Tips & Tricks
We would like to give you some free advice, some of which you may want to carry out yourself.Spyware, Adaware & Key Loggers
This is now one of the biggest threats to any computer that uses the internet today. These are programs or utilities that are downloaded onto your computer in the background and generally without your knowledge or authority. In most cases these are harmless, although maybe annoying with displaying popups when using the internet.
Beware though, if you use your computer for internet banking and buying online there are nasties out there called key loggers. These can record your keystrokes and the sites you visit. So make sure you have software which can check for key loggers and which is up to date. It is worth having some Anti-Spyware software, in addition to your essential Anti Virus software, and running them regularly.
Identity Fraud – Secure Wipe
When discarding old PCs, it is especially important to be sure that there is no retrievable data available to the next user. This can be done in several ways; the first and fail safe way is to remove the hard drive which contains your data. This is not an ideal solution if you have many PCs to discard, so another approach is to securely wipe the hard drive with specialised software.
Maintenance - Disk Defragmenter
When installing software and saving data, your hard drive stores this randomly and as more data is added the performance of your PC may gradually get slower. By running Disk Defragmenter every month or so, this moves data together and frees disk space, therefore your computer runs more efficiently.
Where to find Disk Defragmenter:
Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools
Maintenance - Disk Cleanup
Surfing the internet, Microsoft updates and general use of your computer generates temporary files, although these days space is not an issue with large hard drives, it is good practice to run Disk Cleanup monthly to remove these temporary files.
Beware though, if you have been working on documents that have been emailed to you and you have not saved them to your My Documents Folder, these documents may be removed when running disk cleanup. So before working on any document that has been emailed to you make sure you have saved it in My Documents or another safe location.
Where to find Disk Cleanup:
Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools
This information is a guide only; please seek our professional advice if you are unsure of any of the above. Click here to contact us.