Looking After your PC

Your computer is at risk from various programmes and people who wish to use your information or internet connection for nefarious purposes. You've probably heard of personal data theft, phishing and viruses such as trojan horses or worms. You must take action to safeguard yourself from such attacks. It's easy to do so there really are no excuses.

Preventative Measures

What can I say? Prevention is better than cure. There are some key things you need to ensure that you do:

Install an Antivirus program

It is so important to have virus protection on your PC. Even if you never connect to the internet and only use cover disks from magazines. Viruses are small pieces of malicious software designed to disrupt your computer, or perform tasks anonymously (such as flood e-mailing people from your email address). You will usually be offered a free trial of virus protection software with a new PC purchase. After the initial trial period, you then have to pay to subscribe to updates. It is vital you keep your virus software up-to-date, as new viruses are found every day.

In addition to pay-for virus protection, it is possible to use a freeware piece of software for a personal computer. This software is called AVG by Grisoft. You can download it from HERE.

Use a Spyware Remover

There is another malicious type of software which insinuates itself onto your computer. It is designed to 'spy' on your activities and, when given the opportunity, report back to a central computer somewhere in the world. These spy programmes can capture important data such as credit card and other personal details.

Again, you can pay for spyware protection, or there is a freeware piece of software out there. It is called Spybot - Search and Destroy. You can download it HERE.

Set up a Firewall

A firewall is a programme that runs between your computer and your internet connection. It checks all incoming and outgoing information to check that it isn't someone trying to take over your pc or use it for malicious purposes.

Yet again, you can pay for it, or, for personal use, you can use Zone Alarm freeware. You can find it HERE. Look for the menu on the left hand side and select Zone Alarm (not Pro, Anti-virus, etc).

Consider a Registry Cleaner / Fixer

These are handy utilities to help remove any stray information left on your pc's system when you uninstall software that you no longer want to use. There are a number of alternatives available - including freeware and trials. You only really need this type of software if you have removed other software recently and your system is running unpredictably.

Regular Maintenance

Remove software you no longer use

Sometimes, you might install a piece of software on a trial basis. Make sure that you remove these after the trial ends - to keep your system as clutter-free as possible.

Defragment your system

You may need to defragment your system. This sounds rather technical, but all it really means is to shuffle the files around so that they're not all jumbled up - making it easier for your computer to locate them when asked. The Defragmenter is a standard piece of software provided as part of your Windows system. For XP users, just click Start>All Programmes>Accessories>System Tools and you will find it. Your computer will tell you if you need to do it.

Regularly clean your desktop

I don't mean get out your duster - although there is no harm in doing that. I mean that the more icons you have on the windows screen before you have loaded up any software, the slower your system will take to start up.

It is usually best to keep your desktop as simple as possible. For this reason, I advocate changing your desktop to a plain colour, rather than a picture. Right-hand mouseclick on your desktop, select the tab at the top called Desktop and select None at the top of the Background list. You can select the colour you want from the drop-down menu.

Keep your start up folder clear

Sometimes when you install a piece of software, it will set itself up to load up at the time your machine starts up. It will usually put an icon in your System Tray (the place where your desktop clock is). You will find the start up prompts in the following folders:

• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
• C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (where USERNAME is the name of the person logged on to the computer)

Make sure that these folders are clear and you will have a much faster start-up time.

Curing when Prevention is too late

If it's too late to prevent something dreadful happening to your computer and you're not confident to fix it yourself, you should call someone in. If you are in my area, I would be pleased to come and take a look at your machine.