Not surprised to hear that. In the Windows machines I see, the basics still matter…

One Windows check people often skip: in File Explorer, turn on “show file name extensions.” It’s a simple one, but it catches a lot of fake invoices and “photo.jpg.exe” type tricks before you open them. I still see that catch people out every week.

One check I keep telling people on Windows: have a look at Task Manager’s Startup tab and turn off anything you don’t recognise or don’t need. I get plenty of machines where the slow boot and odd pop-ups are just a pile of junk starting with Windows. Simple fix, big difference.

One check I keep telling people to do: in Windows, go into the browser settings and make sure site notifications are blocked for anything you don’t trust. A lot of fake virus alerts come in that way now, and they look like a Windows warning when they’re just a webpage shouting at you.