*** Please
read the disclaimer at the end of this page before
proceeding***
- Anti
Virus Tools and Updates
-
AVG
Anti-Virus is effective and easy to use. It
automatically scans files and incoming email.
There are several versions available, but the
Network Edition is the most flexible and is
designed to be compatible with workstations and
servers. AVG is very affordable. It is
nearly half the price of other antivirus
packages and is good for 2 years (instead
of 1). Renewals are 50% of the purchase price.
- Home users may
qualify for
AVG Home if they are a private,
non-commercial, single home computer. Use of AVG
Home within any organization or for commercial
purposes is strictly prohibited. Please refer to
the
License Agreement to confirm elegibility.
- You can
scan your computer for free using one of
several online virus scanner programs. If this
one doesn't work for you, try searching Google
for "free
online virus scan"
- Having
trouble with Pop-Up's?
-
SpyBot version 1.5 is the best program
around for ridding a system of pop-up
advertisements.
Be sure to scan and reboot two or three times to
make sure nothing bad stays on your system.
- The
Google Toolbar eliminates pop-up web page
windows and is quite handy. (I once recommended
this highly, but now recommend FireFox with the
Google add-on package.)
-
Merijn.org has the best tool for manual
removal of spyware. Hijack This! is
great, but be careful. Beginners should read
the help docs and consult the user forums.
- SPAM
email getting you down?
-
POPfile is a great program that was 99.8%
accurate when I used it before switching to
G-Mail (Google Mail)
-
American Family Association provides an
email and internet filtering service for a small
yearly fee.
- If you still
are having problems with Spam in your email,
consider purchasing a Lufkin Internet email
account with Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam
filtration.
- Temp &
Internet Files
-
Cleanup! is the best utility I've found to
use for removing unwanted temporary files from
your system. When servicing a PC, I used to
clear out these types of files by hand while
waiting on some other task to happen (installing
software .. waiting on a download to complete)
After seeing this program do all that I was
doing and more with one click of a mouse, I
quickly added it to my tool kit. --
homepage ~ One word of caution before using
this the first time, be careful on a new system.
The author mentions performing a full system
backup prior to using the program. You may not
want to run this on a production server without
customizing the program. By default all files
starting with ~ (tilde) are selected for
removal. This is still a great program (I use it
several times a week on my personal system) but
you may want to customize or review the settings
before it wipes out a bunch of files.
-
Microsoft Products and Services
Microsoft provides free updates for their
software packages. The updates vary in nature and
could be associated with online security, improved
program performance and compatibility, or just some
cute screen savers. Either way,
it's a
good idea to check and see
what updates are available and then decide if
you would like to apply them to your products.
-
Windows Update is the key update website for
keeping your
Microsoft
Windows operating system up to date. The
previous instructions I had listed are no longer
available. Here are a few other pages for
reference:
London City University,
HP or you can search for
Windows Update instructions.
-
Office Update is where you can get 'fixes'
for your
Microsoft
Office products. If you're having strange
issues with Word, Excel or Outlook, apply all
the updates here before wasting a lot of time
troubleshooting the problem. ( Be sure to
have your installation CD
handy during and even after you install
these updates ! )
