Locking Down and Securing Windows XP

[whitelamp]

Let's get straight to the point and cut the crap:

My Macbook Pro arrives tomorrow, and I'm going to install XP Pro SP2 through bootcamp once I'm done feeling my way around the Mac OS.
However, I'd like to know from people actively using Windows XP the best way to lock down and secure windows.
The only reason I'm going to be using windows on my mac would be to play games. That's it- Nothing else. Because of that, I would like your recommendations to make this installation as maintenance-free as possible. I know that it's impossible to make windows XP completely hassle-free; but with your help, I'm pretty sure we can make it less of pain to upkeep than it already is.

This is the list of programs I plan on installing so far (I sure as HELL am not paying for an antivirus, with the exception of possibly NOD32):
CCleaner/MRU-Blaster
SpyBot S&D
Ad-Aware
Avast Home Edition or AVG Free
Spyware Blaster
Comodo Firewall
Hijack This
Auslogics Disk Defrag [Question: Do I need to defrag windows in bootcamp?]

Other:
Disable Guest Account
Create Two Accounts (One Admin, other limited user with the games installed)
Install latest Updates for Windows
Disable Remote Registry, Remote Desktop, Netmeeting, and other useless crap
Limit recycle bin size
Install Flash/Java/Other IF needed
Uninstall crapware and "trials"
Disable the integrated firewall
Defrag after installing everything


Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[canadianbacon]

If you're really paranoid, get deepfreeze. Install everything you want, install deepfreeze. It will stay at that point no matter what (unless you disable deepfreeze), just restart it and it will go back.

Personally though, just keeping windows up to date, a firewall, an anti-virus (NOD32 ) and anti-spyware does the trick for keeping xp running good.

[Canada2113]

all of those programs on there at once are probably going to conflict with each other and cause you more problems. If you arent going to game online, just switch off the WAN switch and you cant have any unwanted stuff on it. If you do game online, find a good firewall and block off every port except those that link to game servers, and set those to be triggered open only when that specific game tries to access it. Then get NOD32 and you should be good.

Edit:
Install Windows Xp Pro Lite - Performance Edition. It can be found at demonoid, i use it and its great, installs in 5 minutes or less and is a ton faster than a full install. It cuts out all of the stuff you wont ever use, like remote desktop, netmeeting and junk and just doesnt install them.

[kkrizka]

If you're really paranoid, get deepfreeze. Install everything you want, install deepfreeze. It will stay at that point no matter what (unless you disable deepfreeze), just restart it and it will go back.

Personally though, just keeping windows up to date, a firewall, an anti-virus (NOD32 ) and anti-spyware does the trick for keeping xp running good.

Or just install Linux.

[Canada2113]

He said he wants to use xp for games. So linux would not help him at all there, bud.

[Brock_Samson]

I perfer TinyXP, installs what you want with XP to have so you don't need any of the crap XP comes with so it saves plenty of room and ram usage by os. You don't want to over do it with the software, it will in the end just slow down the games for you, and you only need S&D/AVG-NoD32-Kask, Hijack would only help you if your not using it for gaming but looking at places you shouldn't be.

[Canada2113]

i use XP performance edition, but tinyxp seems to be even better. I like that it has mozilla programs already installed as the standard. It would be nicer without msn, but its still probably the best choice out there.

[admin]

you have to pay for it but i will highly recommend f-secure client security, F-Secure.com > F-Secure Corporation protects consumers and businesses against computer viruses and other threats

it has the following
-anti-virus
-spyware detection
-e-mail scanning
-firewall
-intrusion detetction, Can detect and ask you when changes are being made to your system

As well as the above make sure you run windows update atleast once a month

[Pirate-M.Lifnen]

I perfer TinyXP, installs what you want with XP to have so you don't need any of the crap XP comes with so it saves plenty of room and ram usage by os. You don't want to over do it with the software, it will in the end just slow down the games for you, and you only need S&D/AVG-NoD32-Kask, Hijack would only help you if your not using it for gaming but looking at places you shouldn't be.

Wow, thanks for the TinyXP info! I'm installing Platinum Edition 2 as I type...
But it looks amazing.

Edit: It is amazing... haha

[dejaynizmo]

TinyXP looks nice... I'm deff going to try it out

EDIT: Just installed it and wow its fast... super fast omg awesome