Computer Antivirus Remover

In a world with rapidly developing software and an increasingly amount of users security poses a top priority to anyone. If you are unsure if you computer is being infiltrated or not you should try a removal tool for spybots such as Spybot Search and Destry. This is free software that guarantees detection and removal of spyware and you can download it from any free software downloading site. Spybot downloads have reached a top ranking on these types of sites because they save a lot of time and energy chasing malicious programs.

If you also have a virus problem you could try free online computer scans. Some virus programs contain thousands of virus signatures and will make and effort to detect and remove yours, if you have one. There a series of well developed programs that include both these packages and provide you with the best shelter against online attacks. Some of them might be free, such as AVG for example and some of them require a license. No matter what you chose, do a little research on the specific software, just to be sure that it’s the one that meets your demands.

Your computer needs to be well protected from outside intrusions and by doing so you also save yourself time and money on recovering what could turn out to be important data. Please take my advice into consideration and install spybot or spyware removal tools, along with a friendly antivirus security system. As a tip, never forget to update you software, there are always new and deceitful spybots or viruses.

Home Computer Security is Vital

It is vital to have home computer security for your computer. There are many hackers in the United States and many other countries, that feel the necessity to hack into other peoples computers and steal their information illegally.

They can steal your confidential data as well as use the resources from your home computer. There are some basic things you can do to protect your home pc system from dangerous threats. The first and foremost thing to do to protect your computer and information from hackers, and other potentially dangerous fraudsters from online threats is to install an anti-virus program on your pc.

Be sure to allow it to run at all times. It will detect anything that it finds suspicious. This security software will usually catch the harmful threats or viruses before they even happen. Your computer could crash immediately if struck by a virus. Viruses can disrupt any part of your computer system including your; e-mail, programs, or your entire Windows operating system.

It is vital to install anti-virus protection software on your home computer to maintain the security of your PC.

Another important thing is to ensure you have installed and turned on, is a firewall. There is usually one built into the XP operating system but better ones can be found online for free. A good firewall will not only prevent inbound threats, but also stop any malicious program from sending packets of data out from you pc.

Some anti-virus or internet security suites may have a firewall as part of it’s suite of protection measures. If so enable it, and turn off the Windows XP firewall. There are many hardware firewalls available for purchase at computer software or hardware stores or may come as part of a router setup. They can also be used alongside the software firewall already installed on your system.

By having more than one deterrent; thus providing layered security, you will make it even more difficult for your system security to be penetrated. Do not install more than one anti-virus program as it can cause software and or system conflicts and cause your pc security to malfunction.

Another link in the security chain is to ensure that you keep your Windows operating system properly updated at all times. It is important to have all available/recommended updates installed on your system. Microsoft releases new software and operating system updates on a regular basis, to ensure your computer systems run safely and optimally.

To make sure you do not forget to check for these updates, The Windows operating system has an option that allows you to have these updates installed automatically. In my opinion and in most cases this is the best option. Your computer will download and install the required updates needed for your system at a time specified by you. You can set it up to do this at night while you are in bed so that it does not interfere with your normal computer use.

There are many simple steps you can take to enhance your home computer security. Ensuring that you have taken the necessary preventative measures will protect your entire operating system as well as protect your personal data from hackers; spyware, phishing attacks and viruses.

As you can see, if you have a home pc or laptop and use it online, maintaining home computer security is vitally important to protect your confidential data and maintain the overall security of your systems.

How to clean your Mother Board

Look at the blades of the fan in the back of the computer. Also look at any vents. Is there clusters of dust there? Is there grime caked on to it? If so, the inside needs to be cleaned. If the fan blades are clean but it has been several years since you have cleaned the motherboard or if the computer is around cigarette smoke, it probably should be cleaned anyway. Dust and particles in the air (like cigarette smoke) can build up on the circuitry of the motherboard and cause it to heat up and/or corrode.

The first thing that you need to do is unplug your computer. Then open up the case to get access to the motherboard. Cases open differently. If you don’t know how to open your case, look on the back of your computer along the edge for some screws. These screws may hold on side panels or an upside down U shaped panel that covers the sides and top. Removing the screws will allow you to take off the cover. Other cases have the screws on the front of the computer. To get access to these screws, you must first remove the front panel by pressing a hidden latch. The cover is there to give easy access to the inside of your computer, so if you look hard enough, you should be able to figure out how to remove it.

Remember that if you touch anything on the motherboard, you should be grounded by either touching the metal frame of the computer with your other hand or by wearing a special grounding device.

The goal of cleaning the motherboard is to remove all dust and debris from the motherboard and all components inside of the case. This can be done using one of three methods.

The preferred method is to use a can of compressed air to blow it out. Always hold the can in an up-right position to prevent the propellent chemicals which can damage or corrode components from coming out. Dust and dirt should be blown away from the motherboard and out of the case.

Another way to remove dust is to use a vacuum. The common advice is to only use a battery operated vacuum because an AC powered vacuum causes static and static can ruin the motherboard. I have used an AC powered vacuum (before I knew that it was not recommended) to clean my motherboard many times and it has never caused any problems, but I may have just been lucky. When using the vacuum, keep the nozzle a couple of inches away from the motherboard or any other components so that it does not come in contact with them and so that any small parts are not sucked into the vacuum.

If you do not have a can of compressed air or a vacuum, you can use a dry cloth and brush to clean the motherboard. Be careful not to dislodge or break anything using this method.

While cleaning the motherboard, be careful not to unplug any cables or connections or to dislodge any loose components, such as, jumpers.

Methodically clean the whole inside of the case going over all of the motherboard from one end to the other and all other components. Don’t forget to clean the fans and heat sinks. Do not open up the power supply box or stick anything in it beyond the fan. If you do, you could get a shocking surprise and ruin your computer.

If your computer does not work when you put it back together, something was obviously dislodged during the cleaning. Open the case back up and push all connections and cards into their slots. Look for anything that may have become disconnected.

Cleaning the motherboard is probably the most dangerous form of cleaning but it is necessary to prevent an early death of your computer.

How To Make Your Computer Work Faster

Computers always seem to be slower than you’d like. So how to make your computer faster again?

1. Make sure your anti virus software is up to date

New computers often come with a trial for popular anti-virus software such as Norton. But since viruses come out all the time, you need to make sure that you keep your anti virus software slap bang up to date. If you don’t do this, there’s a chance not only of getting your files or data corrupted but also of a nasty program running itself on your computer and slowing everything down.

2. Keep your firewall on

Most recent versions of Windows come with a firewall to help protect you whilst you are connected to the internet. Make sure that this is always switched on so that malicious programs can’t creep in and use your computing power for their own ends.

3. Watch out for spyware

This is different from viruses, so there’s a good chance that your anti virus software won’t pick it up. Spyware does exactly what you’d expect from the name – it spies on you. Its cousin is Adware, which flashes up unwanted adverts or new unexpected browser windows. Both these types of software can be sloppily programmed and can therefore cause crashes and memory leaks, generally slowing down your computer.

4. Switch off unwanted background programs

Lots of software programmers assume that you will always want their program immediately to hand. Even if you only use the program once in a blue moon. It would dent the programmer’s ego to learn that you weren’t always using their program, so they often make sure that the setup program asks Windows to run their software every time it boots up. Sometimes they will ask your permission during the setup routine but often they just tick the “yes” box for you and let you decide that you’d prefer the program doesn’t run all the time. The trouble is that all these different programs are using up computer power and memory. So they will be slowing down your computer, often without you knowing. Get ruthless – you probably don’t care whether or not you have absolutely the latest version of iTunes or Adobe Acrobat so long as the software works. Double check online but you can almost certainly turn off the auto-updaters for most software programs and free up your computer power for yourself again.

5. Clear out the Registry

Specialist software is the safest way of doing this. The Registry is Windows equivalent of your attic storage combined with your garage combined with a handful of actually useful things. It stores information about your machine. But whilst most software is quite happy to install settings in the Registry, it’s less happy to uninstall them when they are no longer needed. Quite often, even uninstall routines will leave scraps of completely useless information in the Registry. Which will slow Windows down when it comes to trying to find the settings it really needs.

6. Buy more memory

Modern software is memory hungry. Feed it more memory – you’ll be grateful!

Computer Safety Tips

Computer Safety Tips – Six Tips You Should Know Before Downloading Any Files From The Internet

The Internet contains vast amount of information and information such as ebooks and software can easily be obtained by downloading it into your computer. This will save time and effort and everything can also be automated. You can download the files even though you’re on a different time zone.

However, even though downloading files from the Internet have many advantages, there are some disadvantages because the files that you’ve downloaded maybe are malicious threats. Before downloading any files to your computer, I have six tips you should know so you can be more secure when downloading files from the Internet.

1. File Size

First of all, look at the file size of the files that you want to download. For example, you want to download freeware software from a web site and you know that the software file size should be around 12 or 13 MB. But on that web site, it says 234 kB. You need to be very careful with this as it might be a virus or trojan because the size is just not right.

Many people have been tricked to download this type of file and the files turn out to be malicious software.

2. Firewall

Use a firewall before downloading any files. If the files you’ve downloaded are trying to send privacy information to the hackers, it will not be able to do so because the firewall will block its outgoing traffic.

3. File Extension

File extensions is very important when downloading files from the Internet. File extension with .exe and have a small file size might be malicious software. It would be better you have an antivirus that will terminate the connection every time you tried to download any malicious software.

I have this one time when I was trying to download a files with .exe extension from the Internet without knowing it’s a trojan. My antivirus (I used Avast! at that time) terminate the connection immediately because it recognizes the file as a trojan. So, when you want to download any files, watch the extension. Files with double extension such as FILENAME.img.exe are mostly malicious software because it tries to trick you to think that it’s not malicious software.

4. Antivirus

As I told you from my story, I was saved from downloading malicious software by my antivirus and therefore, I strongly advise you to find an antivirus right now. If you don’t have any antivirus or anti-spyware programs on your computer, your computer might be infected.

5. Feedback

Websites such as download.com provide comment section or feedback for the download. Always read the download feedbacks before downloading because it will help you to know if the files are malicious software.

6. Internet Explorer Add-On

Use Internet Explorer Add-On that will tell you if the website you’re visiting contains threats that can affect your computer. Use add-on such as McAffe Site Advisor that you can download for free because this add-on will advise you which websites are safe to visit.

As I mentioned in the first tip, you need to know the file size before downloading. If you don’t know the file size, google it and visit the website which the site advisor add-on consider as safe.

There is no complete solution to computer security. The only way you can be sure your computer will be safe from any threats is by turning it off and sealed it in a sealed box. But what we can do is arm ourselves with essential security knowledge as it will help us in many ways.

RoadRunner, The World Fastest Supercomputer

A US military supercomputer has broken the petaflop speed record by performing one thousand trillion calculations per second. The ‘Roadrunner’ machine was developed at the Los Alamos Laboratory and uses AMD Opteron chips and the Cell processors found in PlayStation games consoles. It will be used to model climate systems before being classified by the Army to work on nuclear explosion modelling. “We replace our high-performance supercomputers every four or five years,” said Andy White, leader of supercomputer development at Los Alamos.

“They become outdated in terms of speed, and the maintenance costs and failure rates get too high.” White explained that the use of two kinds of chips represents a revolution in supercomputing. ‘Roadrunner’ uses fewer than 20,000 processors while the next fastest computer, IBM’s Blue Gene/L, uses over 200,000 and runs at half the speed. The Los Alamos machine uses 7,000 multi-core Opteron processors and parses the data to 12,960 enhanced Cell processors using 57 miles of fibre-optic cabling. The device consumes three megawatts of power, enough to run 1,000 homes. Damn, can you imagine encoding a movie on such a machine? It would be done within few miliseconds. Warez scene dream.