If you recently purchased a Windows 10 machine or upgraded your PC to Windows 10, you may be wondering how secure the operating system is. Fortunately, Windows 10 is more secure out of the box than Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. It has many new security features that help block viruses and malware infections. This is especially true if you are using newer hardware.

Although Windows 10 is more secure, there is still room for additional security. In this post, I will only talk about various settings in Windows that you can configure to make Windows more secure. I will not mention third-party programs such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc. For additional security tips, you can check out my post on how to protect yourself from hackers and spyware.

The first thing I do when setting up a new Windows 10 machine is disable all of the tracking features that Microsoft included with Windows 10. Unfortunately, this is one area where it’s no better than older versions of Windows.

Windows 10 has several features that tie back to Microsoft, and while they won’t get you hacked or infected, they are still a little disconcerting. Do I really want Microsoft knowing everything I type on my computer at all times, or listening to everything in the room with Cortana? Not really.