Virus Protection - Non-Administrator Logins: The Low Cost Computer Defense

If you are a user of one of the popular Windows operating systems, and especially if your computer came "pre-installed" with the operating system, then you are most likely running under an "administrator" account. An "administrator" account is a user account that has complete access to all parts of the operating system.

Modern day operating systems typically require you to identify yourself with a user name and password when you wish to use them. If you happen to run Windows XP (or an older version of Windows) you may not have to enter a user name and password on startup as these operating systems can be set up to "auto-login" for you. This is certainly convenient, but it creates a rather significant security risk.

The reason this is dangerous is that most malicious software (viruses, Trojan horse programs, ad-ware, and other "malware") typically makes its way onto your computer by running when you do not know it and doing things that it does not tell you about. For instance, a malicious program may execute as a result of you opening email, and without your knowledge, "install" itself on your computer so that it can run each and every time you start up your system.

To return to the discussion of user accounts, on most operating systems only a user logged in as an "administrator" has the ability to install and uninstall programs. Thus, if you had not been logged in as an administrator, the malicious program could not have attached itself to your computer in this manner.

Now, running under a non-administrator account does not 100% protect your computer, but it does add a very strong level of protection for absolutely NO COST TO YOU! It comes with your operating system without you having to pay more for it, but most people do not take advantage of this.

Of course, you will need to log into your computer as an administrator whenever you need to do something that requires administrator access, such as installing or removing software, or reconfiguring existing software. For most people, this is something that they do not do every day, so it is no big deal to log in as an administrator when needed. For the price of this mild inconvenience you gain a quantum leap of protection for your computer and your data without having to invest in more software or hardware that might conflict with your system in some other way.

So check your operating system documentation to find out how to set up and use a non-administrator login account, or else look for one of my future articles that will address this very subject. Setting up a non-administrator account is simple to do and affords you significant protection for no additional cost.

And just for your information, the author runs his computer exactly this way. I have one login account for normal use, and another account I only use when I need to install software or perform other tasks requiring administrative privileges. I find that I rarely need to log in as an administrator.

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Peter S. Lee holds a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in Computer Science, along with over 25 years of professional computing experience. Mr. Lee is the owner and operator of MyComputerP a web resource dedicated to teaching computer defense principles in terms that are understandable by the common man and woman.