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Oct 21, 2003 Tips from a computer professionalto make owning and operating your personal computer a bit less frustrating. • Anti-virus software. You absolutely need this unless you never access the internet. The best software for a home user is probably PC- CILLIN by Trend Micro, which includes a very good personal firewall. McAfee’s ASaP is another very good program. There are free programs available (like Grisoft) but they are not very good. http://housecall.trendmicro.com is a free service that will scan your computer for viruses to see where you stand right now. • Spyware. You need to clean spyware off of your system and block additional spyware from coming in. Spybots can log your keystrokes or keep track of the sites you visit. Anytime you visit a website you may receive a “bot” without even knowing it is there. A good shareware is at http://www.safer-networking.org which is free, although if you like it the author would like you to send him a check of appreciation. It is known as “spybot search and destroy” and works! • Pop-Ups. http://www.panicware.com/product_downloads.html is the address to get Panicware’s free edition of Pop-Up Stopper. There are others you can use for free, I just happen to know this one does work! The one you pay for is smoother and has more features. • Disk Cleanup. This is one of the system tools listed under accessories in your program menu. (Select Start, select All Programs, select Accessories and then select System Tools and select Disk Cleanup from that list). Run Disk Cleanup once a week to keep your system from bogging down. Don’t be afraid to remove the temp files and so on that the Disk Cleanup menu will ask for permission to clean up. • Defragment. If you do not have a custom defragger like Diskkeeper from Executive Software, use the Defragmenter from the same list from which you selected Disk Cleanup. Defrag your computer once per week. It depends on the computer and your use schedule, but the first time or two that you do this may take quite awhile. Start the defrag at a time when you can leave the computer on and just walk away for an hour or two. Come back later to see the results. IMPORTANT! If you have a screensaver or powersaver setting that shuts the computer down after a few minutes of use, turn that function off so that the defragmenter has time to do its work. • Housekeeping. Go into your document menu at least once per month and delete what you will no longer need or use. Go into install/uninstall programs once per month and see if there are any programs you really do not need. Make sure you anti-virus program is updated by right-clicking on its symbol in your system tray, or opening up the program and selecting “about” to see if it is up to date. • Patches. If you have XP or 2000, Microsoft will send you updates to keep your operating system up to date. Install them! If you are not getting such updates or unsure, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en and download anything that has to do with security on your system. ------------ About the author: Kimbal Ross Binder is a husband of one wife and parent of six child units of various sizes. He is a tennis bum, karaoke singer, punster and a reformed liberal who now admires Rush Limbaugh and hates to miss Fox News in the evening. You can pass along plaudits and invectives to: radarbinder@comcast.net Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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