Computer Technology Tip

What You Don't Know May Hurt You

I'm sure you have heard of computer viruses and the damage they can do to a computer. Some of you may be knowledgeable about spyware and the problems it can cause. Perhaps you are not aware that there are certain maintenance items that must be done in order to achieve a stable, crash free, and virus/spyware free machine. Maybe some of you are scared to touch anything beyond what you already know. If so, your computer is headed down the road toward problems. Maybe not today or even next week, but in the future it will fail because computers don't run forever without maintenance. This month's article is directed to those of you that ignore computer maintenance.

A typical scenario may be a situation where you bought a computer and it had anti-virus protection installed. Did you know that an anti-virus program is only good for 3 months after you first start up the computer? After this short period you must pay to keep your computer up to date to protect you against the latest viruses. Even if you have a year's worth updates it must be renewed to keep you protected. What about spyware protection? The same thing applies. An anti- virus program is only good against viruses. You need 2 separate programs or modules within a suite of programs to protect you. Some of you are well aware of this and keep you computers up to date. Even if you do, how do know that you don't have a virus or spyware program running in the background? Just because you have an up to date anti-virus/spyware program protecting you doesn't necessarily mean you are free from malicious programs. You need to perform a scan from within the anti-virus/spyware program to be sure. Start your anti-virus/spyware program, check the last time it was updated (most are updated daily) and run a scan. Typical anti-virus/spyware programs found on computers come from Norton and McAfee. A few others that may exist on your computer as it came from the factory may be Trend Micro and Panda.

Without the proper updated antivirus/spyware programs installed you may face situations like keystroke loggers. These silent programs send each keystroke you type over the Internet typically to foreign countries. With your personal information in their hands they can be in position to steal your identity and make your life miserable. Another is making your computer part of a "botnet", where your computer becomes a robot tool on the Internet to help transmit Spam. Still others may just steal whatever they can find on your computer such as passwords and e-mail addresses. There are literally thousands of these programs freely roaming the Internet looking for a home. Hopefully they won't end up in a Hershey's Mill computer.

In addition to keeping yourself protected you also need to do regular maintenance. Usually once every month you should run the Disk Cleanup utility followed by running the Disk Defragmenter program. Disk Cleanup rids your computer of unneeded junk or temporary files that have long ago been discarded by the computer and will n ever be needed again. These programs can be found by clicking Start, moving the mouse to All Programs > Accessories > System Tools. Click the Disk Cleanup utility and OK the window. Next place a check next to each item. OK the window and answer "YES" to let the program do its job. You will have to repeat the above location instructions to start the Disk Defragmenter program. Click Disk Defragmenter and when the program opens click the Defragment button. If you have not run Disk Defragmenter before, I recommend that you run it twice for optimum results. So easy a caveman can do it!

What I have covered in this article is the minimum maintenance that is required for both anti-virus/spyware, system cleanup, and tune-up on your computer. If you do this on a routine basis and not let your computer degrade you will enjoy much more reliable computing. Keep in mind my past articles have covered this topic in more detail and have offered specific software program recommendations to keep your computer working above the minimum level. For optimum performance refer to the November 2004 TV-Guide article and its update in the October 2006 issue. The May 2007 edition has anti-virus/spyware software recommendations. In the near future selected Computer Tips articles will appear on-line at our new Web site www.hersheysmill.org. You can check it out now and learn about the history of the Mill, the beginnings of Mill construction, current Activities, and more.

To get answers to your questions about overall computer maintenance and other recommendations please come to the PC Club meeting. We meet the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM in Winfield Hall.

Don Trauger

To get answers to your questions about computers, please come to the PC Club meeting. The computer club meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM in Winfield Hall.

On this website Calendar has a week's view of activities and events similar to the month's guide.