Sunday, March 28, 2010

Windows XP - What Is Hibernate And How To Use It

In short hibernate is turning off your computer by saving the last program running into your hard disk. It is different from shuts down that is closed all your program before the computer turn off. So when you turn on your computer from hibernate it will open the program just like before you turn off the computer. You can try that by clicking Start -> Turn Off. Hold Shift key and the shuts down button will change to hibernate. Than click hibernate. Your computer will be turn off in hibernate.

If when you hold the Shift key and the shuts down button do not change then you must do some setting in the control panel. Open the control panel, go to Power Options then go to Hibernate tab. Check the box that say Enable Hibernation. Click Apply then OK. Now the shuts down button will turn to Hibernate when you hold the Shift key. Good Luck!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

10 Tips To Protect Your Computer From Spyware

1. Update Windows immediately. In the Windows Security Center in the Control Panel turn on automatic download and installation for updates. Unless the computer came with a third party security suite or firewall, turn on the Windows XP firewall.

2. Update the pre-installed antivirus definitions and other security apps. Set them to auto update.

3. Download and install an alternative browser like Firefox or Opera.

4. Lockdown Internet Explorer. Yes, do it even if you use a different browser.

5. Install at least two anti-spyware apps. My top two recommended free apps are Ad-Aware and Microsoft AntiSpyware. Update definitions for both and turn on active protection in Microsoft AntiSpyware.

6. Install some free protective programs like SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard from Javacool Software.

7. Install IE-SPYAD, which puts nearly 20,000 known dangerous domains in IE’s restricted site zone.

8. Install a HOSTS file from here or here.

9. Educate yourself on how to not become infected in the first place.

10. Surf safe and practice safe hex.

10 Tips For Maintaining Your Computer

Before your precious computer get a serious problem that can cause you a hundred dollars here are some tips that you need to follow.

1. Never turn off your computer by just switching off the plug and not using the shuts down option. If you are not using shuts down button your hard disk may not perform well in the short term and can damage it. In the long term you will never use your computer again. :)

2. To ensure the performance run scandisk and defragmenter at least once a month.

3. A crash can occur anytime so always backup your data on CD or pendrive.

4. Reserve at least 200 MB on your hard disk as it may keep your performance better.

5. Do not unplug anything from your motherboard while it is powered up.

6. Do not loads many programs at windows startup. Please delete or uninstall unnecessary programs.

7. Use power supply regulator.

8. Keep scanning for virus at least once a week and best anti virus plays a big role in this.

9. Always use or enable your firewall to keep your computer from being hijacked.

10. Keep your driver/installer CD in safe place as you may use them when you want to format your computer.

Computer suddenly shuts down/turn off - Run Chkdsk to detect corrupt files

Some of you may experience this as well for me. It is because you have a corrupt file, virus or a spyware running on the background. These are some step that should get ridden this problem.

1. Click Start–> Run –> type cmd –>click OK

2. When the command prompt windows open, type in "chkdsk C: /f /r" without the quotation mark. the /f command that we use will fix the corrupt file that you have.

3. Update your antivirus and scan the hard disk.

4. Restart your system and you will see a better result on the performance!

Good Luck!