Many who read this article may find these recommendations to be old news. However, think about the number family, friends, and associates that ask you for help fixing their PC and I believe you will understand why I chose to write this article..
This list of recommendations for a healthy & secure PC is by no means a complete list of everything you can and should do. It is however a great start if you want to keep your computer running properly for an acceptable period of time. It will also help prevent some of the most common issues related to PC security.
1. Hard Drive Fragmentation
---------------------
Believe it or not, many people have never even heard of hard
drive fragmentation, or the process of Defragmentation. In a
nutshell, when you install software or create files and
data, the Operating System stores this data on your hard
disk drive. The most efficient way of storing this data
would be in one continuous disk file. However, files are not
always stored this way, or are initially stored this way and
later become split up, or fragmented. Because of this, when
the data or file is retrieved, the hard drive must be
searched in multiple places just to combine data that makes
up one file. This slows things down tremendously. If you are
running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you should perform a
disk defrag at least once every two weeks, more if possible.
All of my systems run this process automatically once every
week in the evening hours.
2. Installing Games & Disk Intensive Software
---------------------
If you're a gamer, or regularly use disk intensive software,
the above Defragmentation process will help. However, you
can also take another step to make things move a little
faster. If you have two physically separate disk drives in
your system, I suggest that you use one primarily for the
Operating System and related software, and devote the other
physical disk for installing games and other disk intensive
applications. This cuts down on the competition for disk
resources between your Operating System and other
applications. There are other things you could do as well,
such as configuring the appropriate type of RAID where
multiple disks appear to the operating system as one big
logical disk drive. This takes a little more planning to get
the most out of your drives so Ill cover that in a future
article.
3. Virus & Spyware Protection
---------------------
The bottom line here is; make sure you have installed some
sort of anti-virus and spyware protection. Furthermore,
dont just assume that the default configuration of the
program is best suited for your environment. For instance, I
cant tell you how many people I know whose computer has
contracted a serious virus because of just one minor but
very important task. When the anti-virus software pops up a
message and tells you that your subscription is about to
expire, dont just hit the ignore button. Take a five minute
break from what you are doing and renew your virus signature
subscription. Not only will this keep you up to date on
newer viruses, it will allow your software package to update
to newer versions. The same thing goes for spyware
protection. There are plenty of free spyware protection
solutions out there, none are perfect, but most do the job.
I suggest using Microsofts AntiSpyware Beta package at the
least.
4. Software & Hardware Firewall Protection
---------------------
If you are not using a firewall, then you are just asking
for trouble. Actually, there is a significant chance that
your system is already compromised if you have no firewall
protection at all. Many cable/DSL router combo devices have
built in firewall protection, and this is at least a good
start. However, if you have Windows XP SP2, go ahead and
enable the built in firewall as it will provide you another
level of protection. Oh, yes, and when the system pops up a
message about whether or not to allow a certain application
or communication to take place, dont just hit the ok
button, read it thoroughly then make a decision.
5. Installing & Uninstalling Applications
---------------------
Just about every time you install a new application or piece
of software you increase the time it takes to boot your PC
and in some cases decrease its performance. On thing that
drives me crazy is printing software. For the life of me I
cannot understand how or why printer support software could
total 400MB in size, but they sometimes do. Not only that,
they tend to load all kinds of unnecessary real-time running
applets. HP printers are notorious for this. Be very aware
of what it is you are loading and only load those components
that you need. Even some off-the-shelf software packages
load adware and other not so helpful applets. Also, when you
uninstall software, not all the software gets uninstalled in
many cases. One thing I suggest is to purchase a registry
cleaner. This can dramatically decrease boot times and in
many cases increase the overall performance of your PC.
6. Purchasing & Downloading Items On The Internet
---------------------
When you download or purchase any software from the
Internet, make sure you pay close attention to everything
you are agreeing to or checking off on the various pages
that lead up to the final purchase or download. As with
everything else, make sure you read the fine print. You may
be agreeing to download and install something you dont need
or may impact the security and performance of you PC. Also,
how many more mailing lists do you really need to be on? How
many Internet Explorer tool bars do you need? Most of these
tool bars should be renamed to adware / spyware bars
7. Installing Operating System & Application Patches
---------------------
In a nutshell, if you are using Windows XP, make sure that
automatic updates are turned on. This is very important.
Microsoft releases security and bug fixes routinely and some
of them are critical in nature. Something people tend to
overlook is updating and patching their applications. For
instance, Microsoft Office has critical security patches and
performance enhancements available in the form of patches
and service packs. Its not just Operating System bugs that
can put you at risk, applications can too.
8. Updating Drivers
---------------------
Similar to the above, hardware manufacturers routinely
update their drivers. This includes video cards, sounds
cards, capture cards, system boards, you name it. Some
manufacturers have started to release automatic updates for
their hardware, but many have not. Make sure you check these
sites regularly and when a driver update is available,
install it.
9. What Do Your Children Download
---------------------
This is a really big one. I can tell you how may times I
have been told by people that they have no idea how
something got installed on their computer. Usually their
second sentence contains one of my children must have
downloaded it. The first thing that comes to mind is why
do parents let kids download what ever they like in the
first place. Not only can this severely impact the security
and performance of your computer, who knows what your kids
are getting their hands on. Do you know what one of the most
frequently installed application installs I see on a
teenagers machine is? Kazaa, BearShare, eDonkey, all P2P
file sharing programs. I dont care what anyone says
regarding how convenient and safe these applications are
now, they are wrong. Monitor what your children are doing /
downloading on the Internet. Install a parental control
software package if need be.
10. Rebuilding Your Operating System
---------------------
If you are not familiar with system imaging software, I
suggest you read up on them. One of the most popular
packages is ghost and its been around for quite some
time. I rebuild my systems pretty much on an annual basis.
When I first configured them, I used an imaging package to
create a complete image of the basic OS and application
install. This allows you to not only re-install the base
operating system and applications by hitting just one
button, but can save you big time in the event of a system
disaster.
Conclusion
---------------------
Many of my peers and other technical people will read this
and say its all common sense and very basic. Well, if this
is what you do for a living then yes, it is. But many people
dont know these things or did know about them and have
forgotten. So many PC are in such bad shape and its beyond
me how the average person even deals with it. It has to be
frustrating not knowing where to turn or what to do,
especially if you dont have a tech friend or family member
to call on. I hate to sound pessimistic, but things are not
getting better for the average home or small business
person. Technology should not be this difficult to maintain.
The average person just wants something that will work, and
stay working.
You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.
Original URL (The Web version of the article)
---------------------
http://www.defendingthenet.com/newsletters
/TenThingsToDoForAHealthyAndSecurePc.htm
About The Author
---------------------
Darren Miller is an Information Security Consultant with
over seventeen years experience. He has written many
technology & security articles, some of which have been
published in nationally circulated magazines & periodicals.
If you would like to contact Darren you can e-mail him at
Darren.Miller@defendingthenet.com. If you would like to know
more about computer security please visit us at
http://www.defendingthenet.com
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