Overview for July
| 31 July 2010
Today sees the end of the first month of the new financial year.
The month has demonstrated very clearly just how important it is to ensure your anti-virus and anti-spyware scanners are up to date and working correctly. In at least half of the virus infections I've cleaned this month, that wasn't the case and a likely contributing factor in the system becoming infected in the first place, which of course resulted in the expense of calling in Jason's PC Services to clean the infection.
One thing to consider, and something many of my customers are already doing, is arranging a service call every year for a virus and spyware check, along with a general check-up and tune of their system. The yearly prompting of a anti-virus system for renewing registration is a useful reminder for such a regular check-up.
There is one thing I would like to make very clear to everyone, if you suspect or know your system has an infection, don't delay in getting it dealt with as soon as possible, because the longer you delay, the worse it will get, the worse it gets, the longer it will take to clean, the longer it takes to clean, the more it will cost you to have it cleaned. It is a sad fact that all too often I come across a system that is so badly, and so visibly infected, only to be told that its been this way for weeks or months.
An infected computer dealt with rapidly typically takes 1/2 to 1 1/2 hours to clean, the age (speed) of your computer will be the primary contributing factor to just how fast the process will be.
Another common problem encountered this month has been the very common effect dust has on a computer system, just one tiny piece of dust in the wrong place can literally stop your computer dead. While I don't recommend anyone who doesn't know what they are doing opening their system to clean it, I do recommend that you should clean the external vents. Keeping airflow into and out of the system unimpeded will help prevent dust settling on the components inside the system, which will help reduce the frequency of dust related problems. It should also go without saying to be very careful to keep free space around your computer to allow airflow in and out of the case, so it might be time to look elsewhere for a place to stack that paper for your printer.