Both Chuckles and BrianSD are giving you excellent advice if you absolutely MUST use MS Windows.
I am a Cyber-Intelligence Analyst by trade. I cannot stress enough how unsecure MS Windows is. If at all possible, switch to OSX or Linux as soon as possible. Both OSs are very easy for anyone to use nowdays, and lightyears ahead of Windows when it comes to security. If you MUST use Windows, here are my recommendations:
Windows 7 - any other version is just outright dangerous to use. Win7 is the most secure version ever made, and can be made very secure with the right know how. (Most users just don't know how, or choose not to).
MS Security Essentials/Avast/Nod32 are the ONLY AV programs that should be on your system. MSSE is the only one of those that is integrated into you OS and won't slow your system by eating excessive system resources. Norton and McAfee are system hogs and a joke when it comes to security. They are the most targeted AV systems and a good programmer can bypass them easily.
Consider conducting all your online banking, money related issues, within a Virtual Machine that is ONLY used for that purpose. No other programs installed but AV/security software. Save the IP ADDRESS of you banking/financial sites and go directly to them, do your business, and log off. Do NOT surf the internet, chat, or anything else on this VM.
Do not click on ANYTHING sent to you in email. Even if it is "from someone you know". if its a link, copy it, and open it in a clean VM.
And now to the issue that will bother most people:
Facebook - if you have it, deal with the virii and spyware that comes with it. It is the most popular site on the internet, and hackers know it. They write code specificly to attack facebook users because they have a huge audience. Let me explain it like this:
If I wanted to program a virus/rootkit/trojan etc. and wanted to hit the most people what would I target? Well, most people use Windows, and most windows users are casual users who know nothing about computers or security. They use:
- Internet Explorer to get online
- Outlook to check their work email
- Facebook/twitter to tell the whole world their personal information (I laugh at people who "just use it for family and don't put personal info on it". Yeah right. Wanna bet?)
- Norton/McAfee to "protect them" from evil
So, I would write my code to target those people. Even if I only get a 10th of the people I target, look how many people I got?
These are just a few things, but more than most people are willing to do. These things are important if you are running MS software on your computer. Linux doesn't have most of these problems due to the way it is made. I can go much further into detail on this issue if requested, but my best advice: Stop using Windows!
