Tech, Mobile Phone and Software

Archive for August, 2011

Many computer users have had the unfortunate experience of computer virus infecting their PCs. Make no mistake, these viruses are not the biological ones that spread from one sick person to another, but do have similar traits in that computer viruses are just as contagious, and spread and infect computers very quickly over the internet.

Technically speaking, a computer virus is a form of executable code. These viruses are designed to cause malfunctions on the affected computer. When other computers are connected to this infected machine, the virus replicates itself to enter and infect the other PC.

You might have heard of the Worms or Trojans, which are viruses that are designed to steal important personal information such as your ID or passwords or account numbers etc that reside on your computer. They can also enable the particular virus to gain access into a machine and then hijack control of the infected computer. Other viruses, especially the macro viruses, are designed in such a way that they can delete or overwrite system or data files in the affected computer.

Installing antivirus software is by far the best solution to protect your PC from attacks from these computer viruses. The best known antivirus software are the Norton, McAfee and Panda, which come with features such as inbuilt firewall and direct access to online back up. These antivirus software also have the ability to deactivate the malicious viruses.

The antivirus software protects your computer from virus attacks following two main methods, the first method being prevention, and the second one cleaning. The preventive function involves stopping new viruses from entering your PC, while the cleaning function involves detection and extermination of the old viruses. The protective tasks include such procedures as monitoring emails, P2P downloads and internet connections. On the other hand, the virus cleaning part includes procedures such as scanning of your computer, detecting viruses and then eliminating them from the computer system.

Antivirus software are generally very efficient in dealing with harmful computer viruses. Even so, computer users are recommended to follow certain safety rules to tighten the protection even more:

* A common mistake most people tend to make is to open unsolicited emails that contain virus, either unknowingly or absent-mindedly. Never open such emails if you want to protect your precious data from getting lost once and for all.

* Another precautionary measure involves not opening any attachment sent with an email. Unless you are sure of its source and what it contains, it is usually better to just delete this mail with the doubtful attachment.

* Make sure to also use a personal firewall.

We live in a fast paced world and we’re always looking for the fastest way to get things done. We barely have time to wait for our burger at the local fast food restaurant, our coffee to brew, our microwave popcorn to pop, so who has time to wait around for a slow computer?

Barring adding more RAM to your computer, there are 6 steps you can take to speed up your computer’s performance. Most of these steps will allow you to speed up your computer, free of charge since they are applications already installed on your computer.

One of the first steps you should take is to empty the Recycle Bin. It’s easy to do. Just point your cursor to the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, right-click, and choose “Empty Recycle Bin.”

Next, open up your Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options. Click on “Delete Cookies,” then on “Delete Files.” In the window that appears, check “Delete all offline content” and click OK. Once that’s done, click OK to close the Internet Options window, and close your Internet Explorer.

Those two are steps are the quickest, and simplest ones so that’s why we got them out of the way first. Next, we’ll be conducting a Disk Cleanup. To do this, click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. The disk cleanup function will now begin calculating how much space you will be able to free up. Once it finishes, it’ll give you a list of files to delete. It should already have some files checked, but you can go through the list and check off all the files you want to delete, then click OK.

Now it’s time to do a disk defragmentation. This can be a long process so you should probably set this up during a time when you’ve got other things going on. For example, set it up, then go watch your favorite TV show, or go mow the lawn, or go workout. You get the idea. To begin go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Click Analyze. If you’re lucky, you’ll get the “You do not need to defragment this volume” call-out, but more than likely, you’ll have to click on “Defragment.” If so, click on it, go do something else and come back in an hour or two.

Once that’s done, it’s time to run a spyware scan. Most people don’t realize how easy it is to get infected with spyware, so running periodic scans is highly recommended. You can use any anti-spyware program you choose. Just be aware that no one program gets rid of everything. To play it safe, you should run at least three different programs. You might be surprised by what they find. You may have had spyware running on your computer and not even know it. Once the scans are complete, and all that spyware is taken care of, it’s time for the last step.

This last step is to run an anti-virus scan. Hopefully you have an anti-virus program installed on your computer. If not, I highly recommend you get one as soon as possible. Once the anti-virus program is set, go ahead and run it. This could take anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple hours depending on how many files you have on your hard drive so once again, set it, and then go do something else. Come back in about an hour.

Once all the steps are complete. Restart your computer and you’ll be surprised at how completely nimble it now feels. It’s a good idea to follow these 6 steps at least once per week (some steps you can even set up to be done automatically). By doing this, you will keep your computer performing almost like it did when you first bought it.

When you connect to the internet you can harm your PC. That is a fact. The reason antivirus software and other similar products where created is to protect your PC.

It is not your fault that you got viruses, however you should take the precaution methods to stop this from happening again.

Keep PC Clean: It is important that your PC stays clean if you use the internet. Clean from the ‘bad, harmful objects’ that are also known as spy ware, adware or viruses.

There are many different types of harmful objects but luckily there exist also cure to keep your PC protected.

A must use Software: The two most important software you must have are an antivirus and an anti adware. There is no need to purchase 30 different kinds of anti spy ware software…

However you must choose two software which will protect your PC. These will work in the background automatically. Some anti adware products also heal spy ware not just adware.

Schedule Maintenance: The software will block spy ware and adware. However you should also use the software when you are offline. You should scan your
PC using both software at least once every three weeks. That will clean any harmful objects. These objects can make a lot of harm to your PC.

Safety Measurements: We already mentioned that you need two software to keep ongoing protection on your PC.

If you download software/movies/images/videos or any other thing from the internet it is recommended that you scan those items. Before opening them right click on them and use your antivirus to scan them.

Go to Control Panel to turn on Firewall. Firewall is also an ongoing protection which is very important.

Once you have your software installed these protect your PC and you get back the freedom you deserve. Remember that prevention is better than cure.