Spring Cleaning for your computer and your peace of mind!
Spring is here, and with it comes the instinct to clean your home, your cluttered schedule, and of course, your computer. Here are some tips to get your computer spring fresh.
Get rid of spyware! This is my favorite anti-spyware program and it's still free after all these years. If you like it, support the makers by buying the pro version and get all the anti-spyware benefits: Spybot Search and DestroyTired of Norton Anti-virus slowing you down? Try Kaspersky Internet Security. Preferred by computer geeks around the world for better performance when scanning and better protection. Remember, if it works better, you are more likely to use it.
Backup, Backup, Backup! You can never have enough backups of your essential data. Here are two great products with easy-to-use software that will make your backup experience a breeze. Go for the terabyte of disk space, you can never have enough: Iomega Prestige and Western Digital MyBook.
Mac users: I'm not totally convinced that Time Machine is the way to go. It's nice in that it backs up all the little Mac functions and settings that you might otherwise forget, but I don't like that I can't externally store something without also storing it on my computer. It's that what external storage is for? I'm using a MyBook for my Time Machine backups, but my spring cleaning plan includes purchasing another external hard drive to store stuff I want to archive.
And of course, if your Windows computer is really slow, it's time to reinstall. This is not an easy process, I usually line up some movies or housecleaning for the day while I'm waiting for Windows to install and then download all it's updates. Then there's reinstalling all your software and all your preferences, and all your mail. It's an all day project, but you and your computer will be much happier. Alternatively, you can pay someone $200-250 to do this for you (and probably put their own proprietary software on there - Best Buy, I'm looking at you) but don't be intimidated: if you want it done right, do it yourself.
http://www.cyberwalker.com/topic/36
http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2109p156id111652.htm
Tip: Have all your discs ready to reinstall: Windows disc, Office disc, your printer disc, etc. Try to have a another computer to access the internet for those drivers that you will need to get while your other machine is down.
