Top 5 Things Every Windows Users Should Know
- Stop using Internet Explorer as your Internet browser Most viruses come through this browser as well as through your e-mail program. Hence number two . . .
- Stop using Outlook or Outlook Express as your e-mail client
- Use a free anti-virus program like Free AVG.
- Use a free spyware program like Ad-Aware Free.
- Backup, backup, backup.
Back to the top . . .
Instead of using Internet Explorer, use Firefox It's free.
There are folders on your computer that contain browser history (regardless of how much and often you clear this history. These folders also contain your Outlook Express deleted e-mail correspondence after you've erased them from your Deleted items folder (including all of your incoming and outgoing attachments). These programs aren't safe in any sense.
Use Thunderbird for your e-mail program. It's free.
It is said that you should never open an attachment that comes from someone you don't know but most viruses come from people you know. This is because many virus are automatically attached to your Internet Explorer e-mails without your being aware of it.
Another option is to use an e-mail client that is web based, like Gmail, it's free although it might not be convienient for you. I use both. I forward my Gmail to my Thunderbird account automatically. This can help you have the best of all worlds.
The reason I like to do e-mail this way is that I can set Gmail to send a copy of my mail to Thunderbird. This way, if my system fails, I still have my e-mails saved somewhare other than my computer's hard drive.
Backup! It's free. If you get a virus; if you have an operating system problem; if you have a hard drive failure—these things can happen anytime.
Don't worry about your programs (I assume you have paid for them and have the software handy somewhere), create a folder that has all your important files in it and then backup this folder every day you use you computer.
One way to do this is to get a USB flash drive and save a copy of your "files" folder every day. Just give it today's date. If you run out of room, delete the earlier backups.
Since I love the word "free", My next article is about free software for Windows.