• Made sure the Windows Firewall is turned on with no exceptions allowed
  
• Updated all security software
  
• Visited Microsoft Update and made sure the OS was fully patched
  
• Connected the laptop directly to the Internet (no router or hardware firewall in between) and ran a port scan to make sure all ports were stealth
  
• Checked to make sure all "sensitive" websites I'd be using were SSL-enabled
  
• Checked to make sure my FTP client was set up to login to my sites via SFTP/SSH
  
• Set up my e-mail client to send and receive securely over SSL, and used Ethereal to verify that no plaintext passwords were being sent

I also know to disable the wireless network card unless I'm actually using it.

So having done all that, should I be safe using public wifi from this machine? The only other thing I can think of would be to use a VPN like JiWire, but if I only submit personal information over SSL, surely the VPN isn't necessary, is it?

I am a little concerned about auto-updating programs [webmasterworld.com], but I don't know how to turn off all the update features (some won't turn off) and I'm afraid I don't understand the risk in the first place...is it a major risk, or basically a theoretical risk?

Thanks in advance for any insights or additional steps I should take!

Matthew