Keeping that computer healthy!
A low carb diet, daily exercise, and a full night sleep will keep your PC healthy and happy!
We would love to be there for you all of the time, helping to keep your computer running properly. But you'd get sick of us and we're more inclined to teach you to fish instead of catching it for you. Here are some quick tips.
Antivirus
Viruses are still rampant even though we don&p#39;t hear about them as much. Make sure to have some level of antivirus installed. The technicians at User Friendly recommend AVG below is a link to their website where you can purchase a 1 year subscription for $54.99. Also, having this software installed doesn't do much if it isn't updated, so make sure to check your definitions every couple of weeks to make sure you are up to date. www.AVG.com
Defragmentation
If you work with lots of files, such as hundreds of songs or pictures, sometimes your computer will need to have its file system reorganized. If you do this very often, it may be good to get a software package such as Diskeeper as it will run on an automated schedule. If not, you can go to START and RUN and type "defrag c:" which will do it for you.
Antispyware
Even the most careful of us can click on the wrong thing or download the wrong program now and again. Fortunately, there are some very good ways to remove those items and keep them away. If you don't do too much internet browsing you might want to look at AdAware, Spy Bot Search and Destroy, and CCleaner, simply do scans every few weeks to keep your computer free of spyware. These antispyware programs can be downloaded for free at www.FileHippo.com. If you are online quite a bit, Microsoft Defender is a good way to do full real time scanning to make sure the system stays clean.
Updates
Using Microsoft's Windows Update site, you can make sure to have all of the latest patches and upgrades that Microsoft provides. These updates are very important and should be done regularly or scheduled for a daily install.
Internet Explorer 8
Although we don't guarantee everything will work just as it did before, if you do upgrade to IE8 you may find that your browsing experience is enhanced and that it keeps you safe from things such as phishing attacks and bad certificates. This brand new version can be downloaded from Microsoft's website.
Backups
You can do all of these, and your system can still malfunction for other reasons. Therefore we urge you to look into a solution for getting your most important data onto some sort of media that you can take with you or store in a safe location. Please see our backup news article for more.
Monday, January 31, 2011