8

No problem, glad we could help.

You will probably be OK just monitor your system for unknown processes in the task manager and unauthorised outbound internet connections, etc. Of course your firewall (which is ?) should provide this outbound protection and the XP firewall doesn’t.

You might also consider proactive protection, in order to place files in the system folders and create registry entries you need permission. Prevention is much better and theoretically easier than cure.

Whilst browsing or collecting email, etc. if you get infected then the malware by default inherits the same permissions that you have for your user account. So if the user account has administrator rights, the malware has administrator rights and can reap havoc. With limited rights the malware can’t put files in the system folders, create registry entries, etc. This greatly reduces the potential harm that can be done by an undetected or first day virus, etc.

Check out the link to DropMyRights (in my signature below) - Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator. This obviously applies to those NT based OSes that have administrator settings, winNT, win2k, winXP.