Windows Vista in a Nutshell

Internet Security

The greatest danger to your PC comes from when you connect to the Internet, and because of that Windows Vista includes a substantial amount of online and network protection. For more details about online security, such as how to use Internet Explorer’s phishing filter and how to handle online privacy, see Chapter 5. For details about fighting spam, see Chapter 6. For information about how to use encryption on wireless networks, see Chapter 7.

Internet Explorer Protected Mode

Protects a PC by isolating Internet Explorer from the rest of the operating system; it only allows certain changes to be made if it first asks permission.

To open

By default, Protected Mode is turned on.

To turn it off, in Internet Explorer choose Tools → Internet Options → Security, and uncheck the box next to Enable Protected Mode.

Description

Protected Mode, one of Internet Explorer’s new security features, is also tied to Windows Vista’s new UAC. It is designed to stop spyware and other malware from being installed without your knowledge—for example, via drive-by downloads, which are downloads initiated by web sites or pop-up ads of which you might not be aware. It does more than that, though. Under Protected Mode, a user cannot install software and modify Internet Explorer files without first going through UAC warnings, shown in Figure 8-11. Under Protected Mode, Internet Explorer can write data only to the Temporary Internet Files folder, and if it wants to write elsewhere, it must ...