Secure Your Computer!, Completely Eliminate Unwanted Access

This is a great security precaution to take.

Ok well if someone ever wanted to gain access to your computer, say a computer savvy friend or someone was trying to steal some personal info, they could pop in a bootable linux disk and bypass the windows security logon and open a password cracking program and navigate to the file where your passwords are stored. they then could crack your logon password and then access your system and take what they wanted and left and you wouldve never known they were there. What this handy registry key does, is it uses a special type of encryption ultimately superior to the default encryption that is built into Windows XP, so if indeed someone popped in a bootable linux disk and opened your password file...not only would it take an extremely extremely longer amount of time but the chance of success of the crack working is greatly reduced. So to apply this precaution:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type NoLMHash, and then press ENTER.
5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
6. Type 1, and then click OK.
7. Restart your computer, and then change your password

Your now almost completely secure from your password being cracked.

To even prevent someone from popping in a bootable linux disk, you could set a bios password. A bios password is a password that is asked to be entered even before the operating system begins loading. So even if the theif could get a linux disc in there, they would need to know the password...or pull the bios battery from the motherboard and reattach it.....but with the time that takes they could just take the hard drive and leave.

To apply a bios password, restart your computer and hit f2 until the bios menu pops up.....use the arrow keys to navigate to the field called system security or something likewise. navigate to the field that says system password, press enter then enter the password you want and then the confirmation. press enter again to go back to the main bios menu, and then press escape and the press save changes and exit. You will now reboot, and every time the computer reboots it will ask you for this password.

You are now every bit more secure.