G
Guest
·A computer is a lot like a car
A computer is a lot like a car, it needs regularly scheduled maintenance to run optimally. I would recommend that if your running Windows (98, 2000 or XP) that you perform the following:
1) Keep Windows updated with all of the critical updates and patches which can be found on their site at this location:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp
2) Run a good, reasonably current, Anti-Virus program and keep it updated. New viruses are being released everyday and the only way you can protect yourself is to keep updating your virus defiinitions so your system knows what to look for. Most commercial programs have a way to do automatic updates, turn it on!
3) Periodically Defragment your harddrive. I would recommend doing it once a month. On XP this can be found by clicking the Start button (usually in the lower left), then choose All Programs, Accessories, then System Tools and then run Disk Defragmenter
4) Run an Anti Spyware program. This has become an epidemic and companies like Dell report it is accounting for most of their support calls. Spyware will bog your machine down to a crawl. I actually run two free programs to make sure my machines are clean. I use Spybot Search and Destroy which i like a lot because it can immunize your machine against known Spyware as well as look for new ones: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html I also run Adaware from Lavasoft: http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/
5)Run a pop up blocker. I avoid the known ones from Google and Yahoo because companies have found ways around them: I like the one from Panicware: http://www.panicware.com/ lots of Spyware installs off of popups.
6) Run Msconfig periodically to see if which programs are getting started automatically when Windows starts. This can be found by clicking the Start button (usually in the lower left), then choose Run and type msconfig in the run line and hit the OK button. This will open up the System Configuration Window. Choose the Startup tab and look at the lines with the checks next to them, those are the programs that are starting automatically. If you don't know what something is, uncheck it. You can always go back and turn it back on. I try to keep the things starting automatically to a minimum. You can usually tell what something is by looking at the location it is installed in and is running from.
7) If your running Internet Explorer, I would get a copy a BHO tool. BHO is a Microsoft technology and stands for Browser Helper Object and are basically things that startup when you open IE. Lots of Spyware and other garbage, attach themselves to IE and run as BHOs. I've see BHOs that throw up popups when IE opens, or change your homepage, or your search preferences (when you type in a bad url, it will redirect you to their search page. Some are benign and some are down right nasty. Check out BHODemon: http://pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23611,00.asp
Consider dumping the Internet Explorer browser for something like Firefox or Mozilla http://www.mozilla.org/
and consider dumping Outlook or Outlook Express (most of the mail exploits were targeted at those programs) and use the mail function in Mozilla or get something like Eudora http://www.eudora.com/download/
-Michael
A computer is a lot like a car, it needs regularly scheduled maintenance to run optimally. I would recommend that if your running Windows (98, 2000 or XP) that you perform the following:
1) Keep Windows updated with all of the critical updates and patches which can be found on their site at this location:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp
2) Run a good, reasonably current, Anti-Virus program and keep it updated. New viruses are being released everyday and the only way you can protect yourself is to keep updating your virus defiinitions so your system knows what to look for. Most commercial programs have a way to do automatic updates, turn it on!
3) Periodically Defragment your harddrive. I would recommend doing it once a month. On XP this can be found by clicking the Start button (usually in the lower left), then choose All Programs, Accessories, then System Tools and then run Disk Defragmenter
4) Run an Anti Spyware program. This has become an epidemic and companies like Dell report it is accounting for most of their support calls. Spyware will bog your machine down to a crawl. I actually run two free programs to make sure my machines are clean. I use Spybot Search and Destroy which i like a lot because it can immunize your machine against known Spyware as well as look for new ones: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html I also run Adaware from Lavasoft: http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/
5)Run a pop up blocker. I avoid the known ones from Google and Yahoo because companies have found ways around them: I like the one from Panicware: http://www.panicware.com/ lots of Spyware installs off of popups.
6) Run Msconfig periodically to see if which programs are getting started automatically when Windows starts. This can be found by clicking the Start button (usually in the lower left), then choose Run and type msconfig in the run line and hit the OK button. This will open up the System Configuration Window. Choose the Startup tab and look at the lines with the checks next to them, those are the programs that are starting automatically. If you don't know what something is, uncheck it. You can always go back and turn it back on. I try to keep the things starting automatically to a minimum. You can usually tell what something is by looking at the location it is installed in and is running from.
7) If your running Internet Explorer, I would get a copy a BHO tool. BHO is a Microsoft technology and stands for Browser Helper Object and are basically things that startup when you open IE. Lots of Spyware and other garbage, attach themselves to IE and run as BHOs. I've see BHOs that throw up popups when IE opens, or change your homepage, or your search preferences (when you type in a bad url, it will redirect you to their search page. Some are benign and some are down right nasty. Check out BHODemon: http://pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23611,00.asp
Consider dumping the Internet Explorer browser for something like Firefox or Mozilla http://www.mozilla.org/
and consider dumping Outlook or Outlook Express (most of the mail exploits were targeted at those programs) and use the mail function in Mozilla or get something like Eudora http://www.eudora.com/download/
-Michael
