Computers
I’m a computer geek from way back. I’ve been messing around with them since my dad sent me my first computer, and IBM XT Clone he’d put together. It came with a DOS 2.1 disk. That was in the early 1980’s. I figured out the rest on my own pretty much. I have built several computers since then, done all my own upgrades and those for others, and have become fairly proficient in general with regard to computers.
I finally
went to school to make it official, and graduated from Laurel Business
Institute in Uniontown, PA with a Specialized Associate Degree in
Computer Management. I am also A+ Certified, and have a number of MOUS
Certifications as well. I'm currently not working so if you are in need
of a great bench tech in the Pittsburgh area, contact me!!
I’m interested in just about every aspect of computers, but I’m mainly a hardware kinda girl. I’ve tried teaching myself some programming, but I really believe I have a math disorder, and so, programming is an impossible challenge for me. However, I’m pretty good with HTML, and struggling along with CSS.
I’ve been online since 1981, before we had an Internet as we do today. I
belonged to many Bulletin Board Services (BBS), and met many wonderful people
from all over the world, before it was in fashion. My first modem was 300 baud!
People complain about 56K dialup or slower broadband today! Try 300 baud!
Computers are my main thing.
My current system is: i7 950, 6 GB RAM, (2) 640 gig SATA hard drives, ATI HD6850 Video Card, X-Fi Fata1ity Sound Card, 22” LG Widescreen LCD Monitor. It’s a long way from an XT! I'm using Windows 7 Pro 64-bit as my Operating System.
I’ve passed on my geekiness to my children, who each have their own computers. Every time we upgrade we recycle the parts through the family so everyone gets something new. Upgrading is much cheaper this way.
My dream is to have my own biz repairing, building and upgrading computers, with an electronics repair component as well. I'm a bit closer to this, working on my business plan, but need funding to get going.
My Husband is also a geek, and I met him online, which is an
appropriate thing for geeks I guess. I'm his Tech Support person! He’s
pretty good at diagnosing his own troubles, but isn’t it nice to have
so much tech support in one family?
Computer Woes?
Are you a Windows user? Is your computer running slow? Do you have stuff popping up so much you can't do anything on your computer? Does it take forever to boot up? Is it crashing? Concerned about privacy and spam? Got virus trouble?
There are lots of programs for sale to deal with these problems. Norton is a big seller, but honestly, in 20 years of experience, I've never come across a Norton product that was stable and problem free. Norton is overrated. Just my own personal opinion.
Why should you have to spend money just to keep your computer safe and
running smoothly? You don't. I'll tell you what I do to prevent all
these problems, and then you can have a clean and efficiently running
computer too!
Do this:
Once per week and as needed run Windows Update.
In Internet Explorer, Go to tools, Windows Update, scan for new updates, and install at least
all the critical ones. Set your computer up to receive automatic updates.
Make sure your firewall is turned on as well.
Do a disk cleanup: Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup.
Download and install these free and well recommended programs:
- MalwareBytes - Anti-malware, Anti-adware
- Spybot Search & Destroy - Anti-adware, malware, spyware
- SpywareBlaster - For problem ActiveX controls
- CCleaner - Registry Cleaner
- Avast! Free - Anti-Virus
run them in that order, updating them as necessary before you run them.
There are lots of free programs around that say they will clean up your computer, but a lot of them contain adware and malware themselves! These programs don't contain adware, and can be trusted to do the job safely.
You can certainly run them more than once per week. It's really important to keep them all updated, because new stuff pops up all the time to create problems, and these companies try to keep a step ahead of it. If you don't update, you put yourself at risk for all that new crap floating around out there.
If you are online especially, you need a firewall. The one that
comes with Windows XP is ok and very basic. Windows Vista
Firewall does the trick for me. If you want a few more
features
and/or run another version of Windows, you might take a look at:
Oh just one more thing, sometimes these programs need to be
re-downloaded when the program itself has been revised. They don't
always tell you when there is a new version, but you can suspect it if
there are no new updates for a long while. Every so often, go to their
website and check that you're using the most current version.
Hope this helps, and if anybody is having problems or has questions, feel free to ask! Troubleshooting computers is what I live for.
