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Cliff's
Corner -
Solving PC Issues
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Computers have become such an integral part of
our lives, yet it can be so frustrating when they don't behave as they
should.
By far, the most frequent complaint I hear from
friends and relatives is that their computer
has slowed down.
There can be
several causes for this and most are easy to
remedy:
temporary files, fragmented files, cookies, spyware, malware or even a
PC that is past its prime. If you
just want to just try to speed
up your computer, read the first two paragraphs and come back when you have time to
read the rest.
You don't have to be technically inclined to benefit from this
information. It will be a great stepping stone toward soothing your
frustrations and having a happier relationship with your computer.
Quick Solution to Speed Up Your
PC
Temporary Files:
As you use your computer, Windows creates backup temp files on your hard
disk. Over time,
these files
accumulate and slow down your PC.
Fragmented Files:
As you delete and add files to
your PC, they become
fragmented all over your hard drive,
requiring the read head to jump around the drive to access files.
This slows down file access time and shortens disk life.
Spyware Cookies:
As you surf the net, many web sites silently download
spy cookies to track your surfing habits, then
later present you with popups and
banner ads targeted to your tastes. Though most are
harmless, you can accumulate hundreds or thousands of cookies in just a week of browsing.
When you surf the net, these cookies present you with popup ads
and slow you down.
Fix These Problems:
To clean temp files and defrag your drive, visit
5 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer and
follow the instructions. To delete cookies and other temporary
files,
depending upon your browser,
visit
Internet Explorer or
Firefox
or
Google Chrome
and follow the instructions. I recommend you defrag once a month
and clean temp files and cookies once a week. You should see a
significant difference in speed. If not, then read on, as your problem
may be more serious.
Malware is Serious Stuff
 Malware
(same as virus)
gets its name from malicious software, which
should tell you something.
Malware
silently downloads from rogue web sites as you surf the net or
when you open infected email attachments.
Many music, sports,
lyrics and porn web sites,
as well as "must see" email attachments, are created expressly to download malware
to your pc, most of which is harmful.
Malware
writes new files to your computer and/or modify existing
files and can wreak havoc on your computer. Your PC will
usually slow down significantly (even to a crawl), programs take forever
or won't open at all,
and things don't work right.
Sophisticated
malware may even disable your anti-malware software
to prevent you from removing it or even disable Windows System Restore
feature to prevent you from restoring your PC to an earlier date to get
rid of the offender. If you're lucky, you can remove it with
an anti-malware scan, but often it can only be rid of
by reformatting your hard disk and reloading all of
your software. Some people just buy a new computer, then make the same
mistakes all over again. Clearly it would be easier to just practice
safe computing habits (see bottom of this article for
links to safe computing articles).
Real Danger From Email Viruses
There
are many new virus (malware) emails going around these days urging you to open
"must see" attachments: photos, videos, free downloads, etc. It
is surprising how many people (even you maybe?) still open these attachments, then forward
them to
put their friends at very serious risk.
These email creators are very clever at
tweaking your curiosity. Don't fall for it. If the email doesn't make
sense (like telling you that an account is closed, or that your Amazon
order has been cancelled), delete it. Don't open or click on links.
Opening an unknown email attachment is like opening your door to a
stranger when there have been a rash of home invasions in your
neighborhood. Once they get in, there is not much you can do to defend
yourself and you are usually in serious trouble. You could spend days
trying to get rid of the offender or even have to reformat of your hard
disk and reload all of your software, maybe losing valuable documents
and photos in the process. Clearly it's not worth the risk, but
people continue to do it anyway. The
"I Love You" virus that circled the globe
in year 2000 deleted all of the .jpg (photo) files on PCs of people that
 opened it
(in addition to causing other damage). Wiped, gone, unrecoverable. Don't let this happen to you.
What is safe: Emails from friends with
attachments of photos they took themselves or were forwarded to them
from a friend that took them. Or documents created in this manner.
What is not safe:
Email attachments that are passed around the internet,
even if forwarded from a friend.
Won't Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware Software
Protect Me?
Antivirus/Malware
(AV) software will protect you 99% of the time, but it can only
protect you from malware it knows about. If you happen to open
attachment infected by malware written only a day or two before, then it
may bypass your AV software right into your PC (which is why you should
only open safe attachments). As the AV software teams encounter new malware, they write new
protection code (called definitions) and
download it to your computer.
Which software to buy?
Most of these programs cost
about $40
(which you can load to 3 computers). Free AV software won't do the job
effectively, so spend the bucks and do it right. Also stay away from
software suites that protect you 10 different ways, like Norton Internet
Security. They are notorious for slowing your PC to a crawl. You only
need malware/antivirus protection. I have
used both McAfee and Norton Symantec. While good, both are very
intrusive, slow down your computer and are hard
to remove completely should you decide to. The program I like best is
Spyware Doctor
w/Antivirus from PC Tools and I run
it on all 8 of the PCs I support. It does a great job without the
slowdown. My second choice is
Webroot Antivirus w/Spysweeper. The best free software is
clearly
Spybot, but it does not offer
anti-virus protection.
Scan Your Computer For
Problems
When you first install AV Software, it will
run a complete scan of your PC to locate malware, then present you with
an option to fix these problems. Do that first, then be sure the AV
software is set to 1) update automatically, 2) run automatically once a
day and 3) fix problems automatically. And be sure to renew your
subscription every year, which covers their cost for continual
malware/virus development. For about $2-3 a month, this is cheap
protection. If you don't renew, you won't get updates for protection
against the latest malware to hit the internet and your AV software will
quickly lose its effectiveness.
How Else Can I Protect Myself?
Get Windows 7:
Get rid of Windows XP.
It is
eight years old and a
dinosaur. Slow, not very secure and won't efficiently run
today's software and hardware designed for faster PCs.
Windows 7 is a vast improvement over XP. It is
much faster, more secure and has some great new features
(Windows Vista shares much of the same technology. If you have
Vista and it runs well, you don't really need to upgrade to Windows 7). To enter your PC, malware has to be
able to change and add files to your computer. Windows 7
and Vista have a feature
called
User Account Control
(UAC) that will always ask your permission if something attempts change
a Windows file or write to the registry. When you download something
from a CD/DVD or the internet, UAC will ask your permission to allow
this action and of course you give it. If UAC asks your permission when
you're not loading something, then you know this attempted change may be
malware and you simply disallow it. Windows Vista has
this feature, but the Windows 7 UAC is much improved. Windows 7 is such
a pleasure to use. Fast, great features, secure. What's not to like?
I have upgraded seven of the users I support to new faster computers
with Windows 7 and will change out the last one very soon.
Update
Your Browser:
Use the most current version of your favorite
browser (Explorer 8, Firefox 3, etc) for better protection
(all browsers can have security issues, even FireFox, regardless of what
you read or hear). Newer browser versions are always
more secure with improved
ability to block or warn you
when visiting known malware websites. They also they have a
phishing filter
to protect you from sites that attempt to steal your
personal information.
System Restore Can Save Your Fanny
 Everything
you install and download to your PC writes code to the
Windows Registry,
which has many thousands of entries. Malware does its damage by
modifying existing registry entries and/or adding new ones. Windows 7,
Vista and XP all have a feature called System Restore that allows you to
go back to a previous time in the registry. Let's say today is Monday
and you started having a specific problem on Saturday after surfing the
net. You can restore your PC to Friday's registry backup and poof, the
problem is gone. Yes, it's that simple. If that doesn't resolve the
issue, go back a few days more and restore again. This will resolve most
issues. Note that if you loaded a new software on Sunday, you will need
to reinstall it as system restore has wiped that program's registry
entries.
Important: Do
not turn off your PC or use it during a restore operation. It will
typically take only 10 minutes or so and does the restore after it
reboots your PC. Learn how to use System Restore in
Windows 7 and Vista or
Windows XP.
Should I Buy a
New PC?
If
your PC over 3 years old, it is slower than today's blazing PCs
with faster processors, faster video cards, faster and more memory,
faster and larger hard drives. And now they all come with Windows 7, which
starts and reboots in less than 45 seconds (up to 3 minutes for XP) and
manages hardware and memory far more efficiently.
Windows 7 is very impressive:
fast, very secure and lots of neat features.
For less than $400, you can buy a new loaded up
Windows 7 PC ready to run right out of the box. This is much easier than
trying to upgrade your old one. Then let your children use the old one and keep
them off the new one (statistics show that the more users on a PC, and
the younger they are, the more likely you are to have serious issues). If
a new PC isn't within your current budget, then just
stay with Windows XP until you can buy a new one. If you're curious, run
the
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor software which will analyze your hardware and
software, then present with a list of compatibility issues
you will need to deal with if you decide to upgrade
(and there are likely to be quite a few).
Summary
Hopefully you have gotten this far and now have some understanding about
the causes of PC problems and what to do about them. From this point
forward, make it a habit to practice safe computing habits. For more about
safe computing, visit these two web sites.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c00764395
http://nsit.uchicago.edu/services/safecomputing/ |
