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We apoligise for any inconveinience this may have caused. | | E-mail : info@pcmedicuk.net |
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©opyright PC Medic - PC and Laptop repairs, Upgrades and Sales © 2007
This page was last updated on July 19, 2007 |
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| There are some simple steps you can take yourself on a regular basis to help maintain optimal performance of your PC reducing the need to call out an engineer in the first place. |
| | Anti Virus software | | Anti Virus software today is an absolute must. We still visit a large amount of customers that have no anti virus software whatsoever.
Viruses nowadays are far more intelligent programs than they used to be and no matter how vigilant you are with your internet access and sites you visit, if you have no anti virus software or your virus definitions are out of date you will almost certainly be infected. It is widely believed that if you don't open email attachments you're safe. This simply isn't true!.
Many viruses are spread through email attachments, but hundreds are able to download themselves purely by you being connected to the internet no matter what sites you visit or even if you visit a site at all, literally making an internet connection is all it takes.
There are many Anti virus packages on the market nowadays from subscribed services such as Norton Anti virusand McAfee Anti virus, but there are some good FREE versions also AVG Anti virus, and PCcillin , all of which provide access to the latest virus definitions keeping your PC protected from the latest virus threats.
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| | | Spyware Protection | | Spyware is a fast growing problem and causes as many, if not more problems than viruses.
Spyware / Adware can, as viruses do, download itself purely by you making an internet connection, it can also be installed as part of some shareware packages, especially P2P file sharing applications commonly used for downloading music etc.
Spyware has many different symptoms ranging from annoying popup ads, quite often obscene, obviously a concern where young children are using the internet, to internet connectivity and email problems and in extreme cases usernames, passwords, bank details and card details could be compromised.
Again, there are many packages available to help to cleanup and prevent spyware infections including Spysweeper , Spysubtract , and a good FREE one is X-Clean .
Spyware, once infected can be very difficult to eradicate as it embeds itself into the windows registry, temp files, prefetch files, system restore files and sometimes into the winsock files themselves which are used to make your internet connection.
Spyware can also hijack your internet browser ie internet explorer or navigator and prevent you from surfing to various websites if any at all therefore preventing you from downloading software to combat it.
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| Windows System Tools | Disk Cleanup is a utility built into all versions of windows that can help prevent spyware re-installing itself from temp files once removed and generally cleans up disk space of temp and unnecessary files. This is commonly found on the Start menu under programs and system tools.
It is recommended to run this at least monthly, although weekly wouldn't be a bad idea. This only takes a few minutes to run and can contribute to keeping the hard disk clean of clutter. Tick all boxes to remove all temp and unnecessary files. Disk Defragmenter is another utility built into windows that the majority of customers are completely oblivious to.
Defragmenting is one of the most important things you should do on a regular basis to maintain system stability and optimal performance even on the most powerful PC's.
Through general use and access of files, documents, opening programs and internet access etc, files on the hard disk are read then written, not necessarily back to where they were read from and not necessarily as a complete file. Files can be broken into several parts and scattered into various parts of the hard disk, this is known as fragmented. When files become heavily fragmented they take longer to be read from the disk as all the various parts have to be read, then rejoined into a complete file before you can have access to it resulting in slower access times to your files and programs.
Heavily fragmented drives can also result in windows becoming unstable and may contribute towards general protection faults (GPF's), critical errors, and may even result in windows not booting at all.
It is recommended that Disk Defragmenting is carried out at least once a month. Again this utility is found under Start, Programs and system tools.
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