Recommendations to keep your computer safe.
(Apr 19 2011) - Rigoberto Rivera
During the day I was reading an article in the local newspaper and
remembered that on several occasions I have consulted on it.
Bellow found the six councils
included on the article and additional recommendations.
1.
Keep the security system (i.e.:
antivirus, firewalls) updated on your computer,
Do
Not Click any
suspicious updates or applications can make you doubt.
2.
Do not enter your Facebook
credentials or email on any window or screen that appears if you have not
requested
3.
Do Not complete surveys or
download applications or in exchange for viewing a content.
4.
Report content to Facebook via the
x that appears to the right of each update, If you already downloaded the
application fraudulently remove and take away all access to your privacy
settings on Facebook.
5.
If you lose access to your account and asked for help to Facebook.
Checks two or three times - that
the message you receive to restore access is legitimate.
6.
Cybercriminals addresses are masked to appear as the "@ facebook.com".
Furthermore, the blue and white colors are easy to imitate.
The real message should contain no spelling errors,
should not come from similar names - like "Your FaceBook.com"
or
ask to change the password without your having asked before.
About updates to the operating system ("Windows") always recommend them
manually, but these are designed with a positive purpose in mind are not
always tested in all types of computer models, my personal recommendation is
upgrade your system once it is available the new "service pack ".
In addition to antivirus updates are necessary at all times and recommends
keeping them in automatically.
Know the name of your antivirus and type of notice pop-up windows, ignore
messages that appear suspicious.
Any brand of anti-viruses
recognized is good if it updated.
Anyone agency will request personal information via your computer or a phone
call, just give this information when you generate the call or initiated the
section, i.e. if you call
the bank or try to make an online purchase.
I never trusted anyone who looks suspicious request information indicating
whether the person you are going to call the agency and shall provide the
information.
Also remember if something is too good or easy is not real, my
dad said: "Nobody gives' anything without obtain something in return"
Slow PC? Optimize your computer for peak performance
The following tips can help improve your computer's performance and help make your computer run faster. The examples in this article are for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. However, these procedures work for all versions of the Windows operating system, with some slight variations from version to version.
These tasks use utilities provided within Windows, so you can run them—free of charge and as often as you’d like—to help you achieve the best system performance and to help improve computer speed.
Note: This article does not address or recommend tinkering with the registry files. Such activities can be detrimental to your computer and should only be attempted by properly trained professionals.
Clean up disk errors
Run once a week
Whenever a program crashes or you experience a power outage, your computer may create errors on its hard disk (sometimes referred to as a hard drive). Over time, the errors can result in a slow PC. Fortunately, the Windows operating system includes several PC tools, including a Check Disk program, to identify and clean any errors on your computer and to help keep it running smoothly.
Note: You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps. If you aren't logged on as an administrator, you can only change settings that apply to your user account.
Run Check Disk:
-
the Start menu, click My Computer.
-
In the My Computer dialog box, right-click the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us, this is the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and then click Properties.
-
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab. In the Error-Checking section, click the Check now… button. A Check Disk dialog box appears.
-
In the Check Disk dialog box, select all the check boxes, and then click Start.
-
You will see a message box that says you can schedule the disk check to start the next time you restart your computer. Click Yes. The next time you restart your computer, it will automatically run through a disk check before displaying your login screen. After the disk check finishes, Windows will automatically bring you to your login screen.
Note: Check Disk can take more than an hour to check and clean errors on your computer.
Remove temporary files
Run once a week
Your computer can pick up and store temporary files when you're looking at webpages and even when you're working on files in programs, such as Microsoft Word. Over time, these files slow your computer's performance. You can use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool to rid your computer of these unneeded files and to help your PC run faster.
Run Disk Cleanup:
-
In the Start menu, click My Computer.
-
In the My Computer dialog box, right-click the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us, this is the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and then click Properties.
-
In the Properties dialog box, click Disk Cleanup.
-
Disk Cleanup calculates how much space you can free up on your hard drive. After its scan, the Disk Cleanup dialog box reports a list of files that you can remove from your computer. This scan can take a while depending on how many files you have on your computer.
-
After the scan is complete, in the Disk Cleanup dialog box, click View Files to see what Disk Cleanup will discard (if you accept the suggestions). You can select and deselect check boxes to define what you wish to keep or discard. When you're ready, click OK.
-
You can also select the More Options tab within the Disk Cleanup screen to look for software programs you don't use much anymore. You then have the choice to remove these unused programs.
Optimize your data
Run once a week
As you add programs and files to your computer, it often breaks files side by side to increase the speed of access and retrieval. However, as files are updated, your computer saves these updates on the largest space available on the hard drive, often found far away from the other adjacent sectors of the file.
The result is a fragmented file. Fragmented files cause slower performance because your computer must now search for all of the file's parts. In other words, your computer knows where all the pieces are, but putting them back together in the correct order—when you need them—can slow your computer down.
Windows includes a Disk Defragmenter program to piece all your files back together again and to make them available to open more quickly.
Note: Windows 7 and Windows Vista are preconfigured to run Disk Defragmenter on a weekly basis. If you would like to run the tool manually or to adjust the schedule, click the section for your specific operating system.
Run Disk Defragmenter:
-
In the Start menu, click My Computer.
-
In the My Computer dialog box, right-click the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us this is the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and then click Properties.
-
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab, and then, in the Defragmentation section, click Defragment Now....
-
In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, select the Volume (most likely your Local Disk C:) at the top of the screen, and then click Analyze.
-
After analyzing your computer, the Disk Defragmenter displays a message stating whether you should defragment your computer. Press Defragment to clean up your computer, if necessary. The Disk Defragmenter reorganizes files by placing them together and sorting them by program and size.
Make Internet Explorer run faster
The Internet is everywhere—from the home to office to the classroom. We use it to communicate, to work, to play—and even occasionally to waste time.
Yet there's nothing more frustrating than having this technical marvel at our fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, only to wait while our computers access it at a crawling pace. Thankfully, Windows Internet Explorer provides some useful options for quicker web surfing.
Reduce the size of your webpage history
Internet Explorer stores visited webpages to your computer, organizing them within a page history by day. Although it's useful to keep a couple days of web history within your computer, there's no need to store more than a week's worth. Any more than that and the collected webpages can slow down your computer's performance.
-
In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
In the General tab, under Browsing history, click the Settings button.
-
Under History, find the Days to keep pages in history: box. In the box, select 1, and then click OK.
Don't save encrypted webpages
