I apologize if this a duplicate topic.
I am currently running a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit on a 5 year old laptop (DELL Precision M6600) and was wondering if I should invest in newer, more secure laptop running Windows 10 and newer hardware to install “The one and only! Daedalus wallet”.
I would like to contribute to the staking process.
If Daedalus is running ok on your Windows 7 laptop I don’t see any reason that it wouldn’t be secure enough. You might consider investing in a good antivirus software and upgrading your firewall, use script blockers on the web browser and just practice safe browsing. I am not a professional in this area though, so do some more research.
Consider encrypting your wallet with, for example, VeraCrypt .
I would not buy a new laptop unless the one you have is not completing your work.
Once Daedalus is officially available on Linux then you could get a low-cost Linux system, $35.00, and have that be your dedicated Cardano wallet.
I wasn’t previously aware of VeraCrypt, it looks great! How would you use it in this situation, given the involvement of %APPDATA%? Encrypt the system partition? I’ve only glanced at the docs so far but I’d be worried about possible complications.
I have used malwarebytes antivirus for many years with good success and confidence. They have a free version but you get realtime defense with the paid version which is worth it. I use Comodo firewall on my windows computers and it is very good but can be too complex if you are a casual computer user. But if you want a lot of control it is a good one and is free. The VeraCrypt suggestion is a good one too. Just remember you will have to unencrypt the wallet file before launching the wallet. One more piece of advice. Never put your seed phrase or wallet spending password in a digital file on any computer. Keep multiple copies of those credentials on paper in different locations. i.e. If the house burns down you want to have a copy of the seed someplace else so you can restore your $.
@Chainomatic will it make sense to encrypt the entire %AppData%\Roaming\Daedalus?
or just the %AppData%\Roaming\Daedalus\Wallet-1.0 folder.
FYI I am using Veracrypt 1.21 for encryption.
The only one I encrypt is the “Wallet-1.0” folder, as it contains your specific wallet(s) information.
Just so everyone understands, Daedalus already scrambles that data for you, I just like the extra level of security that comes from encrypting the encrypted.
One more thing, you can backup that encrypted wallet folder to say an encrypted USB drive for 3x encryption and have a very-very-very secure backup if you ever need it.