Useful Computer Tips For Everyone (Part1) - Cleaning Your

Author: Martin Lemieux

Article:
Using a computer is part of our regular lifestyle. Technology is
everywhere; in our phones, TV's, radio's, pda's, cell phones,
vehicle's, and especially within our desktops. Using a computer
system can be daunting for some, many people still aren't used
to the fact that technology is essentially within everything we
do. This article will teach you many basic computer tips that
will help you everyday, and which will help with your computer
maintenance. What Will You Learn Within This Series?

Part 1 - Cleaning your computer of viruses Part 2 - Cleaning
your computer of spyware Part 3 - Cleaning your computer
registry Part 4 - Defragmenting your computer, and disk cleanup
Part 5 - Useful keyboard shortcuts

All of these tips should be used on a regular basis. Your
computer is like a car, you need to change the oil, replace the
tires, clean the interior frequently to ensure that your car is
runs smoothly, that it keeps you safe, and remains clean.

Cleaning Your Computer of Viruses: I think I can make the
assumption that most of you have heard of computer viruses
before? For those who haven't, a computer virus is a program
created by highly advanced programmers world wide with the
intent on harming your computer in so many ways. Viruses can
infect your computer, delete important files, corrupt your hard
drive, or even make your computer unusable. Viruses can mean
death to your computer. We are all subjectable to a virus
attack, in fact millions of computers are infected with some
form of virus right now as you read this, and your computer may
be one of those infected.

Ways To Get Infected With A Virus:



- 1) - Firewall is not activated

- 2) - No anti-virus software

- 3) - Spam Email attachment

- 4) - File transfer via a messenger service

- 5) - Copying files from an infected CD, or floppy Disk

- 6) - Network of computers sharing files

A virus can infect your computer through any of the methods from
above. Prevention is the key to making sure you don't keep your
computer to such attacks.

How To Prevent Viruses From Coming In:

1) Activate Your System Firewall: You want to make sure that
your firewall is active. A firewall blocks hackers from finding
loop-holes within your computer that gives them a gateway
(doorway) in. A firewall can help to stop most hackers, but not
all of them.

Activating your firewall:

Windows systems: START > CONTROL PANNEL > INTERNET CONNECTIONS >
WINDOWS FIREWALL > "On (Recommended)".

Mac Users: APPLE MENU > SYSTEM PREFERENCES > SHARING PANE >
FIREWALL > START

There you go; your firewall is now active!

2) Scan Your Computer With An Anti-Virus Software: Installing an
anti-virus software is key! An anti-virus software will help to
monetize your computer for viruses. An anti-virus software will
also help to perform a system wide scan of your computer for
already infected areas.

Most newer computers come with an anti-virus software already
installed; all you need to do is run the program.

Here are some of the top PAID anti-virus software's: (No
particular order)



- Norton Ani-Virus By Symantec

- McAfee Ani-Virus

- BitDefender

- Kaspersky

Here are some of the top FREE anti-virus software's: (No
particular order)



- AntiVir Personal Edition Classic 6.32

- Active Virus Shield (AOL)

- Alwil Software Avast Home Edition 4.6

- Grisoft AVG Free Edition 7.1

For more anti-virus software's, with good editorial reviews go
to: Download.com

Once installed, launch the program, and find a button that says
"update virus definitions". This will help to make sure your
virus definitions are up-to-date. Virus definitions have the
most recently found viruses that just came on the market.
Up-to-date definitions are key to finding newer, more powerful
viruses.

Once you've updated your definitions, close all running programs
and perform a "full system scan". Depending on your computers
size, and speed, the scan can take up to a couple of hours to
complete.

Once complete, hit a button that will say something like;
"Quarantine Files", "Delete Infected Files", "Clean Up Files",
"Remove Infected Files". This process will remove all files that
have been flagged as a virus, and it will do this safely without
harming your computer.

Things to know:



- Once a virus scan is complete, reboot your computer.

- Some viruses cannot be caught while your computer is running;
they may have to be removed after a reboot (which should be
automatic).

- You can setup a full system scan to start at 12 midnight every
night.

- Scan your computer ATLEAST once a week if connected to the
internet.

You'll probably start to notice that your computer is running
faster, this is because the viruses which were there before, are
no longer using your computers memory to run consistently.

Some viruses are extremely resilient and cannot be removed from
a simple virus scan. Going through (Part 2 & Part 3) will help
to attack these harder-to-find viruses.

3) Don't Open Suspicious Email attachments: So many viruses are
activated by people like yourself who open email attachments
that they don't recognize. Most viruses are distributed this
way. Part 6 - "Useful Email tips & fighting spam" from this
mini-series will go into greater detail on fighting spam, but
for those of you who won't get to read that article, I must
mention a couple of things here:



- Do NOT open an email that you don't recognize, or didn't ask
for!

- Do NOT open an attachment with the extension ".exe".

- Immediately delete emails from people you don't recognize

- Do NOT save emails onto your computer that you don't recognize

- Spammers will try to trick you into thinking they are your
friend

- Pay close attention at the person, email, and content from
each email

- Do NOT click "Unsubscribe" from a spam email, this will do the
opposite

- Do NOT reply back to an email you don't recognize

- Do NOT forward an email that you don't recognize

- Report ALL spam to your internet service provider

These email tips I just mentioned are part of the basic
foundations to helping you fight spam, and to ensure that you
don't inadvertently activate a malicious virus onto your
computer.

4) Avoid Using Messenger Services: Messenger services, or "chat
programs" on your computer are like leaving an open gateway
pointing directly to your computer. Messenger services like "MSN
Chat", or "Yahoo Chat" connect two computers together in order
to talk to each other over and over again. This allows the two
computers to give, and receive information through the software.

An Example of What Can Happen: Many viruses have infiltrated
millions of computers through this easy to hack service by
disguising itself as "your chat friends" and by sending you a
link to a virus file to open up onto your computer. The problem
is, you have no idea what kind of file you're opening, because
it seems as though the file came directly from your friend (who
is infected by this virus), and it looks as though they are
simply trying to send you a photo of themselves.

Personally, no one is allowed to have a messenger chat software
installed on any of our computers. They are too easily misused,
and can give a hacker a passport to your computer.

If your children use such a service, make sure to let them know
of what can happen if they accept files from others. Tell them
that it's better to send files via an email attachment, rather
than through a messenger chat script. At least this way, an
email can pass through various firewalls, and anti-virus
software's before getting to your computer. This also ensures
that you know exactly who is sending you the file.

5) Copying Files From An Infected CD, or Floppy Disk: We've all
done it, taken a disk from a friend, or co-worker, and inserted
a disk into our computer in order to copy all the files from the
disk. Did you ever think to scan the disk for viruses before
copying any of the files?

Viruses come in all shapes & sizes, they are passed along from
one computer to another. The person who gave you the disk could
have had a virus lurking within their files, and they may have
copied it onto the disk they just gave you. It happens all the
time.

An easy way to protect yourself from getting viruses this way is
to launch your anti-virus software, and scan your disk drive
with the cd, or floppy disk in it. It takes only a couple of
seconds to prevent a disaster.

6) Sharing Files From A Network of Computers: Many companies
network their computers together so that they can share files
easily between the two, instead of always copying files onto a
disk. The same thing happens at home as well when two computers
are networked together. Make sure you have your firewall in
place (step 1 above), and make sure your anti-virus software
(step 2 above) is keeping an eye on your "shared folders"
section. This just helps to prevent viruses from jumping one
computer to another. Again, always perform a virus check within
your "shared folder" when you receive files from others.

In Conclusion: There you have it. You now have a good base of
knowledge to help prevent viruses from getting into your
computer. Make sure to make it a habit to double-check
everything to ensure that you don't unwillingly leave an open
doorway directly to your computer. When using software's like
chat scripts, make sure not to accept files via your chat
script. Never read, or open emails that you don't recognize, and
always make it a habit to scan your disks, hard drive, and email
attachments before something terrible happens.

Now that you have some knowledge against fighting viruses, let's
move onto part 2 of this series which talks about fighting
another form of attack against your computer, the deadly spyware!

Next: Part 2 - Cleaning your computer of spyware & ad-aware



About the author:
Martin Lemieux is the owner and creator of many article
directories and business directories world wide including:

http://www.Article99.com - Authors Club

http://www.article99.com/IT/computer-learning/ Computer Learning

http://information-technology.smartads.info/ - Information
Technology

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