Virus Protection
Having virus protection is an absolute must! To keep your computer free of Viruses you have two choices: free an not free.
Not Free
McAfee and Norton are popular choices for virus protection software. That is exactly why I do not recommend them! These programs are on so many people’s computers virus creators now write to attack these programs themselves. They specifically write the code to attack Norton and McAfee. Instead of Mcafee and Norton I recommend NOD32. It is very powerful, updates itself, does not take up unreasonable amounts of your computers processing time (resources better used by you!), and best of all is not a favorite of viruses.
Free
You’re best choice for free is a program called AVG Anti-Virus. Be careful though, they do have a program you have to pay for. Currently this is the link for their free product.
Once you have a virus protection program run it weekly. You should have only one virus protection program on your computer. NOD32 is my preference. If you have more than one on your computer at a time they can conflict with each other.
Spyware
What is the difference between spyware and viruses. You don’t want spyware or viruses on your computer. The line between them is blurry. But mostly viruses do damage to your computer, corrupt files, delete files, etc. Spyware, tracks what you are doing and sends it back to servers, that will send you junk email or steal your credit card information. Yes, this is real and does happen. Protect yourself. All spyware protection programs are free, at least the good ones are. Unlike virus protection software you can and should use more than one. My favorites are: Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware SE Personal.
Preventative Maintenance
Backup
If you have not lost all your information yet, you will! Yes, this will happen to you. Sooner or later. The only way around it is to backup your important documents often. You can do this with the DVD writer or CD writer on your computer. Use them, that is what they are for!
Scandisk
Scandisk is a program included in all versions of Windows. You can find it by clicking on My Computer and then right-clicking on the C:/ drive then go to properties. Once the “Local Disk (C:) Properties” window opens click on the “Tools” tab. From there choose “Check Now…” under “Error-Checking”. You should do this every 6 months.
Defragmentation
There is also a program to Defragment your computers hard drive. This is basically spring cleaning for your computer. It grabs all the files and organizes them so it can access the more quickly. It is a good idea to run this program every 3 to 6 months. It can be found the same place as scandisk Double-click “My Computer”, then right-click “C:/” then click properties. From the tabs on the new window select “Tools” Under “Defragmentation” select “Defragment Now…” You can analyze the drive to see if it needs to be Defragmented so you don’t waste your time doing an unnecessary defragmentation.
