Avoiding viruses, malware, spyware, and software that bog down your computer is quite simple. An anti-virus works great, but you never know when something will just leak in. Read more to see simple ways to ensure you are safe from Internet viruses and to speed up your computer.
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First of all, every computer should have an antivirus program installed. It is recommended that you purchase an antivirus from a local office store, but you can also use free-to-use software, downloadable from the Internet.
Recommended retail antiviruses:
Now that you have your antivirus, make sure to schedule a scan for at least once a week to avoid small viruses that you can’t see but are actually slowly ruining your computer.
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Another great way to protect yourself from annoying software is by downloading and installing a free system care program. I recommend using Advanced SystemCare by IOBit.
- Advanced SystemCare Freeware
For a free license for Advanced SystemCare Pro that includes automatic cleaning and updating, please visit this Raymond.cc article.
What does Advanced SystemCare do?
It can remove spyware, fix your registries, optimize your PC, prevent spyware, accelerate downloads, boost your RAM, back up your system… and basically anything that a program can do to speed up your computer.
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Which sites are safe, and which are not? This question is easily answered by McAfee’s Site Advisor.
You should seriously think about bookmarking this site. You will also probably think about downloading the free SiteAdvisor software on their site if you want an add-on that shows clearly if a site is safe or not.
What does the SiteAdvisor do?
Before you open a suspicious link, you’re going to want to visit the SiteAdvisor site. On the homepage, look for “View a Site Report” and enter the suspicious site’s address, and then click on “View report now”. Luckily, they will have tested the site, and will have stated if the site is safe or not. What I especially like are the user-made comments.
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Do not download any suspicious torrents. Make sure you view the comments on the torrent site before downloading. If there are no comments, do not download, as there most likely aren’t any seeders anyway. If there are many “thumbs-up” comments, feel free to download. However, make sure you scan all files before you execute anything.
It is recommended that you only download torrents from well-known and trustworthy torrent uploaders such as aXXo for movie uploads. (Note: All movie downloads should be in “.avi” format.)
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Do not use iTunes. This is just a small tip, but if you frequently transfer music from your computer to your mp3 player, use Media Monkey instead.
Manage your music with this freeware, not with iTunes.
Why Media Monkey?
Because it opens faster and the program doesn’t do anything if you don’t want it too, making it run much faster! If you have ever transferred music with iTunes, you will notice that it always says “Synchronizing device…” However, with Media Monkey, it just doesn’t do that, which makes all the differences for me.
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Another simple, great, tip is to use Firefox. This is self-explanatory, and most of you should know this already and how to do it, so I don’t need to elaborate. It is much faster than Internet Explorer, and has so many more add-ons.
If you remember all the tips above, your computer should definitely improve in performance and safety, so have fun! Want to read more? Read 10 Amazing Sites to Discover or visit my blog.
Tue, Apr 7, 2009, by Dorukanji
Security