Here's a couple tips for minimizing your risk for computer viruses, malware, ad-ware, and spyware. Before we start.. The only 100% way of keeping yourself from getting SOME kind of bad files on your computer you don't want, is to keep your computer off, and never use it. There is no way to protect yourself from 100% of viruses, spyware, malware, and ad-ware. You can get these just by visiting a website site. With that being said, here are some ways to keep the risk of getting them very low.
- Back up computer on a regular basis.
By doing this, if something bad DOES happen to your computer.. it's usually easily reversible. No matter what version of Windows you use, there's a link somewhere (Most the time in control panel) called Backup and Restore. That's where you want to be.
- Back up computer data onto a removable storage device.
Backing up onto something such as a removable USB device, CD, DVD, and External hard drive is another option for backing up your computer. Most of the time it's not very effective, being as you've have to use a lot of CDs and DVDs, and most USB devices cannot store the amount of gig the average computer has. An external hard drive, if you choose to take this route, and in my opinion, is the best bet.
- When opening e-mail attachments VERIFY THE CONTENTS.
This is very very important. If you download a file from an e-mail you think is from a friend, but you mistook example@email.com for exmpl@email.com, you could be downloading a virus directly to you computer. Best way to avoid this is to know what is coming to you.
- Don't disable anti-virus program.
Some programs require disabling anti-virus to install or remove programs.. If they do, they will tell you. Immediately after installing or removing said program, re-enable the anti-virus.
- Keep your anti-virus up to date and run scans at least once a month.
Try to update your anti-virus definitions everyday. It's usually as easy and right clicking the icon, and clicking update. Doing that little thing could save you a lot of time and possibly a lot of money. You should also set your anti-virus to auto scan. I have mine set to everyday at Noon. That's personal preference. Others run once a month. Whatever works for you. The longer you wait, though, the more risk you could be taking. Always update before running a scan, if you are doing a manual scan.
- Firewalls are also a fairly cheap way of protection.
Firewalls are quite annoying sometimes... But they can also save a computer from hackers, viruses, worms, and other malicious files.
There are tons of anti-virus programs out there that are good.
Norton,
Kaspersky,
AVG, among others. A good general malware, ad-ware, spyware program I recommend is
Malwarebytes anti-malware. You'd update it like an anti-virus, scan, and remove what it finds.
Ccleaner is another good program to use for registry keys your computer doesn't need anymore, and for permanently cleaning internet history, cookies, cache, recycling bin, and tons of other options that you can pick if you want to clean those specific items or not.
