September 9th, 2009

Contrary to what you might think, spyware doesn’t just show up on your computer unaided. Generally, you have to take some specific action for spyware to be installed. In most cases, it happens when you visit a website that is infested with spwyare and click somewhere specific, allowing the spyware to be installed. THis is especially common with sites that have pop-ups, although not all pop-ups contain spyware.

Spyware can have many negative effects on your computer. For example, some spyware will track the keys that you type, looking for credit card numbers or other account numbers, making you vulnerable to identity theft.

Some spyware will hijack your browser in a number of possible ways. Sometimes, it will set your homepage to some site other than the one you yourself set. In other cases, it will install an unwanted toolbar in your browser, whether you use Firefox or Internet Explorer. Usually, the toolbar is full of different types of spyware or adware. It may also cause you to constantly have pop-ups in your browser. Sometimes, these pop-ups will even appear when you don’t have your browser open.

In addition, spyware can cause your computer to crash. it might interfere with your browser, or it can sometimes even interfere with other types of programs and make it so that they don’t work correctly.

The good news is that you can be protected from spyware. In addition to being cautious when you browse the Internet, you should have an anti-spyware program installed on your computer. This program will detect spyware before it is installed and it may also be able to remove spyware if it does somehow get installed.

September 8th, 2009

When it comes to your data, chances are you’ve got some files that are very important to you. Whether it’s the digital pictures of your son’s first birthday or whether it’s your accounting program files for your small business, you need to make sure that your data is preserved in the event of a catastrophic accident. Fortunately, you have several options when it comes to backing up your computer.

The first option you have is to back up your computer on an external hard drive. You will need to make sure the external hard drive has enough storage space for your files, of course. Most external hard drives even come with a utility that will allow you to back up your entire computer to that external hard drive if that’s what you want to do. Alternatively, you can just copy the specific files that you need to keep, although this is likely to actually be a longer process than just running the backup software.

Another option is to use an online backup service. With the increase in Internet access speeds, online backup services are much more viable today than they were just a few short years ago. These services allow you to back up your entire computer, or just specific files if you wish. These services typically have a monthly cost associated with them. The programs used for the online backup service usually run in the background, so you don’t need to specifically run the backup.

Finally, some people still choose to back up their computers on storage media. This might be a DVD-ROM, or it might be something like a flash memory stick, SD card or USB key drive. These solutions are ideal if you’re going to be backing up just a few files, rather than the entire hard drive.

September 7th, 2009

One of the most important things you can do when it comes to your computer is to make sure your privacy is maintained. You need to protect yourself, not just against Internet threats or viruses, but against hacking and even against unintentional breeches of computer privacy.

Physical security should be your first concern when it comes to maintaining computer privacy. If your computer is located in a place where other people have access to it, your privacy is at risk. If you share a computer with other people, you need to make sure that everyone has their own profile set up, along with their own password, so that only they can access the computer. This also helps to keep your own files from being accessed by other users, even by accident.

You should also be concerned about privacy online, of course. A firewall is an essential component if you want to maintain your computer privacy. This firewall can be a firewall appliance that you purchase from a store, or it can be a software program. Windows even includes a firewall component in its operating system so you don’t have to purchase a separate product if you don’t want to.

In addition, make sure you pay attention to your web browser’s privacy settings. Both Firefox and Internet explorer have the ability to clear your browsing history as well as your cookies. Check out the privacy settings in whichever browser you’re using, and set them to an appropriate level.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to maintain computer privacy. The good news is that these simple steps can eliminate the majority of the privacy threats you’re going to face on your computer. By doing these things, you make it much more difficult for someone to compromise your privacy, both online and on the computer itself.

September 6th, 2009

Computer technology may advance at a quick pace, but that doesn’t mean you have to replace your computer every couple of years. In fact, if you keep up with some basic maintenance tasks, there is no reason that your computer shouldn’t last you several years.

Here are some basic things you can do to keep your computer healthy and running at its best:

• Keep your system updated. Set up Windows Update to automatically download and install updates. This will not only help to address issues with bugs or issues with potential security problems, it will also help keep your computer optimized and healthy.
• Take care of your hard drive. That means deleting files you don’t need and uninstalling programs you don’t use. Run the disk cleanup wizard on a regular basis. Run the disk defragmenter, too, as every computer winds up with fragmented files after a while.
• Protect your computer. You need to protect your computer from viruses as well as from spyware. make sure you have a reliable antivirus program and a reliable spyware detection program, too.
• Take care of your registry. Run RegCure on a regular basis. This will get rid of orphaned registry entries, as well as corrupted registry entries. RegCure is an integral part of keeping your computer healthy and optimized.
• Consider upgrades. In some cases, just adding a few megabytes of RAM can give you several months or even a year of use on your computer. Small upgrades, like RAM or a new video card can be relatively inexpensive, and save the time and hassle of getting a whole new computer.

Doing these basic things from time to time will help keep your computer healthy and running the best it can run.

September 5th, 2009

Windows Defender is a program provided by Microsoft to help make your Windows Vista computer more secure. Windows Defender is designed to look out and remove spyware and other types of malware that may be installed on your computer.

You can schedule Windows Defender to run on a regular basis, or you can manually run the program. Windows Defender also gives you real-time protection against spyware and other sorts of threats. If Windows Defender sees that a spyware program is trying to install itself, it will stop the program and let you know.

There are three types of scans available for Windows Defender. You can run a quick scan, which will test your current running files as well as your system files. Another type of scan is a full scan. The full scan will scan your entire computer. You can also run a custom scan, which will only scan the particular files or locations that you tell it to scan.

Windows Defender will quarantine items that it finds to be malicious. If for some reason it thinks that a regular program is spyware, you can restore the file from the quarantine folder and you can tell Windows Defender to exclude that particular program from its scans.

One thing to be aware of is that Windows Defender doesn’t protect you from viruses or similar threats. You still need to have a good antivirus program, and keep it updated regularly, if you want to be protected against viruses

Windows Defender is especially useful, in that it can remove some programs that may be slowing down your computer, as well. It can get rid of pop-ups, and it can protect your personal information from malicious users. In addition, the program includes an automatic update feature that will upload and install updates to its spyware database on a regular basis.

September 4th, 2009

When it comes to Internet privacy, there are many reasons you might want to increase the level of protection your computer has. Whether you’re worried about identity theft or whether you’re worried about your private information being accessed by other users of your computer, there are a few simple but important things you can do in order to maintain your Internet Privacy.

One area of Internet privacy you need to be concerned with is in email. Emails can contain worms and other types of viruses. If you receive an email with a link or with an attachment, don’t click on it unless you know where the email came from. Make sure it’s a truly trusted source. If you don’t you could wind up with spyware or a virus on your computer that can greatly compromise your Internet privacy.

You should also make sure that you log out of any account you log into while you’re online, once you’re done. By leaving your username and password cached on various websites, anyone who uses your computer might be able to access that information.

If you want to take an extra step at maintaining your Internet privacy, you can remove cookies, your browsing history and temp files when you close down your web browser. Both Internet Explorer and Firefox have this kind of capability.

Finally, you need to understand that the most important part of maintaining your Internet privacy has to do with physical access to your computer. if no one else can log into your computer, they can’t get to your personal information. Even a firewall or other type of security program won’t protect your privacy if just anyone can walk up to your computer and get into your files and your browser.

September 3rd, 2009

You’ve invested a good chunk of money into your computer, and you want it to last as long as you can. Even if you are in the habit of replacing your computer every few years, you still want it to work, and work well, while you have it. There are some essential tasks that you need to do if you want to maintain your computer and keep it running as well as it can while you have it.

Fortunately, there are many automated tasks you can use to maintain your computer. For example, you should set your computer to update Windows automatically. Your computer will then check for updates and install them whenever they become available. The same goes for your antivirus and your spyware detection programs. These kinds of programs will generally have an automatic update feature, which you should enable.

There are some other tasks you’ll have to do on your own. For example, you should regularly run the disk cleanup wizard, as well as the disk defragmenter. While experts will debate on how often exactly you need to run these, it’s probably worth doing once or twice a year at least.

You also need to take care of your Windows registry. The Windows registry is a repository of all sorts of information related to the hardware and software that are installed in your computer. Running RegCure on a regular basis can help to optimize your computer. RegCure will get rid of registry entries that have been left behind by old programs or hardware, and it will also get rid of any corrupted registry entries that may be affecting your computer’s overall performance.

September 2nd, 2009

While PCs are arguably much more stable than they were just a few short years ago, it’s still not at all uncommon to get errors, such as DLL errors. DLL errors relate to a particular type of file - a Dynamic Link Library file. DLL files are used in conjunction with program files to make the program run.

There are some specific steps you can follow in order to go about diagnosing DLL errors:

When you get the error message, write it down word for word. Make careful note of what DLL file the error relates to.

Once you’ve got the error message, you can begin to try to figure out what it means. In some cases, the error message might be named in such a way that you can tell what application or program it goes with, but this is not the usual situation. If you can, though, you can check with the program manufacturer to see if there are any known problems.

The next place to look is at the Windows support website. From there, you can do a search for the error message. The Microsoft Windows support website will help diagnose a problem if the DLL error is from a file that’s a Windows system file.

If all else fails, type the error message into a search engine such as Google or MSN search. These will take you to a listing of pages that quote the error message. In many cases, you’ll find the error and how to fix it.

One of the best ways to avoid DLL errors altogether is to run RegCure on a regular basis. RegCure gets rid of references in the registry to DLL files that no longer exist, and will help your computer to run in a more optimized way overall, as well.

September 1st, 2009

We’d be remiss, when talking about how you can restore your PC performance to what it was when you first got your computer, if we didn’t at least briefly talk about hardware upgrades. Hardware upgrades aren’t a panacea, and they often only fix your performance problems for a short time. Still, if you want your computer to run like it used to, you might consider some hardware upgrades as a stopgap measure.

One of the types of upgrades you can consider is your computer’s RAM. RAM, also called “Memory,” is the part of the computer that stores information that your computer is using right now. It helps programs to load faster, and it helps make it so that your computer doesn’t have to access your hard drive as often (which is much slower than your RAM). Adding memory to your computer is relatively simple and can be a relatively inexpensive way to restore your PC performance.

If you’re having issues with your computer’s graphics, you might invest in a new video card. A new video card can greatly improve the way that games and other graphics-intensive applications run on your computer. If you notice performance problems most of all when you’re running these types of applications, a new video card is just what you need.

There are other upgrades to consider, as well. If you’re particularly adventurous, you might upgrade your CPU and motherboard. Chances are you’ll also need to upgrade your computer case if you decide to undertake this kind of a step. You can also upgrade to a faster hard drive, or you can replace other components inside your computer that might be older technology.

In some cases, you can wind up spending just a fraction of the cost of a new computer to get your old one humming right along.

August 31st, 2009

Over the past several days, we’ve looked at some of the ways you can restore your PC performance. we’ve talked about cleaning your registry, for example, and we’ve covered ways to free up more hard drive space by uninstalling programs that you don’t use and by running the disk cleanup wizard.

Today, we’ll approach PC performance from a different angle. One of the things you can do to restore your PC performance has to do with the way the files are arranged on your hard drive. Now, we’re not talking about the files and folders you use to store your files on your PC. Instead, we’re talking about the physical way your hard drive stores the data.

Over time, your hard drive will become fragmented. This is because your hard drive can’t store all of its data in a continuous way. It has to break up files, especially larger ones, into pieces or “fragments.” Some files can wind up having many fragments. This slows down your PC performance, and especially slows down access to those fragmented files.

Fortunately, Windows has a built in way to deal with disk fragmentation. The Disk Defragmenter utility will help you to test your hard drive to see how fragmented it is, and will then defragment your hard drive. The disk defragmenter can take quite a while to run, so make sure that you allow enough time when you start the process.