Adware and Spyware

Also available as Trial software:

Desktop Armor, Spyblocs and Spyware Doctor

   Try the above software with no obligations to buy.

Virus Check and removal

Viruses are a well know cause of problems, yet surprisingly many people use dated, out dated or no anti-virus software. What I am also starting to find is that many full price anti-virus software are very hungry for resources, causing computers that are not high spec to run quite slow.

We have two options for you to use, the first being an online scan, which is done for free. The biggest disadvantage to this software is it has no real-time protection

Click here for free online antivirus scan

The option though must be Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus personal edition, a fully featured up to date anti-virus software that uses minimal resources. To get this software follow this guide.

1. Download AVG from here http://www.downloaddossier.com/www/dl/index.php?dlid=8
2. Install the software
3. Update software, until no more updates are available.
4. Now run a full system scan (This may take sometime, but on average about 20 minutes)
5. If viruses are found Quarantine or delete them.
6. If a file can't be deleted you will have to boot to safemode and then run another scan from there.

Registry fix and repair

Through continual deleting, updating, installing and using your computer, errors do appear, that's why it is essential for you to run registry scans and repairs.

Unfortunately there are no good 100% free programs, but there are some very good trial versions which will do full scans and some repairs.

Registry Booster is one of these, one of the latest editions to one of many now available on the market.

1. Download Registry Boaster from here http://www.downloaddossier.com/www/dl/index.php?dlid=110
2. Install the software
3. Now run a full system scan (This may take sometime, but on average about 10 minutes)
4. If errors are found repair them. The trial version only allows you to repair 15 at a time.

 

Startup Group

If you have too many programs running in the background then this can drastically slow down your computer. A quick look at the icons beside your clock will give you a basic idea, although all running programs will not necessarily be listed there.

Please not that it is important to keep your virus checker and firewall enabled.

So to disable programs do the following

1. Click on "START" then "RUN"

2. Type "MSCONFIG" and click on "OK"

3. Click on "STARTUP" at the top right hand side, now delect programs you don't need. Basically what you do need is anti-virus software, firewall software, and any files which you use all the time, ie software for the extra buttons of your keyboard etc.

4. Finally click OK and reboot, and test computer, anything you find disabled, just follow procedure and renable it again

 

To help keep your computer running well, it is important to run maintenance on parts of it, especially the hard drive. Last week we looked at Scandisk, this week we will continue with the same theme and show you how to run Defrag ( Defrag is a process used to rearrange file storage on a disk so that files are not scattered across the surface of the disk. Defragmented files load more efficiently). Defrag should be run at least once per month, to keep things running smoothly.

1. The best way to start Defrag is to double click on “My Computer”, then right click on the “C:” drive and select properties from the list that appears…
2. The Disk Defragmenter screen will now appear, Click on Analyze. This will check your drives and will only take a few seconds. If your result shows a lot of red like mine (see picture below) then click on "Defragment" to continue) Be warned this may take several hours, so don’t run it if you are going to need the computer in a rush. Some people tend to run it over night or before they go to work.
3. From the next menu select “Tools” and then “Defragment Now”
4. Once completed, shut down and use your computer everything should be that bit smoother

 

To help keep your computer running well, it is important to run maintenance on parts of it, especially the hard drive. So this week we will take a quick look at running scandisk (hard drive and software basic maintenance program). Scandisk should be run at least once per month, to keep things running smoothly.

1. The best way to start scandisk is to double click on “My Computer”, then right click on the “C:” drive and select properties from the list that appears…

2. From the next menu select “Tools” and then “Check Now”

3. The scandisk screen will now appear, select all the boxes and click on “Start”. Scandisk will begin. Be warned this may take several hours, so don’t run it, if you are going to need the computer in a rush. Some people tend to run it over night or before they go to work.

   

    

Recommended Computer Maintenance Software

There are three pieces of full price software that we use and find to be highly reliable, these are Wintasks 5 Pro, Winbackup and SpeedUpMyPC. So we contacted the company and asked for a special offer for all our readers, the company in question Uniblue where only too happy to oblige and threw in a few other offers for good measures.

First of all they said we could get an exclusive $10 off for any of the products when ordered separately. Next they surprised us by offering $80 discount if you order their security bundle (WinBackup 2.0 Standard, SpeedUpMyPC AND WinTasks 5 Pro), then they offered to give any new customer a 50% discount on any further product purchases, and finally Uniblue informed us that if any of our readers did not like the product (Or products) they purchased they would give them 100% guaranteed refund.

So what more could we ask for? well nothing but Uniblue set us up a page for the promotion which you can locate here

http://www.lidownloads.com/partners/sites/windowsreinstall/utilitypack/

Newsletters

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