Recommendations for Computer Health

Since there are so many threats out there in the Internet world. Here are the things that I think every computer user should check weekly, if not daily

Windows Operating System

1. Update Windows at http://update.microsoft.com/ ( Go to Control Panel to set up Automatic updates.)
2. Make sure your virus software is up to date.(e.g. Norton, McAfee, Grisoft) Sometimes new viruses come out daily.
3. Install and run weekly anti-spyware software (e.g. Spybot)
4. Install and run weekly anti-adware software (e.g. Ad-Aware)

Macintosh Operating System

1. Run Software Update to improve overall reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X.
2. Although viruses are not nearly as prevalent in the Macintosh world, they are not unknown. Norton does make an antivirus software for the Macintosh. Update this automatically or weekly.

Please do all of the above or you may unwittingly become the source of the some of the unwanted email that is so prevalent on the Internet. Or worse you may contract a virus that might crash your computer or slow it to a crawl.

Back Up Your Computer

Learn how to back up your computer against the possibility of a hardware failure. Save a copy of important files onto CD or some other reliable back up media.