Windows

Keep It Real. And Safe. And Fast.

Posted by on Jul 23, 2009 | One Comment

Gnomie Randy Sage writes:

Hi, Chris! I thought I would come up with some tips on how to keep your computer safe and fast.

  1. Make sure you download only stuff that you really, really need. If you know that you are only going to use something for a few days and just not use it anymore, then don’t even download it! You’ll waste less time and better protect your computer from spyware, viruses, Trojans, etc.
  2. Make sure you have a good anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall installed. What I recommend, if you don’t want to spend money on an anti-virus, is that you get avast! You can get avast! Home Edition for free at avast.com. It’s lightweight, and it protects you from all sorts of viruses and other nasties. Over 80 million people have registered, so it’s very most likely not a dud.
  3. Be careful where you go. Malware and hackers are more of a threat to people who surf the Web a lot. What you need is a good pop-up blocker and Flash block. It is also recommended to get the WOT addon for IE and Firefox. Most people get viruses from adult sites, and there is even one site that will lock everything — it shows a naked lady and says “I’m watching porn!” You won’t be able to click out of it or press CTRL + ALT + Delete! If you watch porn, you will most likely get infected, hacked, and publicly embarrassed!
  4. You should sometimes run config. Go to System Tools / Defragmenter and click analyze. It should tell you if you need to need to defrag or not. And you should also do a Disk Check.
  5. And last but not least: have fun. You have a computer — don’t abuse it. Don’t look at adult content. Only go to sites that you trust to be safe. That’s the most important rule. Don’t trust that, since you have the best anti-virus software in the world, you can go looking around every seedy nook and cranny of the Internet safely — there is NO best anti-virus. PERIOD. You will get infected, so that’s why you need to trust yourself not to go to any dangerous sites. If you can’t do that, then don’t be on the Internet until you know that you are ready.
  • Tiger

    Great tips to keep the system running smoothly. I’ve seen quite a few system become unresponive or compromised because they were loaded with all sorts of warez and pirated apps. Avoiding installing junk on the PC is the first line of defense. Safe internet browsing is the second. Antiviruses, cleaners etc come down the line.

    As far as maintenance is concerned, I keep my systems running at their best, with a few useful utilities:
    1. Avira Antivir free antivirus. Works very well, and keeps the system safe without interfering with other programs.

    2. Malwarebytes AntiMalware and Super Antispyware. Both are excellent malware/spyware scanners and free editions are available.

    3. Diskeeper 2009 Professional defragmenter. Keeps the filesystem in excellent shape and file access from the HDD is always fast. Does a brilliant job, and is Install and forget, since it’s a fully automatic utility.

    4. Opera browser. Small, light on resources, highly customizable, uer friendly, and blazing fast. Also more secure than IE. Been using it for 6 years as my primary browser.

    5. Firewall. Windows’ own firewall, combined with a properly set up router works fine.

    6. Disk cleanup: I just use the in-built windows utility.