Using the Internet Safely For Seniors

If you want to stop anybody else from making

changes to your firewall settings, click the lock symbol

in the bottom-left corner of the Security dialog box

shown in Figure 15-7. To unlock the settings, click the

lock symbol again and enter your user authentication

information (username and password).

Run a Windows Defender Scan

Spyware and adware cause pop-up ads to appear on your screen or

track your online activities. With the amount of spyware and adware

attempting to download to your computer, an anti-spyware/adware

program is a must-have security tool. If you don’t guard against these,

those annoying pop-ups will be the least of your problem. Eventually,

these programs will slow your computer performance to a crawl.

Several good free programs are available, or use your operating system’s

tools (such as Windows Defender, in Windows Vista). With some pro-

grams, you may need to purchase a subscription to get automatic

updates. As with anti-virus software, you can set up anti-spyware/

adware to run scans automatically at a specific time.

If you use Windows Defender to detect spyware, you must run a scanof

your computer system on a regular basis, which searches your computer

for any problem files. You set Windows Defender to run scans automat-

ically, or you can manually run a scan at any time. To adjust these set-

tings, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start➪All Programs➪Windows Defender.

2.In the resulting Windows Defender window, click the

down-pointing arrowon the Scan button (if you click the

Scan button itself the scan begins). (See Figure 15-8.) In

the resulting menu, choose one of three options:

• Quick Scan:This runs a scan of the likeliest spots on
  your computer where spyware might lurk. In many cases,
  this quicker scanning process finds most, if not all, prob-
  lems and is good choice for a daily automatic scan.

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Chapter 15: Using Technology to Keep You Safer