2008 Woodie Awards
Rx for your PC
Jamie Kahler
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Most people are not computer geeks, so they often wonder what they can do when their computers start exhibiting strange behaviors, like random slow-down, crashes, etc. It's really very, very simple to keep a computer running as smooth as the day you bought it-and unlike many computer manufacturers would like you to think, it shouldn't cost you your first-born child. Here are a few simple tips to keep your computer in tip-top shape:
Get a good antivirus package, and keep it updated.
Let's face it: The Internet's a dangerous place for many, especially those who don't realize that the "YOU JUST WON $50!!! CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE YOUR MONEY!!!" popup windows they see aren't necessarily legitimate. A good antivirus program, like Norton Antivirus, when kept up to date, will protect against most of what the Internet will send your way. Along with this, a product like Lavasoft Ad-Aware is also strongly recommended. It'll help eliminate the other nasty aspect of the Internet-spyware-and can catch some things Norton misses.
Ditch Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer is one of the most easily exploited pieces of software present on modern computers, and because it integrates so tightly into Windows, it's impossible to totally remove. Ninety-nine percent of computer problems stem from a virus or other attack delivered via the Internet, exploiting Internet Explorer. Take a look at Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.org). It's secure, very fast and has a great assortment of plug-ins to help you get the most out of your Internet-browsing experience.
Keep yourself updated via Windows Update.
This is also extremely important. As of Windows Service Pack 2, the security features of Windows are much better than ever before. Updates are released on a variable schedule, but anticipate at least once a week having your machine report having downloaded and installed a patch. Make sure you turn on Automatic Updates.
For the love of God, use caution when opening emails!
If you're using Microsoft Outlook to read your email, ditch it! Mozilla has a product called Thunderbird for reading email with-it's much more secure than Outlook. Beyond that, actually take time to read the subject lines of your emails before you open them, no matter WHAT email client you use-Outlook, Thunderbird or a webmail system like Hotmail or Yahoo. If it looks fake, it probably is. And be careful when launching attachments connected to emails-if the filename ends in ".exe," ".com," ".vbs," ".scr," ".bat" or ".js," there's a good chance you're in for a world of hurt. Just delete the email, and don't even touch the attachment. And if it's from someone you recognize as a trusted sender, ask them if it's safe; a lot of times viruses can be sent from people's accounts without them knowing.
Learn to love the word "Defrag."
Over time, the files on a computer's hard drive can become fragmented due to the way computers store data. Fragmentation means that a single large file may get split up to various places on the drive based on wherever there's free space. The problem is, when you try to access this big file (let's say it's a movie you "legally purchased" off the Internet) the computer has to take the time to seek out the fragments of the file across the drive. For especially large files, this can take a lot of time. To remedy this, run Windows' built-in tools, Scandisk and Defrag, every month or so to keep the amount of fragmentation and file-system problems low. You can run these tools by opening "My Computer," right clicking on your hard drive, selecting "Properties," clicking the "Tools" tab, then clicking the button in the "Error Checking" box to run Scandisk, and the one in "Defragmentation" to run Defrag. A word of warning: Both tools can take many hours to finish their jobs, and you really can't touch the computer while they're running, so plan accordingly. There are also commercial defragmenting programs out there, such as Diskeeper, but Windows' tools are perfectly fine for a regular desktop machine.
See? That's not so hard, is it? And to think, some people pay huge amounts of money to places like Geek Squad and Dell or HP for service that basically amounts to numbers 1, 3, and 5. Now, if these five don't solve your problem, you may need to seek more professional help, or just ask your favorite computer geek to help you back up your documents, and perform a reformat and reinstall.