PC Maintenance and Security Questions

I have a feeling that some of my friends and acquaintances are really going to enjoy this particular blog. For whatever reason it is human nature to look for weakness or imperfection in people. After ten detailed pages of notes later, it seems I have another bad habit other than my daily can of soda. Not liking to admit faults like anyone else, I have to say that I don't think this particular habit is as bad as other people with the same bad habit(smile here). As an educator, I think I should be given some slack as I feel this particular habit is caused by a lack of education.

What do bad habits have to do with PC Maintenance and Security? Well, to begin with, I have had the habit of treating my personal computer like a piece of furniture. Honestly, I thought I was taking good care of it. I haven't been dropping it, throwing it, or letting it get dusty and I even clean the screen. Also, my last computer had a lot of crumbs in the keyboard. Being more judicious this time around, I even purchased a keyboard protector for when I'm multi-tasking (this means when I am eating cereal and checking e-mail at the same time). In admittance, I tend to treat all mechanical objects this way. Even after taking auto-mechanics in high school, I still turn up the volume on my radio if my vehicle has any funny sounds! I even take this further by not telling my very mechanical husband about it because I just don't like to deal with it!

However, as I said ten detailed pages of notes later and thanks to Atomic Learning I have come to the realization that my computer is not a piece of furniture simply to be dusted. Initially, I was a felt a little embarrassed by this. A "neat" freak by nature, this new information was like finding out that other people don't spring clean their house or wash windows etc. So now I'd like to share some tips and surprising information about PC Maintenance and Security that I have been learning about through my lab work.

The first video tutorial I chose to view was on "securing Internet Explorer." I chose this tutorial because I currently use Internet Explorer. I also am using FireFox because of current coursework so it was surprising for me to learn that some functions won't work or will work differently if I did a complete switch from FireFox from Internet Explorer and vise verse. The primary purpose of this tutorial was to assist me in disabling, enabling or prompting certain functions under certain tabs. For example, under the security tab at the custom level I was given recommendations on these features. One tip which I gained that I would like to share is about the Advanced tab. The most important changes are made in this tab to avoid having "drive by" installations without me knowing about this. In this tab, it is necessary to uncheck "enable on stall in demand explorer" and "enable on stall in demand (other)."

The second video tutorial I chose to view fell under the "Introduction" section of Atomic Learning. The specific tutorial I viewed here was "Explaining typical problems found on many PC's." I chose this tutorial because I felt I needed an overview to help me better understand the other tutorials. The typical problems which were mentioned included disorganization, malware, spam, loss of privacy, intrusions from the outside world and lack of security. As you can probably guess from my introduction, the surprising part of this tutorial was the problem of disorganization. This video also assisted in briefing me on what I could do about each of these issues. One thing I would like to share from this video is that most of what you can do about these problems is available for free or involves simple common sense and monthly maintenance.
In other words, you can get free anti-virus, firewalls, clean up utilities.

The third video tutorial I chose to watch fell under the "Clean Up and Speed Up Your PC" category in Atomic Learning. Here I viewed a video on "uninstalling unwanted applications."
Not totally uninformed, I knew I had "baggage" on my computer or desktop that I wanted to "dump." In six easy steps, I was guided in how to get rid of programs I was no longer using. What I wanted to share about this that while this seems easy to go to the control panel and uninstall programs, I hadn't been doing this. I was surprised to find out that this was just the first step in computer clean up.

The fourth video tutorial I chose to view is found under the "Organizing Your Computer" category in Atomic Learning. In this category, I chose to view a tutorial on "Installing Roboform." While I have previously been able to manage my passwords, coursework has introduced me to a lot of new resources that require me to manage even more passwords.
In this tutorial, I learned about organizing and generating passwords. There are two important things about Roboform I would like to share. To begin with, it is important that your "master password" is set or anyone you share your computer with can log into any accounts you have online. Another important note about Roboform is that it works with Internet Explorer and FireFox. One surprising piece of information that I learned was that Roboform can "read" when Internet Explorer is saving passwords and auto completes. In other words, they work in conjunction with each other. Another surprising piece of information was that Roboform logs off for you after 120 minutes and that this can be adjusted.

The fifth video tutorial I chose to view in Atomic Learning also was found in the "Organizing your Computer." The tutorial I viewed here was about "managing your passwords with Roboform." The first feature I learned about was using the tab bar feature to create a "1-click" setup for frequent visits to certain sites. I was surprised me here was the ease of use and set up.
The second feature I learned about was "identity editor." The third feature I learned about was the "generate tab." One thing I would like to share about Roboform is that it is good for remembering passwords or even assisting you in generating secure passwords.

The final video tutorial I chose to watch in Atomic Learning was found under the "Introduction" category. This video was about "showing the results of bad security and careless computing."
I chose this video to "scare" myself into better PC Maintenance and Security habits. This tutorial was primarily about problems found on unprotected computers. I was surprised to find out that between "100 to 5,000 spyware components can be found on one system with no security." These include viruses, worms, Tojan Horses, Key loggers, Phishing Scams, Browse High Jackers, and Auto Dialers. While this tutorial made recommendations for prevention that I have mentioned earlier in this blog, I wanted to share that unlike other protective measures anti-virus and anti-spyware protection needs to be kept updated. I was also surprised to find that Microsoft does some of this updating automatically. Most importantly, I was briefed on the results of careless computing. These included a "slow as molasses" computer, tons of pop up ads, loss of Internet connection, error messages, disorganization, and tons of spam. I was surprised that careless computing resulted in pop up ads.

With all this being said, these tutorials were just the beginning of my learning about PC Maintenance and Security. I plan on using this lab as a resource for future learning in this area. I have lots to learn about really taking care of my computer. Here's to happy computers everywhere!