defenses - even if your computer has been up and running for a while, it’s not too late to carry out a security audit on your machine.

You probably wouldn’t leave your house without checking the windows are closed and the doors are locked. Why would you do that? Well, to stop someone breaking in and stealing your stuff or to prevent people just walking in and spray painting the walls.

It’s easy to secure your house because we can see when our windows are open or door is open. We also know what the potential consequences of leaving our house unsecured. That’s why we take care to do it.

It’s slightly less intuitive to secure a PC. Also, it’s not always clear what the consequences of not securing a PC could be. I’m not going to draw up a big list of all the horrible things that might happen to unsecured PC’s. Just Google ‘identity theft’. 

This is the first in a series of how-to's that will explain what you should do to secure your PC and then show you exactly how to do it, focusing more on the ‘how’ than the ‘why’. 

Just download part 1 here and follow along - it’s easy!