Time for a PC check up!

Steps to keep your computer out from becoming under the weather

By Stephen Weber

How annoying is it when a PC crashes suddenly or becomes infected with a virus? It is not only annoying but it can be costly and very time-consuming. For those who want to avoid this and keep their computers running smoothly, here are a few tips:

1. Force your computer to check for Windows updates every week, even if it was just checked a few days ago.
2. Empty your trash can and temporary Internet files.

• To empty your trash, right click on the trashcan and select empty. To empty internet files in Internet Explorer click "tools" menu>delete browsing history>empty files.

3. Get updates for your anti-virus, spy-ware, and ad-ware software weekly and whenever prompted to do so. There are a few good reasons as to why you should.

• There are people who create new viruses every day to attack computers.
• Most updates are critical updates that patch potential security vulnerabilities, memory leaks or other things that slow down a computer.
• Updates might be “definition files,” files that tell the software what to look for, what is a virus, and what is not. They also say what to do by default when a problem is found.

4. Run a scan of your system weekly. However, it does not have to be a "full scan." A lite, express, or custom scan is enough.

• The way to do this varies depending on your anti-virus software. Look for a "start scan" button. Then click custom>select what to scan>start.
• Depending on your computer and what you have selected, this may take two hours or more. Be sure you have a lot of time that can be spared and that the computer will not be needed during that time.
• Bonus hint: Before starting any scan, be sure to turn off any power-saving features, especially the screen saver.
  • To turn off the screen saver, go to your desktop. Right click on empty space and select “properties” (Windows XP and below) or “customize” (Windows Vista).
    • For Windows XP and lower: In the window that appears select the "screen saver" tab. Then in the box where you select a screen saver, scroll until you find "None." Click “apply,” then “OK.” The window will close and the screen saver will be set to off.
    • For Windows Vista: In the window that appears, select “personalization > screen saver.” Select the screen saver tab. In the drop down box of screen savers, select “none,” then click “OK.”

5. Run a full system scan monthly. Yes, I know it is annoying, slow, and normally just picks up a tracking cookie, an internet file that keeps track of what you do on the internet (like when you signed into a web page), but sometimes it might pick up problems not detected in a custom scan.

• In most cases, after one month your software will prompt you to run a full system scan (Example warning: Warning it has been one month since your last full system scan. Click here to start one now.) and/or give a pop-up warning.
• To start one manually, open your software's main screen. Click start scan>full>start.
• WARNING: Full system scans take a very long time to complete. They can take anywhere from five hours, to a full day, or more. The time depends on your computer and what is on it. Be sure all power-saving options are off and that you will not need the computer for a long time.

6. Here is one idea you might not have ever heard of but it is fairly quick, depending on your hard disk size, and is easy to do: Defragment of your hard drive. Every time a file is deleted or moved, it leaves behind fragments of itself. Too many fragments will slow down a computer tremendously.

• Open "My Computer," select your hard drive (often called Drive C), right click and choose “properties.” In the window that appears, click the tab marked "tools." There should be three choices "scan for errors," "defragment files," and "backup." Click "defragment files"
• Select the drive called "Drive C," this is the main hard drive, then click "defragment."
• If a window appears saying the drive does not need to be defragmented, the drive is okay and the program can be quit. If no window appears, the drive should begin to defragment. When finished, you should receive a "defragment complete" window.
• When defragment is done, close the program and return to the window with the three choices noted above.

7. Back up your files. "Backup" will save all of your files incase they are lost. It does so on a removable disk (thumb drive/external hard drive) or another hard drive if there is one. Backup is only necessary if you want to protect files from being lost. Therefore, this step is optional.
8. Now go back to the Drive C Properties window (the one that gives you information about your hard drive.)

• Select "check drive for errors." Click yes in the window that appears, then reboot your computer
• It will start up normally, with the exception that before going to the login screen, it will go to a Check Disk screen. Consider it to be that old "Scandisk" thing that would run when a computer was improperly shut down. Let in run (about 45-60 minuets) but check on it every 10 minuets
• Once complete, review any warnings, then quit. You'll now be brought to your login screen.

All in all, while some of these tasks are time-consuming and a pain, which would you rather have, a smoothly running computer or a slow, virus-infected computer?

High quality TV shows, blogging, and instant messaging. All in one program... For Free.

By: Stephen Weber

 

  Joost.com just might be the best invention since the light bulb. It offers users access to high-quality TV shows, such as "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," and allows them to blog and chat with their friends, all at the same time. The best part? It is free because it is another ad-supported site in which part of the income from ads goes to the participating media companies. In addition, users do not have to worry about updating a membership every 30 days or so. Unfortunately, this means the TV shows are "read-only," or more simply put, users can watch but they can not download. Another nice feature is users can make their own "channel." They can choose only the TV shows and/or episodes wanted, and then play them on demand.

 

"So that sounds great but can run it on my computer?" one might ask.

  Joost for Windows requires a fairly new computer with good graphics capabilities and a fast processor, as well as a broadband Internet connection.

  Joost for Mac requires "Any Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.4, 512 MB or more RAM and about 500 MB free disk space (The Joost software is a 15 MB download, expanding to 35-40 MB on disk. The remainder is used as a cache)," according to the website. Other requirements may apply and can be found n full by visiting: http://www.joost.com/download/macosx/systemrequrements.html

  All in all, Joost is a great application, for those who can run it. The ability to watch TV, blog, and IM with friends at one time, in one application is simply amazing. Joost easily receives five stars.

 

NeoOffice Impress- What's so impressive about it?

I'm the kind of guys who likes doing big, sometimes fancy, presentations. As I don't have Microsoft Office on my Mac, I've been looking at Open-Source (free) alternatives. After browsing the Apple Download site I found a program called NeoOffice that is based off of OpenOffice and only for Mac. Once installed, I decided to play around with Impress, the alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint. I found nothing impressive about it.

I found Impress to be slow for just about everything. Entering text, doing formatting, saving, I didn't dare try animations. In addition, it crashed a lot on me. One of the main causes was inserting apparently too many pictures, which was only 3. Another thing that bugged me was that even with “preview” selected, the only way to try animations was by playing the presentation.

So in the end, I really didn't get to experiment with it too much as it would just close for no reason. There was nothing impressive about this program at all. I'd give it one star out of five.

Disclaimer: This test was done on a PowerMac G4 running OS X 10.3.9, Panther with 1.25 gigs of RAM and a 733 MHz processor speed, which might have caused the results noted to be seen.

Network Magic- Networking made easy.

Network Magic comes in two choices, free or premium edition. It is a very easy to use program that makes managing any sort of network easy.

The free edition comes with a 30 trial of the features included with premium. These include printer and file sharing, remote access to files online, network reports and a few other bonuses. The free edition includes network speed tests, managing your network map, easy connection to a wireless network, and network advice. The premium edition is rather cheap and worth the money however you only really need it if you want to monitor your network traffic and share files, folders and printers. The best part is buy it for one computer and all your other computers running network magic will automatically be upgraded to the premium edition. Network magic runs on Windows XP, Vista and has a beta available for Mac OS X Tiger.

All in all, it's a very nice program that takes the trouble out of setting up a network. Just answer a few questions and bang! All done! Network Magic receives 5 out of 5 stars.

OpenDNS- A faster, safer, smarter DNS service.

The other day one of my online friends had made the remark “OpenDNS is pawnage”. I asked what was it and they said to Google it. So I did just that. What I found was amazing.

OpenDNS (www.opendns.com) is a free alternative DNS (Domain Name System) that has features such as auto correcting misspelled URLs, automatic blocking of malicious and pinching sites (Sites that pretend to be another but really harm your computer), url shortcuts, and a few other features. It is very easy to set up with the step-by-step guide that will get you connected to the service in just minuets. They even provide you with a site that you can use to make sure everything is setup right. If it is, you'll see a message that reads “Congratulations! Your internet is now faster, safer and smarter! Why not demo the feature by trying the links bellow?” The first link was to a fake site that demoed a pinching site. Sure enough, when I clicked on the link, I got the following “OpenDNS has found that the site you tried to navigate to is pinching and for that reason has been automatically blocked.” Next to try was auto correct. I purposely added an extra “o” to www.google.com and also left out the “o” in .com. No matter, OpenDNS automatically corrected my mistake and I was taken to www.google.com

OpenDNS has many more features to try and I'd recommend checking it out wether you are a home user, office user or IT professional. OpenDNS receives 5 out 5 stars.

PCTool's Anti Virus- a free Anti-Virus solution.

Computer viruses are no fun and so is not be protected. Most Anti-Virus that you pay for never seem to do what you paid for. Take Norton Internet Security 2007 as an example. It nags every month to run a full system scan which never seems to find anything but a tracking cookie, something internet sites often use to identify who you are a watch what you do on the site they come from. Completely pointless and a waste of money. On the other hand, there's PCTool's Anti Virus, a free program that automatically protects you from the dangers of the internet by removing Trojans, viruses, spy-ware and ad-ware. However, one downside is that you have to check for updates yourself and every day there is a new update but you really should only need to update once a week. Another problem is it will sometimes identify important files or sometimes just plain old word documents as corrupted and attempt to remove them so be careful what you let it remove.

All in all, PCTool's Anti-Virus is a good solution to costly Anti-Virus services that don't seem to do their money's worth. I give this program a 4 out of 5 stars.

iPhone- Touch Different

Apple's iPhone generated a lot of hype before it even hit store shelves on June 29, 2007. This summer saw long lines and a lot of profit for Apple's latest creation, as well as a lot of problems when it came to activating the phone. While I myself do not have one, I have managed to try it out at the local Apple Store.

The touch screen responds very well and manages to stay rather clean despite all the finger prints. The camera is only a two-mega-pixel and could use a zoom and flash feature. Any application that uses the Internet runs slowly on AT&T's EDGE network. In addition, the buffer rate on streaming videos is terrible and often takes up to five trys before the whole video is fully loaded.

Phone calls were very clear and easy to make. Furthermore, the Internet browsing powered by Apple's Safari browser is very good compaired to other Mobile phones. Pages appear as they do on computers, there is JAVA and flash support, bookmarking, and tabbed browsing. SMS texting is satisfactory although the keyboard is a bit challenging to use and the auto-complete never seems to work correctly. However, when I tried sending a simple "Hi" it took almost a full 60 seconds to send.

All in all, the iPhone could still use some work and would be much better if it could be used on other wireless networks. In the end, I give it four stars.

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