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Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

THEY’RE OUT TO GET US – We’ve all heard tales of someone losing files, having identities stolen, spending hours and hours to clean up a PC mess from malware (be it a virus, worm, a bit of spyware, or a rootkit intrusion. We all have heard criticism of Microsoft operating systems for “allowing” such nasty stuff to happen to PCs which run the Windows operating system. We see reports of updates, patches, releases, upgrades, or whatever the changes are called that are needed to correct the methods by which these “nasties” are distributed. Some people are safe from problems – but they don’t use computers. For the rest of us, problems are something we face each time we turn on a PC.

MICROSOFT TO THE RESCUE – Put into your calendar the 2nd Tuesday of each month. That is the normal day on which Microsoft releases to the world whatever critical patches it determines that we need. (Of course, on occasion, Microsoft releases patches on other days – particularly if the problem to be fixed is deemed to be sufficiently troublesome.

IT’S AVAILABLE, SO NOW WHAT – Basically, you want to get the patches installed on your PC. “Not so fast,” you may say – particularly if you are the one responsible for other PCs. You will want some assurance that the patches which are intended to protect your PC will not cause some program to malfunction. You may wish to install the patches on a test PC before you unleash them to your public. For most of you, however, the time it takes to perform such tests is not worth the added risk to which you put your PC while you wait to complete the tests. My advice is to install the patches and take the extra protection from potential shutdowns, total malfunctions, and possible loss of privacy for the risk that an application program may temporarily stop working.

SIMPLE IS GOOD – From within the Internet Explorer under Tools/Windows Update, you can choose to have critical patches from Microsoft automatically downloaded and installed at a time and day of the week of your choice. You can also choose to check daily at a particular time. You may choose to select Tuesday (or Wednesday in case you wanted Tuesday but were not sure of the time of day that the patches might be available). That should work for most patches because they will come on a Tuesday and will be available at any time on Wednesday. I prefer to check every day. If there are no patches, the test is fast. If there are patches, I get them that much sooner. That is simple and adds, I believe, the greatest level of operating system safety and stability.

YOU CHOOSE – You may do the patches automatically every day or one day per week. You may do the patches manually. Just choose to do the patches as soon as possible and practical. Read the rest of this entry »

INTRODUCTION – For years you’ve known about maintenance for your PC. You have anti-virus and anti-spyware software. You use a firewall. You’re careful about where you surf the Internet. You don’t open every Email attachment that you get – even from friends. You may run your maintenance utilities as scheduled jobs. You may even have a script to run your utilities. But, do you know the results? Do you have a log of the results? Particularly important to you, if you have a network of PCs, is whether you have a central log from which you can see the results of your maintenance. Let’s look at what you might want to track, including anti-virus and anti-spyware data.

ANTI-VIRUS & ANTI-SPYWARE – For each of these, a log record to show that they were run can be helpful. Otherwise, how do you know when they were last run? How can you ensure that they are run at least once each week? How can you tell who ran the maintenance on a PC in case there is a question about a problem?

PERFORMANCE – If you have a log an objective measurement of the performance of your PC, you could compare other PCs to it to determine whether there might be a problem within a particular model of PC. You could tell whether the performance of a specific PC was deteriorating. You could use it to pro-actively determine, when the test time exceeded a parameter, that there might be malware on the PC.

IP ADDRESS – When you find a problem that exists on or comes from a PC, you may find the IP address and want to know where that PC is located. If you track the current IP address, you can find the PC in question from your log entries rather than making a visit to each PC in order to get the IP address.

DISK SPACE – In order to run disk defragmentation effectively, you need to have about 20% of the disk space available. If you log the amount of disk space remaining, you can be pro-active about efficient disk defragmentation and planning for upgrades of disk capacity.
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The objective of good PC Maintenance is to keep the PC operating efficiently with minimal disruption. A part of that process is to keep the PC as free as possible of extraneous data. One way to do that is to run the disk cleanup utility that is a part of the Windows operating system. It removes “unnecessary” files from the PC and gives you for available disk space.

The disk cleanup program does not require administrative privileges and, therefore, can be run by any user. It is found under Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools. You can run it by double-clicking its icon. You can also run it from a command line or automate the process. For more information, check this Microsoft web page: “How to Automate the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP” at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315246

Select what you wish to be processed by the disk cleanup from the following:
* Downloaded Program Files
* Temporary Internet
* Recycle Bin
* Temporary Remote Desktop Files
* Setup Log Files
* Offline Files
* Compress Old Files
(This compresses rather than deletes files. If you need them again, there will be a slight delay as they are decompressed. If you select this option, you will also have an option of the number of days the system will wait before it will compress an idle file.)
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Will defragmentation protect my PC from malware? Probably not. So why do it? Do it to keep your PC running as efficiently as possible.

WHY DEFRAG – The objective of a process of “PC Maintenance Management” is to keep the PC operating efficiently with minimal disruption. A part of that process is to keep the data well organized on your PC’s disk drive(s). One way to do that is to run the defragmentation utility that is a part of the Windows operating system. It reorganizes files and gives you the fastest access possible while ensuring that you do a minimal number of reads and writes as a result of the defragmentation process.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU DEFRAG – In a 2005 article, “Is Daily Defragmentation Needed in Today’s Environment,” Enterprise Software International (makers of Diskeeper(r)) concluded from a four week test that the answer is that disks should be defragmented daily.

SPECIAL PRIVILEGES REQUIRED – The defragmentation program DOES require administrative privileges under Widows XP (not Windows 2000) and, therefore, can be run only from an account, which has administrative privileges. It is found under Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools. You can run it by double-clicking its icon. In the article, “Condoms for Your PC – Accounts and Passwords,” I suggested that, while you must have such an account, you should do your normal work in an account with lower privileges. That means you either need to log into the account with administrative privileges or you need to do a “run as” (with administrative privileges) from your current account. Read the rest of this entry »