I plan to run a web server on a Windows VPS. I want to secure the machine with a firewall, and I thought to open only ports 80 and 3389 (to connect with RDP). Is this a good choice? And what do you suggest as a simple firewall software for this?
Windows – Best way to secure a Windows VPS
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Related Solutions
Changes to environment variables should take effect immediately, if you make the change via the main Properties dialog for the computer in question (go to My Computer | Properties | Advanced | Environment Variables). After the changes are saved, Explorer broadcasts a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message to all windows to inform them of the change. Any programs spawned via Explorer after this should get the updated environment, although already-running programs will not, unless they handle the setting change message.
I'm not able to tell from your problem description what specific problem you're having with this. Can you tell us more about the specific scenario that isn't working?
This KB article may also be of use: How to propagate environment variables to the system
Best Answer
Windows Firewall is fine for this.
If you will be accessing the server via RDP from a static IP, you should limit 3389 to just that IP. If not, you should make sure to use a very complex password. RDP open to the world attracts a lot of brute force attempts.