Protect Your Home PC

It’s just as important to protect your home computer as it is to protect your office or laptop computers. Home computers can be especially problematic because there may be multiple family members innocently downloading many things – spyware, adware, worms, and viruses – that we warn about in these pages.

Be proactive in keeping your personal computer clean, safe and up to date. Many people use their home computer to access UW resources. If you do, you can unknowingly release viruses and worms into the UW computer network. Information Technology may need to disable your access to UW resources if a home computer attempts to spread malicious code behind our firewall.

• Personal Services Available to Home Users
  Spyware & Adware removal: information and links to tools located under "Protect your PC from spyware…"

• How To Install and Run Windows Automatic Updates
  It's highly recommended to automate your updates. The software can even do it for you while you're sleeping.

• Microsoft Office and other Microsoft product updates
  If you use Microsoft Office on a personal computer, it needs to be kept up to date. Plug up any security holes by running Microsoft's online update.

• UW VPN Remote Access
  Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections offer a greater level of security and are required for remote access to some UW network resources.

• Do I need VPN to access...?
  Confused about when VPN is required? Check this table of UW network connection types and software availability.

• Microsoft's top tips for working more securely from home
  Protect your computer, yourself, your family.