| More than a computer company! |
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| More than a computer company! |
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| Get it checked! "One in five users has at least one virus infection currently on their home computer. Four in five users have spyware or adware programs on their computer. The average infected user has 93 spyware/adware components on their computer, and the most components found on a single computer during the scan was 1,059." AOL/NCSA Online Safety Study |
 Maintaining Windows Should you be concerned? |
| Nature of the enemy! | Checked at inspect-a-gadget? |
| Virus removal A virus is a malicious program that when activated attaches itself to legitimate files on your computer. When these legitimate files are used the virus program runs and may cause effects from the mildly annoying to the downright disastrous. Virii replicate to other computers by human interaction, usually by forwarding virus-laden email. |
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| Worm removal Worms are a particular kind of virus designed to replicate without human interaction. They frequently send themselves to contacts from an email client. They do this without prompting and when they reach the next machine will begin the process again with a new set of email addresses. The automatic dispersal and replication of worms can be quiet a headache. |
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| Trojan removal The trojans are alive and well and rapidly building horses. Unlike virii (and worms) trojans do not replicate. They are generally downloaded via the internet often without deliberate action - some websites are designed to deliver trojans to unsuspecting surfers. Free screensavers, joke animations also may contain trojans. The effects are mildly annoying to destructive. Many trojans seem innocuous perhaps changing your desktop. They may contain code allowing remote machines to access private information. Besides allowing unauthorized users access to your personal details, this "backdoor" may allow remote control of your computer. |
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| Spyware removal Spyware (malware, adware) is software that uses legitimate computing methods for a sinister purpose. Websites are the most common criminal, depositing files on your hard drive, changing system settings, etc. While files are not destroyed or changed these changes may cause your pc to become unresponsive. Autodialers are an example of spyware. They cause an infected machine to attempt to dial long distance phone numbers in an attempt to generate revenue. Spyware is often annoying and difficult to remove manually. |
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| Securing your computer A computer connected to the internet is open to direct attack by other internet users. An unsecured computer is open to attack which may result in identity theft, file deletion or destruction of an operating system. Direct hacking may involve the use of weaknesses in software. Exploiting these vulnerabilities can cause system crashes and application crashes which may lead to data loss or remote control of your computer. |
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| What else do we fix? | Checked at inspect-a-gadget? |
| Windows® Service Packs and Updates Got the latest version of windows? Are you absolutely sure about that? Since windows was released, Microsoft has released literally hundreds of updates, patches, and security buletins to improve windows in some way. updates and new versions of Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and other integrated programs in Windows are provided by Microsoft as updates, and improvements. The operating system itself also has updates, and security vulerability patches available. Service Packs are provided as a "package" of updates to several programs at once, to make the update process easier and less time consuming. At the time of writing, Windows XP is up to Service Pack 2, with more updates available once this has been done, including Windows Media Player 10 for example. |
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| Driver Updates Manufacturers of computer components supply programs to make the products they make work correctly in your computer. over a period of time, they may release a new program which adds functionality, or improves performance in some way. These programs are called "Drivers." you may find by updating a driver for your video card, for example, you may be able to play that game after all! or your computer may start faster by updating your motherboard drivers, or you may have better sound quality, or added sound control functions by updating your sound card drivers. Most components in your computer require drivers to function, Many times the drivers which are currently in use are outdated, and an update will improve performance in some way. Most of those components will have updated, and more recent drivers available from their respective manufacturers website. |
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| Application Updates Application Updates are designed to ensure all of your programs and applications are running at their very best. Updates may include extra features, or security updates to fix known problems, bugs, or vulnerabilities to allow attackers in from outside. If these are neglected, programs may develop problems, slowdowns, or crashing. In some cases, a lack of updates may cause a program to stop working altogether, or cause other programs to malfunction. |
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| Page last edited: Thursday, 10 April 2008 10:25:30 AM +0930 |
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