security and stability in Windows 2000

[apostasy03]

I'm new to the Windows world and have two questions regarding

the stability and security of my PC using Windows 2000 (I think the Professional version).

1. The first, regarding security: is there any danger or risk

to logging myself in as administrator, and using this account

as my main account? I'm wondering if I'm more at risk to

viruses that I might download assuming the administrator

account has greater access to sensitive files and settings

than a regular users account does.

2. The second, regarding stability: when I clicked on the

programs folder there's the message that basically I don't

have any need to see what's in there. But to me this seems

like the most logical place to put new programs from the

Internet or install from CD. Is the advice to leave this

folder alone worth following? And if so, where does one put new programs?

 

[CntdwnToExtn]

yes, 2000 pro is very stable....i never crash with it and i run it fairly hard. just make sure before you go browsing you fully update with service pack 4 and all the other securlty downloads from microsoft..and get yourself a zone alarm firewall or something...extra security is always a good thing. also, i suggest using firefox or opera for a web brower because they are more secure.

the program files thing is some sort of security feature....just click show files and it's all good. i never really read why it did that...never really cared.

it's totally fine to log in under administrator and use it as your main account...i do so that i can have full access to everything.
if you are scared about browsing and gettin' something, i recently learned to create a limited user account, which means you can't install or change anything and it's suppose to help a little bit with having things you don't want on yoru computer gettin' installed.