I reformat my computer every three months...

[Humbled]

to keep my online poker playing as safe as possible. Is this going overboard? I have been doing this for about four years now. Of course I have all the standard antivirus stuff on my computer also. What do you guys think about this practice?

[Alobar]

If you are that paranoid why not just get a separate computer and only use it for playing poker, dont look at websites or anything else, only poker. Seems like that would be a lot less hassle than reformating every few months

[Humbled]

honestly it doesnt bother me that much. I enjoy having a fresh clean computer. Plus, I can knock it out and have everything back to normal in about four hours.

[jaminbird]

I do all of my poker playing inside a virtual pc. The other advantage of this is that when I do reformat my host computer I don't have to spend a long time setting up my mods/scripts/databases ect.

[Josem]

if you do everything here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...Number=4837360

you should be fine.


probably better to be safe than sorry, although if you do have a security breach and get hacked, the effects are going to be instant, so a 3-monthly format isn't going to matter at all. it is not as if the trojans etc. on your PC are going to slowly accumulate - they are either there or they are not.


there are valid reasons for reguarly reformatting your PC, but security of online poker accounts is not one of them.

[c double]

i think in general everyone should reformat pretty close to that often anyway.

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
i think in general everyone should reformat pretty close to that often anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why?

[ajml]

This is probably overkill. However, if you don't keep a ton of stuff on your computer theres nothing wrong with doing it that often. It's definitely a good thing to do that many people don't do nearly enough if ever

[Anadrol 50]

I burn down my house and build a new one every year.

[ALLEN BOND]

Being in IT for over ten years, you are nuts.

Why would you want to do that?

Why don't you just get a PC and keep it in check, install latest updates and latest antivirus (Windows Defender, NOD32, Kaspersky) definitions, use a hardware firewall (router configured properly). Use CAT5 instead of WLAN and keep everything up to date.

EVEN THEN, you are not always safe. Believe me.

If you are constantly reformatting your computer, you are setting back all updates, all configurations and tweaks.

If you are really that crazy, make a ghost of your initial setup (all software, latest updates, definitions) and just swap when needed. Please use google to find more about GHOSTING.