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However, feeling too secure can be dangerous. With that in mind, here are 10 tips--commandments, if you will--for ensuring your desktop or notebook computer can be used productively as well as safely. Many of the recommended tools are free, and all are affordable--and certainly less expensive than the potential problems of an unsecured computer. Similarly, many will take you only a minute or two to perform--again, far less time than you'd spend recovering from a security problem.

Yes, Windows 8 is on the way; it'll be many years before that version runs on a majority of the installed base. So these tips are focused at the computers you are actually using today--especially Windows 7 computers, though most of the advice also applies to Windows Vista or XP machines.

Today's new hardware--motherboards, BIOS, CPUs, hard drives, and the system as a whole--includes more security "baked in," even before the operating system is installed. Examples include (TPM), which embed cryptographic security directly into the hard drive or other component, (UEFI) firmware instead of the traditional BIOS, and Intel's vPro security and management technologies. For example, machines with UEFI and TPM will, as part of each boot-up, check the computer's firmware and boot-up binaries to confirm they have not been infected with malware.