It has recently been brought to my attention that one of the major obstacles that some people have to making money online is a serious lack of computer knowledge and expertise that often leads to computer problems. Not so much that they are “computer stupid” as some have told me, but as I tell them, they are simply uninformed. I have seen a few get a brand new computer and boldly go out there with nothing to protect them from viruses, adware, malware and the mirad of things out there that plague us all.
They get out here on the net, totally uninformed that these dangers exist and want to get started in an online business. They figure it out right away that the internet is a golden opportunity to start up an online business with very little start up costs and they end up with computers so virused that they can’t do anything except stare at a screen offering them an anti-virus program that is actually a part of the virus that infected them in the first place, or their computer is so slowed down by adware that their brand new computer can barely move from one page to another.
Now that is good for me on the one hand, because as a side line, I fix their problems for a nominal fee, but on the other hand, you know it would be so much nicer for everyone if they never had the problems at all.
I’ve had to tell some that they needed to take their computer into a specialist to remove all of the virus from their computer before any anti virus program could be added to their computer. (After all, how many can I fix in a day?) A few of them I have cleaned myself, but more often than not, I have reformatted the hard drives and reinstalled windows for them and helped them to set up to not have the issue again. Some of the newest bugs out there are just that nasty.
When it comes to your anti virus program, personally, I hate the freebies. You know that some tools are only worth what you pay for them and if they are free and something goes wrong, you know that the freebie can’t afford a support desk to help out the customer.
My personal favorites for anti-virus programs are McAfee and Norton. They are still the top two out there and when it comes to anti-virus, personally, I wouldn’t mess around with anything less than one of the best. A good anti virus will take care of spyware, and adware plus have a good firewall to keep trojans at bay. I have found these two over the years to be all that I needed for all of the intrusion issues.
When it comes to my registry and other issues, I use some free toys, but I also use the reasonably priced things that there are out there. Cleaning your registry at least once a month is one way to keep things moving smoothly on your computer as the registry is the tool that tells your computer where the files are stored. It tells it how a file relates to a program and where to find it. Basically, the registry is a map your computer follows to a file or folder or dll that tells it either what to do next or what file to bring up for you. It would really be sad to try to bring up a picture of Aunt Jane and have a picture of Uncle George come up instead, as an example. Now what if you remove that program and the registry doesn’t get the changed? Or you moved all of your pictures from your hard drive to a back up system or another device? Using a registry cleaner will remove all of the invalid paths that can result and speed up your computer by the virtue that it is no longer searching or tripping over maps to files that are no longer in the same place.
In summary, it doesn’t matter if you are planning an online business or not. Take care of your computer with a great anti virus program and just some general maintenance tools. It will keep you happier with the performance of your computer, and save you and probably a good technician a lot of time being frustrated with a computer that has just gotten all kinds of mucked up.