Computer Hygiene - Take Out The Trash!
Do you find that your computer exhibits one or more of the following behaviors?
- Unexplained pop-ups or warning pop-ups
- Frequent unsolicited reboots
- Your favorite app crashes often
- Applications now start slowly
- Your computer seems to take forever to start
- Finds new running software that you did not install expressly and cannot explain its existence.
Your computer may have simply become saturated with software to such an extent that all those programs are now fighting each other for resources, or a particular type of installed software (maliciously or otherwise) could produce adverse side effects and may even compromising your system resources. Health and security. Even if your PC doesn't seem to suffer from any of the above symptoms, one or more of these problems will likely appear over time.
So where should we look to find the root cause of such problems? In summary, we can attribute this abnormal behavior to:
1) We are not vigilant in monitoring the list of software that is running (or not) on our system.
2) Not being sufficiently aware of how the installed software got there and why
Let me explain more. When you buy a computer (or inherit that "inherited" from your relative), you will usually find a medley of software already installed. Also, you will probably never use 80 f. Also, you may not be able to resist the temptation to download and install freeware / shareware from the Internet.
Too often, we don't really need the programs we download, but refraining from doing so can be difficult due to the attractive promotion of the software. And regardless of the usefulness of these programs, many times we do not bother to uninstall them, thinking that we can find a use for them in the future.
Recently, while browsing a forum, I saw a post with the following opening line: I had to reformat the family computer for the second time in three months due to my brother's blatant ignorance of general computer hygiene. The various computers in my own home are a good example. On numerous occasions my two sons, who are old enough to know better by the way, downloaded and installed software that essentially rendered their PCs useless, costing me hours of work to get them working again.
If nothing else is removed from this article, try to accept the following two thoughts:
- Not knowing all installed programs, and in particular which ones are invoked by default at startup time, could make your system very unstable, leading to frequent crashes, data loss, or possibly even irreparable damage to the hardware.
- Try at all costs to refrain from installing non-essential software.
While it is quite possible that you will find an overabundance of nonessential software installed, even more important is the fact that there can be NO antivirus, firewall, or other security / protection software running. Consider this CRITICAL point. The absence of such software or its incorrect configuration can lead to disaster! In a future article we will discuss the various "research" techniques for determining what software resides on your computer.
The point of the second point above is simply to use good judgment in deciding what software goes and what stays on your computer. Sure, there is nothing wrong with maintaining reputable software, like that favorite game or media player, since you know where it comes from and at least use it occasionally.
Well, let's summarize our discussion. Now start thinking about your current software and which programs you consider really important to you or your family. Eliminate everything else you can bear to part with. In addition to the types of software that you think you should keep, evaluate their "usefulness." You may have obtained and installed some programs, and others are likely pre-installed on your PC. You may want to consider upgrading existing packages or, in particular, in the latter case, there may be other similar software that has a better feature set that can serve you better.
Now go ahead. Take out the trash!
Stay tuned for the next installment coming soon.