IMPROVE WINDOWS 10’s SECURITY
Microsoft has said it will continue to provide regular security updates for Windows 10 until the operating system’s end of life (EOL) in 2025. We suspect it will provide updates beyond that – only last month it released a security update for Windows 7, which reached its official EOL in January 2020 (read more at www. snipca.com/39011). However, to keep your Windows 10 computer as safe as possible, it’s important to regularly check your security settings.
First, open Settings, select ‘Update & Security’, then click ‘Virus & threat protection’. Precisely what you see here will depend on whether you’re using Microsoft Defender (Windows’ built-in security tool) or a third-party security program.
MICROSOFT DEFENDER
Microsoft Defender has improved so much in recent years that it now rivals paid-for security suites when it comes to blocking malware. As well as protecting you from real-time threats (such as when you download files containing malware), Defender regularly performs ‘quick scans’ of the folders that are most likely to contain infected files (such as your Downloads folder).
Run a full scan
Besides these quick scans, we recommend carrying out a full scan every six months or so. This will scan every file on your hard drive and can take a while to complete (just over 95 minutes for our hard drive containing 156GB of data). This is, however, a sensible precaution if – like us – you download a lot of files. To run a full scan, click ‘Scan options’, select ‘Full scan’, then click ‘Scan now’.
It’s also a good idea to review those potential threats that you may have told Defender to ignore. Go back to the ‘Virus & threat protection’ window, click the ‘Allowed threats’ link and you’ll see every file that you’ve marked as being safe. To find out more about a potential threat, click Details. The program it relates to will be listed under ‘Affected items’ (see screenshot above). If you don’t recognise a program, click OK, then Quarantine.
There are some warnings you can safely ignore, though. Somewhat brazenly, Microsoft promotes its Onedrive online storage service as ‘Ransomware protection’ within this window, and prompts you to set up an account in which to back up your files. Although it’s a good idea to regularly back up your files to the ‘cloud’ in this way, there’s no reason why you should use Onedrive. If you are already using a different service, such as Google Drive, click Dismiss (see screenshot above right) to hide this warning.
THIRD PARTY SECURITY SOFTWARE
If you’re using third-party security software, such as Kaspersky or Norton, you’ll see it listed at the top of the ‘Virus & threat protection’ window. Based on the information provided to it by your security software, Windows will display any relevant warnings under these headings: ‘Current threats’ (files flagged as potential malware by your security software); ‘Protection settings’ (important settings that you should turn on); and ‘Protection updates’ (security software updates that you should install). If you spot any warnings, click the ‘Open app’ link at the bottom of the list – this opens your security software, where you’ll be able to find out more about the warnings and take any necessary action.
Add a second layer of security
Windows has a hidden ‘Periodic scanning’ feature that lets you use Microsoft Defender alongside your main security software. To use it, click ‘Microsoft Defender Antivirus options’, then set the slider to On (see screenshot below). Running two antivirus tools side-by-side can cause conflicts (including one misdiagnosing the other as malware), so this feature won’t perform real-time scans. Instead, Defender will periodically scan your hard drive for potential threats. You can also run a quick or full scan yourself by clicking ‘Scan options’.