a question on security

hay guys, and gals,
i have a question. i have a win xp box that i have two accounts on, i have the administrator and the limited user. what i would like to do is set the limited user so that the only thing they can't do is edit the registry. if there is a way please explain the prossess to me..... the main reason i would like to do this is that i seem to have alot of spyware coming through the internet and i was thinking that if i used the limeted accound it would stop most of those programs for hijacking, or running at startup..

also is there a way i could get all the winxp updates on disk? i have a 56k and about 156mb to download in updates

http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp
For your free cd. As for the registry problem, I know you can do it through your group policy editor (gpedit.msc) Although I do not know the exact process.

Suggestion, harden IE

If you use Spybot S&D then you can use the immuniziation part of it to prevent alot of malware from ever getting to your box. SpywareBlaster is a program from Javacool that works in conjunction with Spybot to prevent active x and other nast scripts from being able to load in your box. Also on the consol of Spybot you have the options of locking your homepage to what ever it is set at, and also locking the host file, and also the IE control panal.

You might also get RegistryProt from:

http://www.diamondcs.com.au

This will warn you of additions and amendments to the Registry and allow you to reverse them.

You are quite rightto have an administrator and a more restricted "user" account. I would consider renaming the administrator account to make it less obvious. There are several posts on hardening/securing Windows/IE on this site, you might like to browse through them.

This is in addition to the other good advice



Cheers

thankjs all, you have been a big help