Computer Tip of the Week

I'll try to post some other content between the tips of the week but you'll have to just deal with it for now.

This weeks tip is for general maintenance and making sure your system doesn't get slow. The number 1 cause of computers slowing down is "Virus/Spyware/Malware" all those nasty things you don't want on your computer.

At one point while working at my current place of employment they thought it would be a good idea to dip their feet in to the general consumer support rather than just businesses. They have sense changed their minds "with a big relief to me" but while they were poking their head in places they shouldn't they had purchased a company called iTOK (pronounced: "I Talk") iTOK was a Geeksquad type company but was web based. You could just go to their website and request help with any issue you might have with your computer and one of their techs would jump on your computer and fix it for you. For a while I was one of the techs that would be doing the fixing it was one of the worst few months of my life but that's for another post.

To get to the point of my babbling one of the big services that iTOK provided was computer maintenance. For just a mere $80ish per month a computer tech will jump on your computer and run maintenance to make sure your computer is running at peak performance. Before you all go running to get singed up for this service let me save you all lots of money, in fact all your money. The secret to iTOK is that everything they do can be done by anyone for free with little effort and/or computer knowledge. Every single program used by this company to keep your computer clean is available to the public for free. Aside from the legal issues with them doing this it's practically theft providing a service that you can do your self for free. It would be a different story if they used a program they had developed or if this was something difficult to do but it's not. Sorry if I go off on rants.

What I am going to do is provide everyone a list of tools you can install on your computer that will help keep your computer free of nasty things and everything in the list is free and legal to use. (what isn't legal is using these programs for commercial use.) This list will be up on the right side listed as recommended Anti-spyware/virus/malware tools. You can install all of these on your computer and they won't conflict with any other software that is already installed. There is one exception, you should only have 1 anti-virus software installed on your computer at one time. They have a tendency to compete with your system and cause lots of performance/stability issues.

The only Anti-virus software I recommend is AVG, it is free software and works just as well as if not better than other Anti-virus software. If you already have software like Trendmicro, McAfee, or Norton you shouldn't install AVG. If your not sure if you have any anti-virus it would be a good thing to check. Most store bought computer will come with a free trial of either Norton or McAfee and if your computer is more than 6 months old these have probably expired by now. You can check by opening your Anti-virus software it will probably tell you in big red letters if you have expired and will probably encourage you to purchase a subscription. Between Norton and McAfee I would go with Norton and would avoid McAfee at all costs (I prefer the AVG over the other 2). I may do another post going into more details on anti-virus preferences another time.

Here is the list of computer skills required to use the programs that are listed: web-browsing, program-installing, launching programs, and clicking the scan now button. So if you feel comfortable doing these things you can run these on your computer your self (even if you feel like you can't I bet you could if you tried). Once installed all you need to do is open the program and click the scan now button. This may take some time so it's a good idea to start them before going to sleep or while doing other stuff (unless you find real joy out of watching progress bars fill, I know I sure do!). Once completed the program will tell you the results, if it finds something it may ask you what you want to do and the answer is almost always "Delete", "Quarantine", or "Remove". Some of the programs like AVG will scan automatically and it will usually ask you to choose the time it scans when you install the program.

For the rest of the program you'll need to run the scans manually, the frequency is determined by what type of web browser you are. If you check a few of the same websites once a week or less and rarely download anything, then scanning once ever other month or even every 4-6 months would be fine. If your a moderate web browser who tends to stick to the sites that your familiar with and only download things from people or places that you trust, then running a scan once a month would be recommended. If your the kind of browser that love to type random words in Google and open up every page you find and loved to play whack-a-mole with pop ups and can't help but download anything and everything, I would recommend you run scans on a daily basis also I would recommend you give me a call and I can give you more tips on safe web browsing habits. (This may be a computer tip of the week soon)

Thanks for reading I know I can blab a bit and I'm not the best writer but hopefully this can help a little. Also you can feel free to give me a call anytime and I can help you out with any of your computer issues I love to do it. (if you don't know or can't find out what my phone number is, IE your not a friend or family member send me an email: warclark@msn.com and I'll see what I can do.)

Computer Tip of the Week

Been sick lately but I'll get these on a set time of the week at some point.

Tip this week is a list of 3 easy steps you can do to try to fix your computer problems before trying to get help from others.

#1 - This is the most important thing you can do it may seem simple and I don't mean this in an insulting way but it's a common mistake and you would be surprised by the number of people I talk with that don't even do this. Read the error message if there is one. Some times these messages won't make any sense to some people and that's fine but some times it gives clues to even the most un-computer savvy people out there. So if the message says something like "You must reboot the computer before running." you'll know that rebooting might fix the issue.

#2 - This brings us to the second simple thing you can do to try to fix your computer problems. Reboot the computer! This actually works with most electronic devices. Rule of thumb is to make sure the computer says off for 10 seconds before starting it again. This will give it time to allow the electricity to dissipate before turning it back on. Also if your internet connection stops working rebooting your router will almost always fix it and anytime you call your internet provider they will almost always have you do this first.

#3 - This one is and can be a bit more tricky then the reset of them but some times it can be super quick and easy is is always worth a shot. This step is your new slogan: Just Google it. Nike was close but didn't quite get it right. Be sure to be as exact as possible for searching for the error. For example if your getting an error message when trying to run a program type the exact message your getting and what program something like: "Critical Fault running Office Word 2007" also including what version of Windows your running may help if your using Vista or Windows 7. Before you say "Oh I'm using a Mac" don't bother that's a problem of it's own.

Some where out there Google probably has an answer to all your computer problems but finding them can some times be a challenge and then once you find the answer it may be too difficult or you might not feel comfortable with digging in places you've never been before in the computer and that's fine but your one step closer. Best thing to do is to avoid the pit falls of searching Google. Always try to stick to the web sites of companies you know of. Under each site listed in Google it will give you the address like www.microsoft.com/****** or dell.com/*** or what ever always look at those before even clicking on them. Never go to sites like computerfixit.com or fastcomputerfix.com or anything like that that includes fix or fast repair or what ever in the address. They might be legit but not worth the risk. I wouldn't recommend checking any forums sites unless your ready to roll up your sleeves and really get into it. Most of them will result in being something like first post is the person saying what their problem is and asking for help followed by 20 more posts of other people saying they have the same problems or it may be a similar problem but not the same that your having. It's best to just stick with sites from the company of the program or hardware that's having the issue or from Microsoft anything else might have the answer but can be hard to find. Also if you don't find it in the first few pages of your Google search it's probably best to give up or change the wording of your search.

If your still having the problem then you can confidently ask others for help knowing you have done what you can. I just want to leave you with one last word of advice. Never take your computer to geeksquad or other similar places they will over charge you for things that are not needed. Just give me a call I'll love to help you with your computer problems for free or even point you to the right people to help with your problems who will in many cases help you for free.

Tip of the Week

Going to start a new thing. You'll notice a section to the right called Tip of the week. I'll try to keep up on this. Every Sunday night I'll update it to a new tip and some where keep a log of all the old tips. This will just be some kind of random computer tip to help keep it running good, fix common issues, or in some way help to better your computer. I'll also try to keep things simple.

Edit: Decided that I didn't like the side bar format so I'll just add the tip of the week as a post that way it will archive it for me and I think I can organize them some how. So here is this weeks tip:

There is very little programs out there that you can download to fix your computer. Even if it is legitimate you should still be able to fix the issue without downloading a program. The only place that I would say you can 100% safely download tools to fix your computer is at support.microsoft.com most of their articles now have an option to just download a tool that will fix the issue your having but even still they do provide manual instructions on how to fix it. For the most part the tools for fixing computers that are found randomly while searching the web are just viruses. The same goes for websites or banner ads that say your computer is broken or infected.

As Seen On YouTube

I was in Walmart the other day and noticed a sign that said: "As Seen on YouTube" it reminded me of the slogan "As seen on TV" and it was probably done with that intention. This was promoting a tool for cleaning your tongue call Orabrush and as advertised you can find it on youtube. I can like or dislike ads, slogans, commercials, and jingles not based on what they are advertising but more on the way it's presented, if I think that they put in a well placed joke or pun that went well with the product I will like it or if they try to play off of the ignorance of the listener I may not like it.

It's clever to take a well known slogan and tie it in with the product your selling but I just don't buy this whole idea. The slogan "As seen on TV" started with Samuel Popeil and his son Ron Popeil in the 1960's. During this time TV was a very new and exciting thing and even now having an infomercial isn't a small or cheep thing to do. Youtube on the other hand is very cheep and easy to use and just about anyone who can make any type of digital recording and has access to a computer with internet access can post just about anything on it. So saying "it's on youtube" means nothing and because it means nothing I think even less of the product your trying to sell then I did before I even knew it existed.

One other commercial that's been bugging me is the one from The Truth Anti-tobacco. I don't have anything against what they are promoting and hope they keep it up but they have I think 2 variations of the same commercial they play every now and then on the radio that I hear. The main point they are trying to make is that the tobacco industry will target anyone regardless of what their interests or hobbies are. This fact may be true but it's true about any other marketing company out there. Businesses sell things with the intent of people buying it and they want as many people to buy it as possible. This doesn't make them a bad company for doing it. They really need to spend less time picking at the company selling tobacco and more time on the harmful effects of tobacco.

One of the largest tobacco companies in the US is Philip Morris. This company started in 1847 in London. I'm sure they had no clue about the harmful effects of tobacco at that time and you couldn't blame them for it. Sure now they know but it's not like they can just say: "oh ya your right they are bad for you so we're just gonna close shop." this would cost hundreds of jobs and be a huge blow to the economy. Yes they need to start taking steps to wean people off tobacco but any negative comments to the companies that sell them is unproductive and in my mind doesn't help their case. All I see is a commercial trying to play off the ignorance of the listener and I don't buy into what ever they are promoting when they do these kinds of things.