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Mobile PC Medic, Inc:
The Top Ten Ways We Screw-Up
Our PCs*
- Letting our kids anywhere near our computer.
a. If it’s an office or work computer, then have your family use another computer.
b. Many of the virus, adware, and spyware traps on the Internet are geared
specifically toward our children--they make noise and flash lights and promise
free stuff.
c. Children often drop, spill or stick things into computers. Computers
generally do not react well to such treatment.
- Browsing unsafe Internet neighborhoods
a. Porn
b. Gambling
c. Free Downloads (music, movies, games, smileys/emoticons, Barbie outfits, screensavers, ringtones, etc.)
- Not backing up
a. Often enough or completely enough.
b. Trusting our backup too much (Remember that a backup is not a backup if it is
the only existing copy of our stuff.)
- Worrying so much about filling up our hard drives, that we delete critical, useful files.
a.
If unsure, don't delete it.
- Reckless troubleshooting
a. Deleting files at random, when we don’t know exactly what we’re deleting.
b. Messing with settings that we don’t understand.
c. Not keeping track of changes we make so that we can undo if needed.
- Not making a recovery disk and Losing track of where our Operating System and Program disks are located.
a. Remember, over the average 3 to 5 year lifetime of our computers, it is almost a sure bet that we will have to reload our Operating System and
software programs at least once.
- Forgetting passwords.
a. We need to walk the fine line between having a password
we can remember and having a password that is not easy for a hacker to guess.
Do not use children's, parent's or spouse's names, birthdays or any other information
that would be readily available through public records.
- Not using antivirus or anti-spyware or using more than one at a time, and not keeping them up-to-date.
a. Antivirus programs see each other as viruses and having more than one antivirus program running at a time will cause lots of problems.
b. Antivirus programs are dumber than dirt. They will only look for the
viruses they have been told to look for. If we do not keep them updated,
they will not see any newer viruses and will let them in.
c. Anti-spyware/adware
programs are not the same as Antivirus programs. It is OK to have more than one anti-spyware/adware program running at a time,
but we need to be sure to use a legitimate program such as Adaware or Spybot
Search and Destroy, because some malware masquerades as antivirus programs or
anti-spyware/adware programs.
- Using external storage for primary storage.
a. To be effective, a backup MUST be redundant.
b. USB External Drives are slower and less reliable than internal drives and should be used as backup storage only.
c. Not using a battery backup.
- Not using battery backup/surge protection
a. Power surges and lightning strikes can kill
our computers or cause unsaved data to be lost. We should all have surge protectors and always turn off
our computers during storms.
b. If our data is very precious, it is also a good idea to purchase a UPS
(Uninterruptible Power Supply). If we experience a power surge or power outage,
a UPS will keep our computers on battery so that we can shut them down normally
without any loss of data.
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