One of the most prevalent means for spyware and adware to be installed is through Internet Explorer. To prevent spyware and adware from installing without your knowledge and permission, you need to “lock down” Internet Explorer. There is a simple way to do this.
Securely configure the Internet zone
1. Add a good sites to the Trusted sites zone.
First, you can securely configure the Internet zone of Internet Explorer and add sites that you trust to the Trusted sites zone. This means that by default web sites will not be able to use “active content” (i.e., ActiveX controls, Java applets, and scripting) until you explicitly choose to trust those web sites.
One potential downside to securely configuring the Internet zone is that some web sites will not work properly until you add them to the Trusted sites zone — a process that some users find cumbersome.
2. Add bad sites to the Restricted sites zone.
You can use another approach to “locking down” Internet Explorer which avoids the hassle of broken web sites by adding known “nasty” sites to the Restricted sites zone.
Doing so gives your PC protection against known threats while still allowing most web sites to work by default.
To put the clamp down on a long list of undesirable web sites, you can install and use this free Restricted sites list IE-SPYAD. It is simple to use and won’t slow down your system because it doesn’t run in the background — it simply configures Internet Explorer more securely.
Note: if you choose to use the Restricted sites approach of IE-SPYAD, be sure to update your copy of IE-SPYAD regularly, as new web sites are constantly being added to the list.
