July 30, 2010

Microsoft Security Essentials

msseEnhance your war on Spyware and Viruses.

Now available for download, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is a comprehensive Antivirus and Antispyware solution to keeping your PC safe from attacks.

This free application replaces Windows Defender and is a strong competitor for current antivirus applications. It has been in Beta release since June and has received mostly positive reviews.

If you are looking for a free solution to combat both Spyware and Viruses, consider this Microsoft offering. It is highly recommended.

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A Freeware PC?

MoneyFor the last several months, I’ve been using a PC that does not have any commercial off-the-shelf applications. Other than the Windows XP operating system, everything else loaded on the PC is freeware.

I didn’t originally intend to do this, but after I loaded the OpenOffice suite, I thought what the heck, lets see how far I can take it.

I ended up with the following free applications:

Combine this with all the online Web 2.0 applications, and I’ve got everything I need to take care of business.

How much did this save? Considering comparable off-the-shelf (OTS) applicaitions, you’re looking at a minimum savings of $1000 (USD) with no loss in productivity.

Check out Gizmo’s Freeware at www.techsupportalert.com for listings and reviews of the best freeware offerings. For example, here is a comparison of free paint programs:

So, before you head out to purchase any OTS retail applications, check to see if there are any comparable freeware versions. Download and try them, you may be quite pleased.

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Your new PC and all that bundled software

Many new PCs typically come with dozens of pre-installed applications, most of which you would never use.

Needing to keep the retail price as competitive as possible, PC manufacturers pre-install these applications, and the fee they receive from the software developers is used to subsidize the final price.

Some of the programs are common shareware items that you will eventually have to purchase for continued use, and others may be stripped down versions of a major off-the-shelf retail package. Either way, they are taking up resources.

A friend of mine recently brought home a new PC that had 24 applications he didn’t want. He proceeded to uninstall them one by one, but it took him a little over an hour.

Fortunately, there is an application that will eliminate most of these applications and allow you to start off with a fresh, clean PC.  Download and install PC Decrapifier which allows you to pick and choose which applications to remove.

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Back It Up

Do you store anything on your PC’s hard drive that’s important to you and would be hard to replace? The answer to this can be very subjective and is certainly a matter of personal opinion. But if a disaster should strike, what would your loss be if you couldn’t restore these files or documents?

People are storing more and more vital information on their PCs without the thought of what could happen if this information was lost. If you store any of the following, you need to think of how you can safely retrieve this information in case of an emergency:

  • Bank records or other financial information
  • Digital photographs
  • Music you’ve purchased and downloaded
  • Software purchased online
  • Email history, address books and calendar data
  • Browser bookmarks

You probably don’t need to perform daily backups with offsite storage of the backup medium, but there are alternatives that are easy to implement and can give you some peace of mind.

System vs personal data

A different strategy is used for backing up your Operating System files than for backing up your personal data. If you suffer a system crash, you can reload the OS from the install disks or restore from what is called a disk image and I’ll cover that in another article.

If you’ve followed Microsoft’s suggestions, all of your personal data should be contained within special folders that are designed for your documents. It is a simple matter to determine how much storage the files in these locations use and this will help you decide how you want to back them up.

For the home PC user, there are 3 good choices for performing backups of your personal data:

USB Flash Drives
The low cost of USB flash drives (thumb drives) makes them an ideal choice for backup media. I’ve seen 16GB flash drives for $30 (USD) and there are free utilities that make the backup process easy and reliable. Check allwaysync.com for a solution that performs backup and sync functions

External Hard Drives
External hard drives have also reached a price point that make them a good choice if you want to have something even more transparent.

Online Backups
This method that is quickly growing in popularity. Several companies are offering this strategy without charge for the first couple of Gigabytes. Online backups may be good for true archival copies of important documents that you won’t need to modify, since even with a relatively high speed internet connection, it could take you several days to upload just 10 GB of data.

Don’t get caught without a backup if disaster strikes. Reliable backups can be performed cheaply and easily and I’ve only presented three possible methods here. Be Safe!

 

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New Wireless ‘n’ Standard is Official

The iEEE wireless standards organization has ratified the new Wi-Fi 802.11n wireless communication standard. The new standard raises the theoretical transmision speed to 450 Mbps. This is a leap forward compared to the previous standards of 54 Mbps.

New devices should be available for the holiday season. Look for the Wi-Fi Alliance seal to make sure the device is certified.

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