Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WindowsXP and security

Why am I being prompted to install Windows XP SP3 when I already have it?

Rhaomi — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:03:32 -0800

I just got a notification on my Windows XP laptop to install Service Pack 3. Thing is, I already have SP3 installed. Is this a necessary update? A redundant Microsoft goof? Or something more sinister? The notification looked like a standard Windows Update prompt, just a little bubble in the taskbar saying "updates are ready for your computer." So I clicked it and got this pop-up.

It struck me as odd, since

a) I thought service packs were major events in the Windows world, and that I would have heard something about this before now

and

2) I was pretty sure that said major event had already happened, and that I had SP3 installed

A check on Microsoft Word confirmed (2). Help -> About Microsoft Word, and the first line reads:

"Microsoft® Office Word 2003 (11.8227.8221) SP3"

So, why am I getting this prompt? Is it really asking me to reinstall all of Service Pack 3 (which I understand to be pretty large), or is it just an update for it? Is it merely a mistake on the part of Windows? Could it possibly be a virus or some other malicious program masquerading as a system update?

Basically, should I install the thing or just ignore it?

You can't unsee it, so let's prevent her from seeing it in the first place.

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:12:50 -0800

I'm having a close friend house-sit next week. I want to keep my porn and kinky stuff in a safe location where she doesn't need to see it. It won't be a huge shock, since I'm out of the kinky closet, but it'd be awkward, to say the least. We have a one-bedroom apartment so she'll be sleeping in our bed, and she'll be using my desktop computer.

First, the porn: It's stored on the secondary hard drive of an XP Pro machine (call it E:/). There's one main folder with a few sub-folders. Total is ~ 12 GB. It is not networked unless you count the (very secure) wireless network. I'm thinking that the best way is to set up a new user account with a password for her. Is this the best/easiest approach? Will she still have access to this folder if I do? She is NOT computer savvy so this doesn't have to be airtight. She's also not a prude. I just don't want to her to accidentally run across porn or compromising pictures of yours truly. If you're going to suggest any command-line stuff please spell it out precisely, like how I get to the command line in the first place. I know, you just smacked your forehead.

Second, the kinky sextoys. We have 3 LARGE BOXES of this under the bed plus even more stuff in the closet. We can drag this down to the basement for the time being, but we'd like to find a semi-permanent solution so we can have guests over without the OMG did we leave the closet door open. (We'd also like it to be easily accessible to us so we don't have to go into the basement every time we want something.) Is there a closet organizer that is opaque and locks (and isn't expensive)? Again, doesn't have to be super-secure because we're not afraid of thieves, and besides, none of the stuff has resale value. Other ideas welcome.

Footnote: Years ago I house-sat for a grandmotherly coworker and her husband. They let me use their computer and out of stupidity/nosiness I looked at their bookmarks. AUGH, my eyes!!! I was really afraid to open any drawers after that. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Help Me Convince My Mother-In-Law Her Files are Secure and Give Her XP Security Basics?

daver — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 17:15:12 -0800

WindowsXPSecurityFilter: How do I help my mother-in-law? My Mother In Law has a laptop. She keeps confidential business records on it. She has windows XP, and has been reading up on all the latest security vulnerabilities and is very concerned that her business records are at risk for being copied, and more generally concerned that her operating system isn't secure.

She's running XP home edition (not sure if it's SP2). She's got a dial up ISP, and a wifi card (although no wifi ISP or connect networks I believe). She's running Macaffee's firewall (at the very least).

I can tell her what I think about how to secure her system (run a fire wall, disable wifi card, only use dialup), but the real problem is that she doesn't trust the operating system so she's cruising around the system looking for vulnerabilities such as 'International Agents' (some files she found on the system I think), the 'prefetch' directory (not sure why she considers this a threat), and trying to shutdown the RPC service.

Two basic questions:
A) is there something I can give her that will give her a high level of assurance that even IF a file were copied off her computer it would be of no value. Basically -- can I set up an encrypted store for her sensitive docs that's easy for her to use?
B) Given that I won't be able to assuage her concerns about the O/S in general, what information could I direct her to that would help her get a firm understanding of the O/S, the actual security threats that exist, and how to protect against them?

Security fits

caution live frogs — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 15:42:13 -0800

WindowsXP, 250 gig shared backup hard drive, and a lab full of people with sensitive information that needs to be backed up on said drive but shouldn't be accessible by anyone other than the user who put it there. Security is giving me fits and I'd appreciate some helpful advice. [more gory details inside] we have a lab full of computers. all of us need to back up our stuff but a lot of us have sensitive documents we'd rather not share with everyone else (student/co-worker evaluations, course material, test banks, etc.) we have only one spot to back up, a 250 gig USB hard drive attached to our lab server. we all have our own designated back-up folder on this drive. here's where it gets fun:

the drive is shared on the network to our lab computers only. we're not in a domain, just firewalls between us and the outside, access limited by IP range. there's probably not much i can do about this as we don't have control over the network, just our computers. so far anything i copy to this drive is openly shared with everyone else in our lab, and i can't seem to lock it down such that any one network user can only read/modify one folder. everyone in the lab is currently using Win2K Pro or WinXP Pro.

using my own stuff as a test case, i tried creating a user on the lab server, encrypting files, then logging off. when the system restarts the default account has access to all my encrypted files. i don't know why. if i do the reverse (encrypt then log on with my settings) i can't open the encrypted file.

i tried limiting access for that file to my user account only, ocking out the default lab account we normally run on the machine. no luck. if the default lab account is locked out, nobody can access the files through the network.

only thing i can think of is that the default lab account used to be the old Win2K administrator account before i renamed it while upgrading to XP.

so... anybody else actually get something like this to work? any third-party solution that will cost us as little as possible? oh, i ought to mention that my PI is very non-technical, so whatever solution i come up with will have to continue to work after i've left the lab. any help at all here is appreciated.

(and yes i do realize that "secure" in this instance ain't really so secure - we're not trying to keep out hard-core hackers here, we're just trying to make sure we have a simple data backup solution while also keeping the people in our lab from having one-click access to their own employee reviews.)

Windows XP questions

Termite — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 23:43:07 -0800

Windows XP firewall + Zone Alarm = problem?
I've just upgraded to Windows XP and I have three questions (so far...). 1. After installing the Zone Alarm firewall I can't get online. Is this because of a conflict between the Windows firewall and ZA? How good is the Windows firewall – maybe I don't need ZA anymore? Should I disable the Windows firewall instead?

2. On top of the file tree in Windows Explorer is the "My documents" folder on my C drive. I've got all my documents stored in a "My documents" folder on my D drive (the D drive is bigger). I want to get the D drive folder on top of the file tree instead or, if this isn't possible, to delete the "My documents" folder from the file tree and start with the D drive expanded.

3. Any chance of getting the pie charts back in the "My computer" folder somehow? To view the used/free space on all hard drives at a glance was mighty handy, says me.

They keep making Windows uglier for every version...