Tech Tip of the Day

Everyone knows that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. One of the biggest problems with most of the computers I work with is they don't have enough protection on them. I'm not going to say that the "Big Expensive" antivirus programs isn’t any good, but I will say that there are programs that are completely "Free" that work as well or better than most. These are as follows, Avast as your antivirus, Malwarebytes as your secondary protection (in case something gets past Avast) and Advanced Systemcare Pro 4. This cocktail of programs has saved me more than once.

First off Avast, this program is awesome. It will keep your computer from getting infected from as many viruses as the non-free competitors. The people who write viruses are out to steal, destroy and corrupt your computer and the information held inside of it. Most of my time working in the field as a tech is undoing what these people are doing to people like you. Most of this can be avoided by using this program. The pop-ups from Avast are there to protect your best interest, don't just trust everything as being safe. If this program says that something needs to be checked, take the 5 minutes and let it do its job. Most of the calls I get for Virus removal is because people didn't think that the pop-ups were important and trusted whatever is was and BOOM, Time to call the Techman....

Second, Malwarebytes, another awesome program. If you think for some reason your computer might have a virus on it already, this is your program. This program will search your entire computer and remove everything from cookie files, adware to the pesky Trojans, Rogues, Worms and Fake Viruses. This program ROCKS! Just run it in "Quick Mode" and let it do its thing. Should take anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours depending on how big your hard drive is and how many things there are to correct and remove.

Third, Advanced Systemcare Pro 4. This stand alone total system optimizer. This program has the ability to do everything to your computer that no one ever does. It will defragment your hard drive. It will remove the junk that builds up in your computer over time from cookies, to the recycle bin no one likes to empty. It will clean your registry and remove all the broken links that are just there taking up space. Also it will, just like an antivirus, search for spyware. I personally tell all of my customers to run this program every Friday afternoon when they get home from work, this way your computer is awesome for the weekend of Blogging.

All of these can be downloaded from Cnet.com and the type the name in the search bar. This is a "Trusted" site

Until next time.....

Just remember "If it pops up, it is now on your computer." But it's nothing running a simple little program can't remove.