Computer maintenance and protection from attack.

(The second most frequent topic I get asked about)

Computer works slowly

When you first took that new computer out of the box it seemed to work at the speed of light. Then you added your favourite programmes - Microsoft Office Suite, Photoshop, Media Player etc. Bah! It hardly works at all now. You're aware you've got to protect against those nasty viruses so you buy and install that all-singing and all-dancing proprietary anti-virus programme. You then have to wait for what seems like an eternity to open the smallest Word or Excel documents you've saved. Then you struggle on with it for a few months. Meanwhile the younger members of your family have been on it and downloaded all sorts if stuff and now your computer seems to have ground to a halt. Where have you gone wrong?

Windows Operating System

Just when we were getting used to Windows XP, the first operating system for 6 years which did not crash, Microsoft decided that we've got to have Vista. This means we've got a whole new learning experience which we did not need (XP works OK doesn't it?). Something they did not tell us is that Vista hogs a whole lot more memory than XP did. If the shop sold you a computer with Vista and 512k RAM (memory) you're already in trouble.

To find out how much memory you've got, press Ctrl, Alt and Delete on your keyboard to open Task Manager. Click the third tab - Performance. If the total of Physical Memory (K) is less than 1,000,000k (1 GB) you've probably not got enough to run Vista, your usual programmes plus anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-adware, anti-spyware. Ask the man at the shop to put in some more RAM of the same specification using a spare slot. Memory is cheap as chips these days. (Ha ha). Or open your computer and do it yourself.

Whilst you're in Task Manager, check how many processes are running when you first switch on. 40+? This is probably too many. 50+? Definitely too many - your computer is working hard and you haven't asked it to do anything yet.

Computer Protection

If you've installed a proprietary system to protect against viruses, spies, adware, malware, trojans, worms etc it's probably resource-hungry and slowing your computer as it works. Amongst the process running as identified by Task Manager you may find 6-8 relating to this programme. I get all the protection I need from programmes you can download from the internet for nothing. They all seem to work efficiently and quietly in the background. These are my favourites:

AVG Anti-virus

This programme is probably used by 100,000,000 people worldwide, so that's testimony in itself. It gives solid protection against infections, viruses and malware. I set my programme to search for new virus definitions daily and check my computer daily. The download of new definitions is done in a minute or two. I notice a little slowing of the computer when the programme scans all the files in my computer. If this is a problem you can set the scan for a frequency and time of your own choosing.

Ad-Aware 2007

Millions of people use this no-cost programme which scans your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components. It cleans your system effectively but you have to remember to download the updates and run the programme. It's not automatic.

PC Tools Spyware Doctor (part of Google Pack)

When I forget to run Ad-Aware, this programme kicks in automatically and an occasional pop-up tells me it's done its job. Even if I've just run Ad-Aware, Spyware Doctor finds a few more problems to deal with.

Find out from where to download these and other popular security programmes at www.bed.gb.com/downloads.htm

Share your experiences with other colleagues in the serviced accommodation industry in The Forum at www.bed.gb.com/forum/index.php

That was the second most frequent question. The most frequent question - How is everyone else doing in these harder economic times? I'm not going to write the answers in a newsletter. Ask your colleagues the question on The Forum.

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