I just have an ordinary, Windows 8 laptop; I have no idea what kind of security features it has or if it's secure; I don't know if I've ever been hacked or had a virus. I have no idea if it's safe to set up a wallet on my computer. What can I do? What can an average computer user do to set up a safe, secure Wallet and keep their Bitcoins as hack/scam-proof as possible?
Do you have antivirus software installed? Do you have a two-way firewall installed? If not then consider your computer as insecure and don't use it for anything important or valuable. If you don't know then consider it insecure.
Good, free, easy to use software packages are AVG anti-virus and ZoneAlarm firewall. Other products are available.
I just downloaded AVG Basic; the full package costs $54.99.
AVG Basic has anti virus and anti spyware function, but no firewall function.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows
Nothing to buy, firewall easily enabled (terminal command for default enable: "sudo ufw enable"), clamTK anti-virus is free and pretty solid. Most viruses target Windows, despite the fact that most servers run on Linux -- something to keep in mind when considering which OS to keep your wallet on (if you keep it on a computer, especially an online computer). Linux/Unix has stronger security generally by limiting permissions beyond the root user... and anything downloaded from browser is not executable by default -- it must be granted permissions to be made executable.
Anyway.... something to consider.... Happy bitcoining!
