Many people are under the impression that they need to run their user as an administrator. This is the biggest problem with people today, they assume they know all there is and that they will never get a virus. Even the most experienced users out there should, and probably do, never run as administrator. The problem with this is that administrators have access to all files in the computer. They can start and stop processes, change system files and delete at will. This gives any virus exactly what it needs to infest and attack your computer.

In Linux, and like Windows Vista, you can have a standard user but this standard user has the ability to run as either root/admin. This functionality takes away the need to run as the super user on the computer. If this need arises, say for instance you need to install a program you can simply right click on the file and run the single process as an administrator. This is the simplest thing in the world to do and it safe guards your computer more than any anti virus could. By running as a standard user you can take a nasty virus and take away all its power. It can’t alter your registry, alter system files, delete a crucial file or really do much to you computer. On that rare occasion a virus exploit does pop up, your anti virus is there as a safeguard, but never as first line defence!

So my advise to you is this, regardless of your computing ability, when you set up Vista or Windows 7, set up an administrator user then you first install your computer. Take down the user name and password and keep it safe, then make your primary user that you will use from this point on as a standard user and put away your pride that you are no longer an ‘admin’ on your own computer. You will be much safer and hopefully keep yourself out of any viruses way.