| Title | | | | notorious for this. Be very aware of what it |
| | | | is you are loading and only load those |
| 10 Things To Do For A Healthy & Secure PC | | | | components that you need. Even some |
| | | | off-the-shelf software packages load adware |
| A Top 10 List That Can Save Your Computer | | | | and other not so helpful applets. Also, when |
| | | | you uninstall software, not all the software |
| Many who read this article may find these | | | | gets uninstalled in many cases. One thing I |
| recommendations to be old news. However, | | | | suggest is to purchase a registry cleaner. |
| think about the number family, friends, and | | | | This can dramatically decrease boot times and |
| associates that ask you for help fixing their | | | | in many cases increase the overall |
| PC and I believe you will understand why I | | | | performance of your PC. |
| chose to write this article.. | | | | |
| | | | 6. Purchasing & Downloading Items On The |
| This list of recommendations for a healthy & | | | | Internet |
| secure PC is by no means a complete list of | | | | |
| everything you can and should do. It is | | | | When you download or purchase any software |
| however a great start if you want to keep | | | | from the Internet, make sure you pay close |
| your computer running properly for an | | | | attention to everything you are agreeing to |
| acceptable period of time. It will also help | | | | or checking off on the various pages that |
| prevent some of the most common issues | | | | lead up to the final purchase or download. As |
| related to PC security. | | | | with everything else, make sure you read the |
| | | | fine print. You may be agreeing to download |
| 1. Hard Drive Fragmentation | | | | and install something you don't need or may |
| | | | impact the security and performance of you |
| Believe it or not, many people have never | | | | PC. Also, how many more mailing lists do you |
| even heard of hard drive fragmentation, or | | | | really need to be on? How many Internet |
| the process of Defragmentation. In a | | | | Explorer tool bars do you need? Most of these |
| nutshell, when you install software or create | | | | tool bars should be renamed to "adware / |
| files and data, the Operating System stores | | | | spyware bars" |
| this data on your hard disk drive. The most | | | | |
| efficient way of storing this data would be | | | | 7. Installing Operating System & Application |
| in one continuous disk file. However, files | | | | Patches |
| are not always stored this way, or are | | | | |
| initially stored this way and later become | | | | In a nutshell, if you are using Windows XP, |
| split up, or fragmented. Because of this, | | | | make sure that automatic updates are turned |
| when the data or file is retrieved, the hard | | | | on. This is very important. Microsoft |
| drive must be searched in multiple places | | | | releases security and bug fixes routinely and |
| just to combine data that makes up one file. | | | | some of them are critical in nature. |
| This slows things down tremendously. If you | | | | Something people tend to overlook is updating |
| are running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you | | | | and patching their applications. For |
| should perform a disk defrag at least once | | | | instance, Microsoft Office has critical |
| every two weeks, more if possible. All of my | | | | security patches and performance enhancements |
| systems run this process automatically once | | | | available in the form of patches and service |
| every week in the evening hours. | | | | packs. It's not just Operating System bugs |
| | | | that can put you at risk, applications can |
| 2. Installing Games & Disk Intensive Software | | | | too. |
| | | | |
| If you're a gamer, or regularly use disk | | | | 8. Updating Drivers |
| intensive software, the above Defragmentation | | | | |
| process will help. However, you can also take | | | | Similar to the above, hardware manufacturers |
| another step to make things move a little | | | | routinely update their drivers. This includes |
| faster. If you have two physically separate | | | | video cards, sounds cards, capture cards, |
| disk drives in your system, I suggest that | | | | system boards, you name it. Some |
| you use one primarily for the Operating | | | | manufacturers have started to release |
| System and related software, and devote the | | | | automatic updates for their hardware, but |
| other physical disk for installing games and | | | | many have not. Make sure you check these |
| other disk intensive applications. This cuts | | | | sites regularly and when a driver update is |
| down on the competition for disk resources | | | | available, install it. |
| between your Operating System and other | | | | |
| applications. There are other things you | | | | 9. What Do Your Children Download |
| could do as well, such as configuring the | | | | |
| appropriate type of RAID where multiple disks | | | | This is a really big one. I can' tell you how |
| appear to the operating system as one big | | | | may times I have been told by people that |
| logical disk drive. This takes a little more | | | | they have no idea how something got installed |
| planning to get the most out of your drives | | | | on their computer. Usually their second |
| so I'll cover that in a future article. | | | | sentence contains "one of my children must |
| | | | have downloaded it". The first thing that |
| 3. Virus & Spyware Protection | | | | comes to mind is "why do parents let kids |
| | | | download what ever they like in the first |
| The bottom line here is; make sure you have | | | | place". Not only can this severely impact the |
| installed some sort of anti-virus and spyware | | | | security and performance of your computer, |
| protection. Furthermore, don't just assume | | | | who knows what your kids are getting their |
| that the default configuration of the program | | | | hands on. Do you know what one of the most |
| is best suited for your environment. For | | | | frequently installed application installs I |
| instance, I can't tell you how many people I | | | | see on a teenagers machine is? Kazaa, |
| know whose computer has contracted a serious | | | | BearShare, eDonkey, all P2P file sharing |
| virus because of just one minor but very | | | | programs. I don't care what anyone says |
| important task. When the anti-virus software | | | | regarding how convenient and safe these |
| pops up a message and tells you that your | | | | applications are now, they are wrong. Monitor |
| subscription is about to expire, don't just | | | | what your children are doing / downloading on |
| hit the ignore button. Take a five minute | | | | the Internet. Install a parental control |
| break from what you are doing and renew your | | | | software package if need be. |
| virus signature subscription. Not only will | | | | |
| this keep you up to date on newer viruses, it | | | | 10. Rebuilding Your Operating System |
| will allow your software package to update to | | | | |
| newer versions. The same thing goes for | | | | If you are not familiar with system imaging |
| spyware protection. There are plenty of free | | | | software, I suggest you read up on them. One |
| spyware protection solutions out there, none | | | | of the most popular packages is "ghost" and |
| are perfect, but most do the job. I suggest | | | | it's been around for quite some time. I |
| using Microsoft's AntiSpyware Beta package at | | | | rebuild my systems pretty much on an annual |
| the least. | | | | basis. When I first configured them, I used |
| | | | an imaging package to create a complete image |
| 4. Software & Hardware Firewall Protection | | | | of the basic OS and application install. This |
| | | | allows you to not only re-install the base |
| If you are not using a firewall, then you are | | | | operating system and applications by hitting |
| just asking for trouble. Actually, there is a | | | | just one button, but can save you big time in |
| significant chance that your system is | | | | the event of a system disaster. |
| already compromised if you have no firewall | | | | |
| protection at all. Many cable/DSL router | | | | Conclusion |
| combo devices have built in firewall | | | | |
| protection, and this is at least a good | | | | Many of my peers and other technical people |
| start. However, if you have Windows XP SP2, | | | | will read this and say it's all common sense |
| go ahead and enable the built in firewall as | | | | and very basic. Well, if this is what you do |
| it will provide you another level of | | | | for a living then yes, it is. But many people |
| protection. Oh, yes, and when the system pops | | | | don't know these things or did know about |
| up a message about whether or not to allow a | | | | them and have forgotten. So many PC are in |
| certain application or communication to take | | | | such bad shape and it's beyond me how the |
| place, don't just hit the ok button, read it | | | | average person even deals with it. It has to |
| thoroughly then make a decision. | | | | be frustrating not knowing where to turn or |
| | | | what to do, especially if you don't have a |
| 5. Installing & Uninstalling Applications | | | | tech friend or family member to call on. I |
| | | | hate to sound pessimistic, but things are not |
| Just about every time you install a new | | | | getting better for the average home or small |
| application or piece of software you increase | | | | business person. Technology should not be |
| the time it takes to boot your PC and in some | | | | this difficult to maintain. The average |
| cases decrease its performance. On thing that | | | | person just wants something that will work, |
| drives me crazy is printing software. For the | | | | and stay working. |
| life of me I cannot understand how or why | | | | |
| printer support software could total 400MB in | | | | You may reprint or publish this article free |
| size, but they sometimes do. Not only that, | | | | of charge as long as the bylines are |
| they tend to load all kinds of unnecessary | | | | included. |
| real-time running applets. HP printers are | | | | |