Windows Updates! A Necessity!

Time and time again, I find myself in the same situation when I have clients that call me with computer "slowdown" or internet connectivity issues. Here is a usual conversation I have with a customer:

*****

Customer: Hi, is this MBM Techy?

Michael: Yes it is, how can I help you today?

Customer: Well, my computer used to be fast but over time has started to run slower and slower until now I can't even access webpages in a timely manner. Sometimes it seems like I can't even access the internet! Pop-ups are everywhere! Do you think you can help me?

Michael: Yes, I think I can. I have found that when people have had their computers for a couple years they don't keep up to date with regular maintenance of software components. In a cars' case for instance, you due routine checkups and oil changes to make sure the car is running in top shape. However for computers, people tend to forget you need to do the same thing; you make sure Windows Updates are installed regularly (the second Tuesday of every month is Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday") and you have an anti-virus program that is running properly and is updating its virus definitions regularly.

Customer: Why is this so important for me?

Michael: Well, if you don't run these updates from Microsoft and you don't have a properly running anti-virus program with regularly scheduled virus definition updates (forgotten subscriptions anyone?), you can get attacked with malware, adware, spyware and virus's that take up CPU cycles and in some malicious cases, disable core components of your computer such as your internet connection.

*****

Unfortunately, the conversation above happens all the time with customers and I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure that you are running those Windows Updates so that security holes are patched and operating system stability issues are resolved. Moreover, make sure you're anti-virus program is running properly and those virus definitions are getting updated regularly. A lot of mainstream PC's like HP and Dell come with pre-packaged anti-virus programs but what people forget is that those programs have a subscription plan that lasts only so long and you have to renew it or it stops functioning as intended. If you don't want to pay for your anti-virus program, uninstall it and install a free alternative like AVG and Avast!.

For folks who want to know how to do Windows Updates on their own and also want to turn on Automatic Updates to help install those important patches, below are pictures to do just that under Windows XP and Windows 7.

Click on the start menu and above you will find the link to running Windows Update. This will take you to Microsofts', Windows Update website where you can choose the "Express" option to install important updates.

Go to system properties by right clicking my computer and selecting properties or going to the control panel from the start menu and right clicking on system and selecting properties. Once done, you will see the general information of your computer, select the "Automatic Updates" tab and you will see the image above. Be sure to select "Automatic."

One thing to note though, if you turn off your computer regularly, you may never get updates automatically. If you see a pop up message from windows stating you have updates to install, be sure to run them before you shut your computer down.

For Windows 7, the Windows Update program is functionally the same, however they have added a few more steps to runnging Windows Update manually.

Click the Windows logo and under "All Programs" you will find the Windows Update link above in alphabetical order. Once you click the link, it won't take you to a website and instead take you to an internal window.

At this window, we can change the settings for receiving Automatic Updates in Windows 7. Click the "Change Settings" on the left of the screen. Once you verify all the setting as shown below, go back to the previous screen by clicking the back arrow on the upper left corner. Click on the important updates above that you may have. Sometimes, you may have more than one that shows in the image.


Make sure the important updates are checked and to select "OK" on the bottom right corner.

Click the "Install updates" button and make sure to follow the on-screen instructions. You may have to restart your computer after installing updates so make sure all your work is saved before restarting.

I know operating system maintenance is a dry subject but very important if you want your computer running in top form. If you want to avoid having problems like a majority of my customers have, be sure to run those updates and have a properly running anti-virus program.

Ebook Organization! Who wouldn't want that?

As the title states, I found a great free and open source product called Calibre (pronounced "caliber") created by a man named Kovid Goyal. Mr. Goyal created this product because he wanted his Sony PRS-500 to work on Linux and during this process he created the software to convert the most popular ebook formats to the LRF format (Sony's ebook format). The product grew from there to encompass a wide range of formats and does much more. You can find some of the great features this product has to offer below:

• Centralized management of ebook collection which includes books, magazines, comics and newspapers
• Can convert ebooks to a wide range of desired formats
• Numerous ebook devices supported for default outputing and converting such as e-readers from Amazon, Apple, Sony, Endless Ideas, Google/HTC and Hanlin
• Edit metadata of collection individually or download metadata and covers from the web
• Download a wide variety of news from supported news sites to your device

You can find a great demo of Calibre here which shows you all the capabilities discussed above and more. Hope you enjoy it like I did!

Power outages...

Hey folks! Been a long time, my apologies as the holiday season is always unpredictable so it's impossible for me to ever tell where I will be at any given time. However, now that the holidays are over, I have a couple quick thoughts to put down.

The first being power outages...sadly power outages are not your friend when it comes to electronics. Though it might be nice to get them because it "makes" you forget technology for a period of time (assuming you don't have a smart phone of course), it can cause havoc to your computer and any electronics you may have. The minimum preventive measure you should take is to use a surge protector and in my opinion, the best protection is to have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). There are some great ones out there but my recommendation is CyberPower; a great power supply without forking over a ton of money for "other" brand name power supplies. Also, be sure to "size" your power requirements properly so that your UPS can handle the load of your electronics. If you have one computer or more, you can check out how much power you are using here. Other electronics will tell you their usage and I would choose the MAX the manual says you would use. Add it all up and you will be good to go with the right sized UPS.

The reason I even brought up power outages on this post is because I had a client recently who suffered from a power outage and when their computer was powered back up, the machine was stuck at boot stating it had a hard drive read error. Just so you folks know, this can mean several things.

During the power outage you could have run into...

1. A hard drive crash caused your hard drive to die which is possible
2. A Windows file was corrupted (assuming you have windows)
   
3. Your BIOS settings were reset and your boot order was changed

Usually, the last point is what happens the most and this is what I ran into last week. This is easy enough to resolve by checking your boot priority order in your BIOS settings by accessing the setup screen during boot (I have seen computers accessed by either pressing the "DEL" or "F12" keys but you will have to check your computer manual to be sure what your motherboard requires. Make sure the boot order has the local hard drive with the Operating System setup to boot first unless you want to boot a cd or floppy in the future in which case add those in the order accordingly. That's it for now!

What software do I need to clean up my pc?

As I have been working on MBM Techy consulting (IT/Computer Consulting), I have noticed many people with similar issues regarding virus/adware/spyware/malware ridden computers. I have always found several programs to be of great use to clean up systems and some of those programs I have listed below:

• Malwarebytes - A great program to remove malware on your computer and the great news is it's free (although they have a paid for version to "shield" your computer of any possible threat). Have you suddenly been disconnected from the internet or have an unwanted wallpaper on your dekstop? Chances are you have malware and I recommend Malwarebytes to remove it.
  
• AVG (Free Version) - Need protection from day-to-day virus'? I always found that a smaller footprint is better and I am partial to AVG for the real simple need of virus protection. Find it at http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
• Spybot Search & Destroy - Although there is no catch all for spyware/adware, this is a good utility to keep on your computer to clean your system and to protect you from future attacks. I have found the Tea Timer tool to be a little too memory intensive but use the rest of the application for its intended use of finding all those nasty little spyware and adware on your system...and hey, it's free :)
  
• CCleaner - Oh yes, registry bloat...at one point or another, we have all been there and know that the Windows operating system does collect tons of "extra information" that is no longer needed or supposedly has been uninstalled. In comes a free application called CCleaner, to do the "dirty" business of cleanup. It is truly the only application I trust to go in and remove the bloating from a system.
• Belarc Advisor - Ever wonder what exactly is in your computer? or need to know what is in there to do an upgrade? Well look no further! Short of opening your computer and taking a look at what's inside, Belarc Advisor is the easy way to find out what your system is really made up. You will find information from Software packages to specific hardware specifications. Great to use when you want to buy those memory upgrades and it's free!
• Smart Defrag - Have tons of laptops in your household? How about always having to try and remember to run defragmentation when you most need it? Myself, I could never remember so here is a nice free handy program that does all the scheduling for you and automatically at that. People always neglect their hard drives and don't realize the benefits of having your data always defragmented for the best possible access and write times. Smart Defrag (v1.30 released recently), automatically runs defragmention when needed and does so unobstrusivley by running only when the processor usage is set to below your prescribed threshold. This is great for laptops since they are always turned on and off and you never know if your scheduled defragmentation is ever run. Keep your data organized!

That's it for now...more blurbs to come in the future! If anyone has more software to add to the list above, feel free to comment! I would love to hear from you.