First, before undertaking any kind of major changes BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT FILES!!! You should be doing this at least once a month anyway! It only takes a few minutes to load those onto a cd or dvd, a portable usb drive, or even a full size external hard drive, and the heartbreak of losing all those photos, music, documents etc is so easily avoidable. DO IT. BACK UP FILES NOW! A 50 cent cd vs. hundreds to recover from a dead hard-drive, if it can even be done. There is just no comparison.
Next, if you have not tried a browser other than Internet Explorer (AKA Internet Exploder) why not give Firefox a try? Its default settings are very similar to IE, so there is not much mental stress from making a change, but there is plenty of increase in safety. IE is a favorite target of malicious infections whereas smaller alternative options are not. There are others available but Firefox is probably the best to make the jump for less experienced users. You can not uninstall IE from your computer and it is useful for some applications (especially some gaming) so do not worry about that, just download Firefox and get started! You can change the way it looks using "themes" and put your favorite website as the homepage real easy. Try it out. You can get it for free here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Next you will want to add some security programs. Norton is bloated, overpriced, and not very good. Mcafee is similar. There are many good free antivirus programs out there. I use AVG: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/ There are a lot of people that assume that "Free = Bad" and that Norton, et al must be better because they cost so much. These are generally the same people who think just because a program is bigger, it must be better. "Wow, look at all the megabytes it takes up. It must be great!" (There once was an advertisement of a MS product that was actually based on this idea. Office is better, so the ad said, because it's bigger.) So take it from there. If you do use freeware, feel "free" to donate to the developers, especially if you feel compelled to spend money! There is usually a link on every website.
Before installing new antivirus software, Norton or Mcaffee will need to be completely removed. This can be a little more difficult than you might expect. I will post help for that in a reply to this later. For now get rid of as much as you can by going to start>control panel> add or remove programs(open) and then scroll around to delete anything related to either company. DO NOT RUN MORE THAN ONE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM AT A TIME.
Next I am going to give you a link to a website that you should bookmark/favorite: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/ it is one of the best places to get real computer help and information, however they are a little snippy if you do not follow instructions and post stupid questions. You have been warned! Start with this basic set of maintenance instructions: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=106650 There you will find links to download some other programs. I have ccleaner, auslogic defragmenter (works much better than the windows version), spybot search and destroy, adaware, avg antispyware, and comodo firewall. Your choices may vary but those are kind of minimal requirements. Do not rely on windows firewall, it is not give two way protection and besides it is a microshaft product.
If you already have some sort of infection this is a good set of removal instructions:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 Warning: they will tell you to do the basic maintenance from the link in the preceding paragraph first, so do that now.
Before you pay someone or worse consult with "professionals" that actually get paid based on selling you new or costly replacement parts/software/entire computers, try some good old do-it-yourself work. Hey, you were probably going to throw that old computer away and just get a new one anyway, ya ain't gonna hurt anything!
Try to buy local and/or give an independent store your business, but for good mail order try either of these: http://www.tigerdirect.com/ or http://www.newegg.com/
Good luck and good computing!
:cboy:
Next, if you have not tried a browser other than Internet Explorer (AKA Internet Exploder) why not give Firefox a try? Its default settings are very similar to IE, so there is not much mental stress from making a change, but there is plenty of increase in safety. IE is a favorite target of malicious infections whereas smaller alternative options are not. There are others available but Firefox is probably the best to make the jump for less experienced users. You can not uninstall IE from your computer and it is useful for some applications (especially some gaming) so do not worry about that, just download Firefox and get started! You can change the way it looks using "themes" and put your favorite website as the homepage real easy. Try it out. You can get it for free here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Next you will want to add some security programs. Norton is bloated, overpriced, and not very good. Mcafee is similar. There are many good free antivirus programs out there. I use AVG: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/ There are a lot of people that assume that "Free = Bad" and that Norton, et al must be better because they cost so much. These are generally the same people who think just because a program is bigger, it must be better. "Wow, look at all the megabytes it takes up. It must be great!" (There once was an advertisement of a MS product that was actually based on this idea. Office is better, so the ad said, because it's bigger.) So take it from there. If you do use freeware, feel "free" to donate to the developers, especially if you feel compelled to spend money! There is usually a link on every website.
Before installing new antivirus software, Norton or Mcaffee will need to be completely removed. This can be a little more difficult than you might expect. I will post help for that in a reply to this later. For now get rid of as much as you can by going to start>control panel> add or remove programs(open) and then scroll around to delete anything related to either company. DO NOT RUN MORE THAN ONE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM AT A TIME.
Next I am going to give you a link to a website that you should bookmark/favorite: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/ it is one of the best places to get real computer help and information, however they are a little snippy if you do not follow instructions and post stupid questions. You have been warned! Start with this basic set of maintenance instructions: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=106650 There you will find links to download some other programs. I have ccleaner, auslogic defragmenter (works much better than the windows version), spybot search and destroy, adaware, avg antispyware, and comodo firewall. Your choices may vary but those are kind of minimal requirements. Do not rely on windows firewall, it is not give two way protection and besides it is a microshaft product.
If you already have some sort of infection this is a good set of removal instructions:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 Warning: they will tell you to do the basic maintenance from the link in the preceding paragraph first, so do that now.
Before you pay someone or worse consult with "professionals" that actually get paid based on selling you new or costly replacement parts/software/entire computers, try some good old do-it-yourself work. Hey, you were probably going to throw that old computer away and just get a new one anyway, ya ain't gonna hurt anything!
Try to buy local and/or give an independent store your business, but for good mail order try either of these: http://www.tigerdirect.com/ or http://www.newegg.com/
Good luck and good computing!
:cboy:
I'll do it.. soon..
