How To Speed Up Your Computer With Free Software

Learn How To Speed Up Your Computer With Free Software

Remember when your computer was new and made you happy.  Have you installed programs that claim to speed up your computer but never did.  Are there strange pop-ups being shown and has your homepage changed without you knowing.

You are the victim of.........................................computer usage.

Every time you browse your computer picks up little bits of information and stores it on your hard drive, collects web browser add-ons and over time causes your computer to slow down.

I have written this booklet to help keep your internet browser gremlin free and working as it should.

If you like the look of 5 toolbars on your web page then this is not the book for you.

Anti-virus software alone cannot clear these problems but along side these programs you should see an improvement in performance.

Simply download the free ebook from this link:

Speed Up My Computer With Free Software

(The browser will go to a download link where a small deal follows.  This allows the hosting and cost of the book to be free.)

www.hcrepairs.com

Update To Backup Your Computer

Toshiba HDTB105EK3AA 500GB Stor.E Basics USB 3.0 2.5 Inch External Hard Drive

I'll back it up soon............................I meant to back my files up but I forgot.

These are many excuses that I hear after customer's hard drives fail.  I seen hard drives fail that are just over a year old.  After a battle I have managed to get the data off but it is never easy and it cannot be guaranteed.

The Toshiba drive has 500GB of storage which is enough for most laptops.  It is suitable for Mac OSX and Windows platforms and is very easy to use.

Put it this way...................is £32 too much of a price to pay for piece of mind.

Purchase Toshiba 500GB 2.5" External Hard Drive from Amazon UK

Harry

www.hcrepairs.com

Microsoft Tech Support Scam

How the scam works:

The growing number of computers per household all over the world has offered scammers a variety of fraud ideas.

One of the latest telephone scams reveals criminals calling house numbers, claiming to be Microsoft technicians offering “free security checks”. Once they get the victims’ trust to get them logging into their computers, the scammers get either remote access to the machines or trick them to give away credit card number information.

According to a survey done by Microsoft, 16% of their product users have received such phone calls. You can get one too, not necessarily from “Microsoft techies”, but from fake Apple, Samsung, Google reps, etc. This scam is also known as the Scareware Scam.

How to avoid:

These companies are so busy already offering tech support - it’s probably impossible for them to call you, instead of the other way around.

If you have fallen victim to this then give HC Computer Repairs a call to remove the virus.

www.hcrepairs.com

When Does Data Cost £150k

A police authority was fined £150,000 this week after a flash drive was stolen with data on it from an officer's home.  To make matters worse It contained details about more than 1000 people with links to serious crime investigations.  In this day and age we have more information about us on various forms of electronic devices, do we really care about what people see.

Last year, an internet security company bought 57 USB keys at a lost property auction containing a total of 4,400 files.

They found:

• Nearly 3/4 of the keys had one or more malware infections.
• Many of the USB keys contained personal and work-related files.
• Not a single one of the 4400 files was encrypted.

So, how do you protect yourself from leaking data on USB keys which get lost or stolen?

Or on keys which are transferred between users, departments and even companies?

Or on keys that you are retiring from active service, perhaps because they're no longer fast, reliable or capacious enough?

One answer: only ever write encrypted data to your USB keys.

That makes them just so much meaningless garbage to anyone without the decryption key.

There are free encryption programs out there, here are just a few;

TrueCrypt - When you run the TrueCrypt installation file it offers to install or just extract the files. The latter choice gives you access to TrueCrypt.exe, which is all you need to operate TrueCrypt in traveler mode. If you have access to another computer where you can install TrueCrypt, you can use the "Traveler Disk Setup..." tool to create self contained secure volumes.

FreeOTFE - Installation is not required for using FreeOTFE, but you do need Administrator priviledges in your account to run it in portable mode.

FreeOTFE Explorer is a simpler companion to FreeOTFE. It does not require administrative rights.You can create encrypted volumes with FreeOTFE Explorer, or use it to open encrypted volumes created by FreeOTFE. 

Try each of these programs to see which one you like using a small flash drive if you have one.

If you have any data that you do not want anyone to see, encrypt it.

www.hcrepairs.com

Virus Software Installed But Useless!

"I don't know how I got a virus, I have a virus checker installed".  Upon inspection that is true, the customer did have the software installed but with a few problems which rendered it useless.

The common issues I find is that people are still using the trial software that came with the machine but have left the subscription to run out.  Most anti virus software would not work once this happens, after all these companies will not give you anything for nothing.

If you do want to renew the subscription of the software because you like it then don't just click the renew subscription button.  You would get a better deal shopping around or just remove the software and try free anti virus software.

There is also a selection of people who have anti virus software installed but don't update it.  They take the time to download for example AVG 2009 then leave it the same.  

Once all these have been sorted and you have an anti virus program that works, free or paid then set the machine to perform a scan at 2am in the morning.  After all everyone's machines are on at the time aren't they....................oh hang on.

It would be advisable to set the scan when the machine is on so it can at least go through the scan.  Most software allows you to either set it on certain days in the week or just weekly.  If you set it every day then it may be on during the time allocated.

www.hcrepairs.com

Free Backup Software.

My previous blog was giving advice to backup your data.  However there are some FREE alternative to Norton Ghost that may work for you.
These are free to try and may save you a lot of time and effort.
Yesterday I backed up my laptop hard drive and this morning I had to reinstall it due to a problem.
I was so glad that I had a recent backup to hand.


Macrium Reflect Free


http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Drive Image XML

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

EASUS ToDo Backup

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm


Harry.
www.hcrepairs.com

Importance of Backing Up

This may seem obvious as you read it but surprisingly many people do not back up their most important files.  This process simply gets forgotten or maybe put off "until next week".  The magnitude of the situation is if Windows gets damaged or has a severe virus and needs re-installing.

The main folders that I am talking about relate to My Documents, Pictures, Music & even favourites or bookmarks.  When you log onto the internet you just go to the bookmarks and click to navigate to your favourite websites.  Imagine starting again and trying to remember the sites that you enjoy going to!

Of course their are ways to backup using external devices such as hard drives or DVDs or maybe online backing up.  Use whichever one you like but remember that it is there to make life easier to make sure that the files that are important to you are safe.

If the worst happens and a backup was not made then HC Computers can retrieve these files if the hard drive is not damaged.

I hope this has jogged your memory to do a backup sooner than later.

Regards

Harry.