Post by Lady on Feb 23, 2015 7:47:38 GMT
So. I'm not really an IT sort of person (I'd rate myself a medium on the 'how tech savvy are you?' scale) but I know enough to keep my computer floating happily. And to my surprise I've found multiple members here who. Well. Let's just say my husband, who does work IT support as a carreer, would cringe. That's fine! Not everyone has gotten lucky to have the education I have.
So here's my guide to happy computers!
FIRST: Do you have an antivirus program?
No/Well I used to but it expired
Get thee one immediately. There are plenty of free ones. Paid subscriptions are best (Norton is my personal favorite) but even free ones are better than nothing. Top picks include: Avira ( www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus ), AVG Free ( free.avg.com/us-en/homepage ), and Avast ( www.avast.com/en-us/index )
I have two (or three, or...) antivirus!
No no, don't do that. Multiple antivirus programs conflict with each other. Even if one of them is expired or something, it's still really not a good idea. Pick one to keep and completely uninstall any others. If simply uninstalling them the usual way doesn't work, go to the website of the program and look around for an uninstaller tool you can download. If that STILL doesn't work, go to a tech support community and ask for help and someone might be able to walk you through a manual uninstall. Also, just deleting the folder it's in doesn't work.
I have one antivirus!
Great, do you have anti-malware?
No!
Get one! There are multiple free options here too but my one true love will always be Malwarebytes ( www.malwarebytes.org/ ) Get it, run it, then run it every month or couple months just to be safe (or if you feel something slipped past your antivirus.)
I have anti-spyware does that count?
No. Malware and spyware do different things. Having an anti-spyware is nice though and it won't conflict with anything. Most anti-malware programs can pick up spyware but I wouldn't trust the reverse to be true, just to be safe. Feel free to keep your anti-spyware but you should probably pick up an anti-malware too. It won't hurt after all.
Yes, I have an anti-malware!
Cool beans. Do you have CCleaner?
Nope.
You should really get that too. This isn't an anti-anything it's just a cleaning tool but it does what it says. It's a crap cleaner. Gets rid of the junk your computer naturally accumulates over time. I've cleared gigabytes using this every few months.
CCleaner ( www.piriform.com/ )
Yes I have it!
Great, now for the final touch, let's gird up your browser.
I use Internet Explorer
*cringe* ... *cringe* You really shouldn't. IE is just... Ugh. It's slow and it's full of security holes and bleh. Go get chrome or firefox or anything else really.
I use a non-IE browser! (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc)
Okay good. Get Adblock. Got adblock already? Great! If not, get it ( adblockplus.org/ )
There's a second addon that I highly recommend. Nothing keeps you safer than NoScript. But NoScript can be... annoying, and difficult to master if you're more on the novice side of using your browser. What NoScript does is it shuts down every script on a webpage. You have to tell it to allow this and that and whatnot to run (don't worry it remembers your settings if you ask it to.) Most websites won't initially function unless you enable a handful of its domains. So why would you want NoScript? Because hostile websites have no chance of slipping you a silent background download or anything else sneaky. It is pure, clean browsing in its finest form. If you're willing to try it, I highly recommend it. ( noscript.net/getit )
And that's that!
But wait I have a computer issue, can you help me?
Probably not, sorry. Like I said, I'm not true tech support. But I do really love the people over at Bleeping Computer. If you ever run into a nasty problem and you want to find some professional help before taking your computer to BestBuy or whoever, try these fine folks: www.bleepingcomputer.com/
So here's my guide to happy computers!
FIRST: Do you have an antivirus program?
No/Well I used to but it expired
Get thee one immediately. There are plenty of free ones. Paid subscriptions are best (Norton is my personal favorite) but even free ones are better than nothing. Top picks include: Avira ( www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus ), AVG Free ( free.avg.com/us-en/homepage ), and Avast ( www.avast.com/en-us/index )
I have two (or three, or...) antivirus!
No no, don't do that. Multiple antivirus programs conflict with each other. Even if one of them is expired or something, it's still really not a good idea. Pick one to keep and completely uninstall any others. If simply uninstalling them the usual way doesn't work, go to the website of the program and look around for an uninstaller tool you can download. If that STILL doesn't work, go to a tech support community and ask for help and someone might be able to walk you through a manual uninstall. Also, just deleting the folder it's in doesn't work.
I have one antivirus!
Great, do you have anti-malware?
No!
Get one! There are multiple free options here too but my one true love will always be Malwarebytes ( www.malwarebytes.org/ ) Get it, run it, then run it every month or couple months just to be safe (or if you feel something slipped past your antivirus.)
I have anti-spyware does that count?
No. Malware and spyware do different things. Having an anti-spyware is nice though and it won't conflict with anything. Most anti-malware programs can pick up spyware but I wouldn't trust the reverse to be true, just to be safe. Feel free to keep your anti-spyware but you should probably pick up an anti-malware too. It won't hurt after all.
Yes, I have an anti-malware!
Cool beans. Do you have CCleaner?
Nope.
You should really get that too. This isn't an anti-anything it's just a cleaning tool but it does what it says. It's a crap cleaner. Gets rid of the junk your computer naturally accumulates over time. I've cleared gigabytes using this every few months.
CCleaner ( www.piriform.com/ )
Yes I have it!
Great, now for the final touch, let's gird up your browser.
I use Internet Explorer
*cringe* ... *cringe* You really shouldn't. IE is just... Ugh. It's slow and it's full of security holes and bleh. Go get chrome or firefox or anything else really.
I use a non-IE browser! (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc)
Okay good. Get Adblock. Got adblock already? Great! If not, get it ( adblockplus.org/ )
There's a second addon that I highly recommend. Nothing keeps you safer than NoScript. But NoScript can be... annoying, and difficult to master if you're more on the novice side of using your browser. What NoScript does is it shuts down every script on a webpage. You have to tell it to allow this and that and whatnot to run (don't worry it remembers your settings if you ask it to.) Most websites won't initially function unless you enable a handful of its domains. So why would you want NoScript? Because hostile websites have no chance of slipping you a silent background download or anything else sneaky. It is pure, clean browsing in its finest form. If you're willing to try it, I highly recommend it. ( noscript.net/getit )
And that's that!
But wait I have a computer issue, can you help me?
Probably not, sorry. Like I said, I'm not true tech support. But I do really love the people over at Bleeping Computer. If you ever run into a nasty problem and you want to find some professional help before taking your computer to BestBuy or whoever, try these fine folks: www.bleepingcomputer.com/