Protecting Your Personal Computer or Laptop

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I noticed the other day, after hearing from the people on some of the boards I frequent, that not many people really take the time to, or know how to protect their computers. So that leaves me with the question, how well do you protect your PC? I noticed when I was working in IT, most people just don't know that it takes lots of work to maintain your machine and there are a frightening high number of people that just don't care.

Other than your antivirus, you should have a firewall (yeah windows firewall is on, but it's a useless little bugger ) I myself use Sygate, it's fantastic. Also, don't ever click the 'Remember my answer' when clickin gon yes to ANY program. You'd be surprised how many times and how many different programs want to go online without your permission. And you need a program to take off all the spyware. A good program for this is Adaware. Alternatively, find a program like ccleaner or Advanced WindowsCare (only problem with Advanced WindowsCare is that the free version doesn't upgrade - but it's a great way to see what your startup programs are – also another good way to keep any unwanted programs from slowing you down) which removes malware and also fixes other security and performance issues, like your registry and clearing your internet tracks. One little thing about clearing your temp internet files is you'll have to re-login by all the sites / forums, but trust me, not only do you really have to do this every so often, it also clears up space. This will help you machine to run smoother, as a HDD which is 99% occupied can’t run at an optimized rate.

HijackThis is a good cleaner but only recommended for advanced users. Avast is a good alternative.

AVG is a really good anti virus, the best I’ve used and the free version use to pick up viruses that some of the more reputable, paid anti viruses would miss. But unfortunately, after many years of offering a really good free version, AVG is now no longer free.

Oh and I strongly recommend using Mozilla FireFox as opposed to Internet Explorer... not only is it much faster, it has less security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer.

I hope that this will at least help you a little in keeping your computer virus and malware free and running a little smoother. It’s quite possible to run really decent free programs, so it won’t cost you an arm and a leg

Happy Shopping!