protecting your computer http://www.computersight.com/tags/protecting your computer New posts about protecting your computer Five Simple Ways of Protecting Your Computer http://www.computersight.com/Communication-&-Networks/Security/Five-Simple-Ways-of-Protecting-Your-Computer.100405 This guide describes five simple, but effective ways of protecting your computer. These five steps will protect your computer from viruses, programs designed to damage and destroy your computer; Trojan horses, programs finding and exploiting your personal details and hackers, people wanting access to your computer for a number of malicious reasons.

  1. New viruses are created everyday, for this reason you should make sure your operating system (whether it be Windows, Macintosh or any other system), these updates generally pop up onto your screen every now and again, because your computer automatically searches for them. Don't think, oh I can't be bothered to download this update and chose download later, download it now it is made to protect and improve your computer. The same thing applies for internet browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer etc... ).
  2. Make sure you have up to date anti-virus software. Anti-virus software will prevent viruses from entering your computer. I recommend Norton anti-virus but if you don't want to spend anything on Norton then the free version of AVG anti-virus is an excellent piece of software and can be downloaded from here. As soon as you have installed your anti-virus software, I recommend you run an immediate virus-scan of your computer. This will make sure your computer isn't already infected with a virus, if it is the virus will be destroyed. From then on I would advise scanning your computer for viruses every 2-3 months.
  3. Get a firewall, you should already have one built into your operating system, but most of these are inadequate and easy for hackers and Trojan horses to get round. For this reason I suggest that you download Comodo firewall which is excellent and free, it can be downloaded from here. This will keep Trojan horses and hackers out of your computer, thus protecting your personal details.
  4. This one is for windows users only, sorry to those of you on different operators. Running a windows OneCare safety scan will protect your computer, clean it up and increase its performance. These scans take an hour or two, but are well worth it and you can still use your computer whilst the scan is running. You can run a scan by clicking here.
  5. Spybot search and destroy is an amazing piece of free software. It protects your computer from spyware, scans for spyware that may already be in your system and destroys any spyware it finds. You can download it from here. There are also tutorials describing how to use Spybot, on the website mentioned.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article, if you decide to follow any of these steps. Your computer will be better protected from viruses; Trojan horses; hackers and spyware. These steps may also improve the performance of your computer. I will not be held responsible for any side effects that may occur from following this guide (I don't think there will be, but just in case).

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