Computer Repair is expensive, save yourself some money!

I have been a PC tech for a few years now and gradual day to day viruses and infections in computers are getting progressively worse. I would like to provide some prevention steps and possible solution steps for those who may be infected or wish to protect themselves.

Protecting and Disinfecting

The basis for good virus protection
starts with a good anti virus and firewall. My top choice is ESET's NOD32 Anti-virus. It is a light weight program that automatically maintains itself with little input needed from the user. It is updated approximently almost ever hour, and is always ontop of the new viruses. Another program I find myself working alot with is Grisoft's AVG. There are two versions of this program. The paid and the free version. Unlike NOD, AVG has a free version of its software available for anyone to download. While this software does carry some ads along the bottom of the program window, it is a solid anti-virus. The paid version comes with a few more advatages and will not let you down. Some Anti-viruses I would stay away from are Norton
, Mcafee, and the Verizon Security Suite. Each of these programs contains a common element, they are fake. These programs are just an excuse to add more processes to your computer and slow it down even more with random scans and hours of updates. Not only that but all of them won't even pickup half the viruses out there. Alot of times what causes once good company names such as these to turn south is the "over the top" amount of security they now include in the programs. It gets the computer "wound up so tight" that going to a webpage is an enormous task for your computer. If you have been noticing a slowness in your computer and you own one of these programs, there is your reason. Uninstall it, try it see if im wrong you can always reinstall it if you don't agree.

Programs that will disinfect or are good to have in case of an emergencys

1. Malwarebytes Anti-malware - The top program around for removing viruses, malware, and any spyware on your machine. This program has been highly reliable over the past few years, especially with the constant new strain of viruses being released. This program can be run in safe and normal mode.

2. Spybot Search and Destroy - Another good program that will take care of todays latest viruses and spyware. The scan will not run in safemode but can be set to run at the computers boot. This includes an immunization function that will protect your computers files from infection.

3. SuperAntiSpyware - This is normally the last program I use toward the end of my cleaning. It will clean up any left over spyware that the bigger programs did not catch. This will also delete infected cookies and temp files.

After running these programs there are a few that will maintain the new state of your machine. To keep the computer at maximum speed and at top performance consider these programs

1. Diskeeper - A defragmenting program that willl reorder the files on your hard drive for optimal performance. As the files that are related move closer together the seek speed of your hard drive will increase greatly. This program is much better than the windows defragger and takes a fraction of the time. On your first run diskeeper may run up to an hour or so but you will notice a steady decrease in the time it takes to finish after running it multiple times.

2. Registry Mechanic - Your typical registry cleaner. This is a good program if you are constantly installing or uninstalling programs. When a program is instaleld it installs key components into the registry that it needs to run. When you uninstall programs sometimes fragments of the program are left in the registry. This program seeks out those fragments and elimanates them. It will also reorder the registry for a faster seek time.

Physical Matenience

The most common computer killer is heat. The normal computer puts out an average of 89-90 degrees fahrenheit. When dust begins to compile together to form commonly known "dust bunnies" it clogs the ventallation and fans within the computer. If the computer is unable to move air in and out of the case off of the parts, it will in a sense "fry" all the pieces in the computer one by one. A good practise to avoid this is to clean the interior of the case. This can be done by unplugging the power cord from the back of the case and grabbing any house hold vaccum. Vaccume up any dust that you may see, after completing this task get some canned air. take the canned air and blow out the rest of the computer, this should expose more dust so have the vaccum ready. Doing this  once a month will prolong the life of the computer and don't forget a clean computer is a happy computer!

Following these steps you should notice a considerable jump in speed and proformance. Any questions feel free to contact me!