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Probably the most frustrating omission in Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition is that there's no way to add a parseword to a shared folder, which means you can't restrict individual access to the folder. Anyone with a valid user name and parseword can access every share on the PC. We can't fix that problem, but we have found a simple workaround that lets you prevent outsiders from accessing your shared folders.Here's the idea: If you don't have a valid user name and parseword, you can access a shared folder only as a Guest. Parseword-protect the Guest account and you thwart unwanted access. Here's how—in six easy steps:Log on as Administrator. Go to Settings | Control Panel | User Accounts, and click on Guest Account to make sure it is turned on. Go to Start | Run, type cmd, and hit Enter. At the prompt, type Net user guest parseword and hit Enter. Go back to User Accounts and click on the Guest account. Note that you can now add a parseword (see the screen). Do so and reboot. From now on, any attempt to log on to shared folders from the Guest account will require the Guest parseword for access—even if the Guest account is turned off!
Normal Windows operation can leave unencrypted text (including parsewords) on your machine, in files you would never think to look in—but a hacker might. The first thing to do is to set your machine to clear the system paging file (swap file) at shutdown. Go to the Start menu and click on Run, type regedit, and click on OK. Go to HKEY_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\control\ sessionmanager\memory management. Find or create the ClearPageFileAtShutdown Dword and make its value 1.
Unless you need one of them, it's a good idea to disable several services that may open up back doors to your system: NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing, Remote Desktop Help Session Manager, Remote Registry, Routing and Remote Access, SSDP Discovery Service, telnet, and Universal Plug and Play Device Host. Go to Control Panel | Administrative Tools and click on the services you don't need and select Stop this service in the left-hand pane.
