Too many toolbars, add-ons or extensions can slow down your browsing experience. Is the top portion of your browser congested with toolbars? Did you know that even if a toolbar is not, in itself dangerous, that if it isn't written with your computer’s security in mind, it can be an open door for malicious Internet computer virus attacks? In our opinion, the "MyWebSearch" toolbar is good example of a toolbar that is weak in the security area and allows malicious software to creep onto your computer. Toolbars are software and at minimum, reduce the web page display area, display annoying and unsolicited information and slow down your Internet browsing experience. At Computer PC Medic, a Fort Collins Computer Repair company, we have seen computers with 6 or more toolbars displayed.

Sadly, most of the toolbars are probably not something you wanted installed. So where do these, often times useless, many times dangerous, toolbars come from? Whether you are using the Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or some other Internet browser, this article can help you. It used to be that when you installed a software package, you only installed the required software. For several years, now, even reputable companies are imbedding their installations with a free toolbar. If you are not careful and click "Next" to hurry through the installation process, you can end up with an unexpected and unwanted toolbar. To be proactively safe, if you land on a website that offers you their free toolbar (e.g. "Inbox.com", a homepage hijacker), do not install it.

Toolbars are embedded in many installation packages. There are thousands of Internet-accessible, free software packages, that are available for installation, at the click of a mouse. This includes software products like, new browsers, snake-oil fix-all repair programs, social toolbars, office software products, free games, and movie and audio players. In addition, installing new office hardware, such as, printers, routers, external hard drives, etc., can also install an unwanted toolbar, if you're not careful.

So what should you do when you see a new toolbar that you didn't ask for? Most legitimate toolbars can be removed through your Control Panel. On a Windows XP computer, look for "Add or Remove Programs" and on Windows Vista and Windows 7 computers, look for "Programs and Features". Locate the toolbar name and uninstall it. Remember that merely disabling it, through your browser, doesn't remove it from your computer.

To get to the toolbars and extensions, in your browser, follow the clicks below.

· Google Chrome: <click> Wrench -> Tools -> Extensions

· Firefox: <click>Tools -> Add-ons Manager -> Extensions

· Internet Explorer: <click>Tools -> Manage Add-ons -> Toolbars and Extensions

While you are looking around, disable any of the extensions that you don’t need. You can always go back and re-enable them if you find you need them.

We realize that there is no antivirus software capable of providing 100% protection against viruses, etc.  With that in mind, we have had great luck with Kaspersky 2012 Antivirus and Kaspersky 2012 Internet Security.  In 2012, Kaspersky added a cloud technology feature to help reduce the database size, on your computer, and added a URL advisor that can indentify dangerous URL's before you click them. We like this product and use it on all of our office machines and laptops. You might want to give it a try. It could save you from losing precious productivity time and worse yet, identity theft.

Whether you are dealing with a home office, business office or enterprise office, all devices, i.e. desktops, laptops, servers, printers and VOIP devices need to be able to "talk" to each other and to the Internet.  This is accomplished by networking them all together.  The device that handles the networking is called a network router.  Assuming the router has wireless capability, you will be able to connect wired and wireless devices together.  All computers, the Internet modem and printers have to be connected to the network in order to share resources.

Today, most printer manufactures offer printers that not only connect, using the old style method of USB connections, but also wired network connections and optionally, wireless.  The only purpose of wireless capability, in a printer, is to allow you to place the printer in an area, outside of cable range, from the network router.  If you are going to place your printer within network cable reach of the network router, save your money and don't buy a wireless capable printer.  We have seen expensive wireless printers sitting 10 feet away from the network router.

In most cases, a network printer, with only a wired cable connection, will serve your printer needs.  Networks cables, called CAT cables, are quite inexpensive and allow you to easily run 50' lengths.

Back in the good old days, when you purchased a Windows XP computer, the manufacturer provided a set of operating system and application restore CD's.  Then, if you ever had hard drive failure, you could purchase a new hard drive and use the restore CD's to get your computer up and running again.  With today's Windows 7 computers, you don't get any CD's.  In fact you don't get any applications either, accept for a trial version of Microsoft Office, maybe a trial version of an antivirus software and possibly some other useless software.

Here are a couple of things you need to do right away.  The first thing to do is to backup the system image, in case of hard drive failure.  Click the circle, with the Microsoft symbol, in the lower left corner of your desktop.  Then click the following:  “All Programs”-> "Maintenance" -> “Backup and Restore” -> “Create System Image”, to create a set of system restore DVD’s.  You have the option of creating the system image to either CD's, DVD's or to an USB external hard drive. I suggest DVD's or the easiest is to create a file on your external hard drive.  Do this again after you install most of your application software.

Next, you need to create a System Repair Disc.  To do this, click the circle with the Microsoft symbol, in the lower left corner of your desktop.  Then click the following:  “All Programs”-> "Maintenance" -> “Create a System Repair Disc”. Insert a blank CD when instructed and then click "Create Disc".

Make sure to label all of you disc's and store in a safe and memorable place.

If you live in Fort Collins, Colorado or vicinity and don't feel comfortable running these steps yourself, call us at (970)372-1231 and we will set up a time to meet with you and help you.

1. Consider all emails as potentially dangerous.
2. The "From:" field can be easily faked to look like it came from someone you know.
3. Be very suspicious of any email with no subject or "RE:" as the subject .
4. Be very suspicious of any email with no textual content and only a website link or attachment.  Attachments can contain dangerous links to virus infected sites or infected software executables.
5. Do not click on a link or attachment unless you were expecting an email from the sending person.
6. If you aren't sure about the email, it might be a good idea to call the sender.  If they didn't send the email, ask them to quickly change their email account password and have their computer scanned for viruses and spyware.

To reduce the risk of your email contact list from being used to perpetrate one of these nasty email crimes, make sure you use a strong password to protect your email account.  Secondly, install a good antivirus software on your computer.  At the time of this writing, Kaspersky 2012 Antivirus or Internet Security is a great choice.

Computers, like all electronics will fail in some way, some day.  Other than cooling fans, your computer has one major moving part, and that is the disk drive.  Depending on the type of disk drive, it is spinning between 5400-7200 RPM (RPM stands for revolutions per minute).  All of your data, operating system and programs are located on your disk drive.   Even if your disk drive is in good physical health, your computer can be attacked by a computer virus, suffer hardware failure or file corruption, that will prevent you from accessing any of your data.  This can happen without warning.

At Computer Pc Medic we believe that it is imperative that all computers have some type of backup solution in place.   Small businesses need to have all customer records and other important computer data backed up at least once per day.  The more often your data is modified, the more often it needs to be backed up.  Don’t count on your computer working tomorrow or even an hour from now, if you value your business.

So what are your computer data backup options?  For small businesses with multiple computers, a NAS or network attached storage solution is the best approach.   Take a look at the Synology DS209 and DS210+ models as an example of good backup solutions.  Building a Microsoft Windows Home Server is another excellent solution. We can do this for you!  A NAS can backup all computers in the network, share printers and even provide remote Internet access to your data. 

For home or school computers, pick the desk or portable version of the USB Seagate Freeagent GoFlex External Drive.  This drive series has great backup software, including an immediate backup option. At Computer Pc Medic, computer repair in Fort Collins, we are committed to helping you with a data backup solution for your home, home business or small business.  If you need your data for your business activities, don't wait until it's too late.

We also specialize in data recovery and computer virus removal, as well as other computer repair services.  Call us at (970)372-1231 for a free estimate or see our website at Computer Pc Medic to schedule an appointment.
 

1. Your computer is significantly slower or you are getting blue screens.
2. You can not connect to the Internet.
3. A professional looking antivirus screen displays and appears to be scanning your computer. It tells you your computer is infected and you need to buy a product from them. (DON'T DO IT!)
4. There are strange popup message boxes flooding your desktop.
5. A message box says your computer is having hard drive failure or not enough memory.
6. You can not start any of your application programs.
7. Your attempts to go to a specific website are met with a redirection to another website.
8. Your computer will not boot up to the operating  system.
9. Desktop icons, personal data, and most recently used programs and files lists are missing.  The "Start Program" folders might also be empty.
10. You can't get into the "Task Manager".
11. Your antivirus program is disabled and can't be enabled.
12. The computer locks up.
13. Your firewall has been turned off.
14. Your antivirus has been turned off and any attempt to turn it back on, fails.

The sad reality is that you might have to repurchase some or all of your software and even purchase a new printer.  Many of our Computer Pc Medic customers are now having to make the move to Windows 7, so it seems like a good time to spell out some general guidelines.  Hopefully, this article will help make your Windows 7 computer purchase as informed and painless as possible.

Here are some things to do before making that move to Windows 7:

1.  Make a list of all application software you are are using and are dependent on. Include any specialized software, i.e. Quickbooks, graphics design, sight-impaired, and software specific to your field of expertise.  Check the software manufacture’s website to see if they claim the product will run under Windows 7.  Some manufactures will provide a free Windows 7 compatible upgrade.  If not, you will have to purchase a new copy of the product.  NOTE: Before purchasing any new software, make sure it will work in Windows 7.
    
2. Take note of all printers that are either connected directly to your computer or to your network.  Write down the manufacturer and model number of each printer.   Check the manufacturers support page, for each printer, for new Windows 7 drivers and application software.  If the software does not exist, you will have to purchase a new printer.  Consider buying a network enabled printer, which will plug directly into your router and will permit all of your computers access at all times.
    
3. If Windows XP software compatibility is not an issue, purchase a 64 bit (CPU) computer with Windows 7 Home Premium, the 64 bit version.  No matter which version of Windows 7 you purchase, make sure it is loaded with at least 3 gb (gigabytes) of memory.  The three most important things to remember when buying a new computer is memory, memory and memory.  Not purchasing enough memory is the single greatest reason for slow computer performance. As time goes on, your computer memory will slowly be consumed by Microsoft updates and the software you install.  With the new 64 bit CPU computers, having 4 to 6 gigabytes of memory is not unreasonable.

If you have additional questions, call us at (970)372-1231, or visit our website at Computer Pc Medic.

First, we began installing the free AVG 8.5.  Within the first year of using this product, we met with new customers who were using a paid version of AVG 8.5 and their computer were plagued with viruses.  The free version was returning the same results.  AVG 8.5 did not seem to be very robust at all.

Toward the end of last year, we decided to use Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) on our customer computers.  Our reasoning was that if there was any company that should be able to protect a Microsoft operating system, against a virus attack, it should be the company that created and maintains that operating system.  Wrong!  After testing it, in our own office, for several months, we noticed that MSE was not updating itself in a timely manner.  In general we did not find it very robust against virus attacks.

The last free antivirus tested was the redesigned AVAST 5.0.  It has an impressive set of protection features and is relatively easy to configure.   After several months of running on client machines, some clients called in with computers that were compromised.  AVAST has a pretty “facelift” (user interface) and probably is the more robust of the three free antiviruses.

[UPDATED 01/03/2011] We have been installing Avast 6.0, the free version, this last year, as it was advertised as a total rewrite of the software. We have been pleasantly surprised.  We think they did a good job.

[UPDATED 01/28/2012]  We have encountered many customer computers installations, using Webroot for an antivirus. All of these customers were complaining of slow computer performance and many had their computer compromised by malicious software attacks. We hate to say it, but we believe that Webroot, at the time of this writing is a poor product for defending your computer and personal identity. If your computer is running slowly, remove it and enjoy an increase in performance.