Dwight Watt - Newspaper Article #276 12/24/2014


Question: What should I put on my new PC?

Answer:

Many people will receive a new computer (laptop or desktop or tablet) for Christmas. The question is what should I immediately make sure is installed on my PC to keep it running good and securely.

First make sure you have an anti-virus. Many computers come with a trial of McAfee or Norton antivirus that is good fro 30 or 90 days. If you want to use those you must activate them. The other important thing is that if you do not buy them at this point you must in the 30 or 90 days or your machine is unprotected. Norton is a good product must be bought, unless you use Comcast. My suggestions fro good free anti-virus software is AVG and Avast. Both are free on the internet

Secondly you need a good anti-spyware program. Although the anti-virus programs do block some spyware they do not do full job. I like superantispyware which is free at superantispyware.com

Third make sure your firewall is activated. Windows includes a good basic firewall, just make sure it is working. Firewalls block bad traffic from getting in your machine.

Last get a registry cleaner and start using every few weeks. Right now your registry should be clean but as you add and remove programs it will get pieces of junk in it. There are a number of free good registry cleaners on the market. The two I use the most are ccleaner free at ccleaner.com and register cleaner at auslogics.com

Enjoy your new computer.