safety
I noticed a lot of forums about computer trouble had popped up here. I wanted to give a simple list to follow so that some of the guys could stay away from the problems I know can happen. I see many of the problems you guys have everyday and have to fix them for other people. I believe with a little basic know how most problems can be avoided.

CLick START then go up to WINDOWS UPDATE. when at that website click the custom install link.
It will bring up all the updates for windows and drivers of your computer
Go through and select all of them.
THen hit the review and Install link
DOWNLOAD them!
Half these computers are not kept up to date.
Main failure in computers come from them not being up to date.
(THIS IS FREEEEEEEEEEE!)

2nd. Use windows XP- before XP 98 2nd edition was the best but if any of you have ME chuck that out the window! ME is a highly bugged system right from the box. XP fixed it but had problems with hackers. The two service pack when downloaded (read above) slove this.

3rd. Buy a virus scan program such as Norton or Macfee. They scan full time for virus and update themselves normally to protect against new threats. If you feel like it run this every month or everytime you feel there is a problem to check for a virus.
Both companies also make firewalls for an added protection against computer hijacking. Use it! (this further protects from hackers)

4th Get Adawear. It will remove any spywar that is on your computer is is simple and easy to use but best of all it really works. Most trouble with win IE comes from these spy programs that slow down and cause pops because it runs on your computer weather you like it or not. Use ithis program you will be very happy! Run this every week to be up to date and clean.

Thats the 4 basic steps to having a safe and happy computer.

WIn IE is only a salve of the system. It is not evil! Remember the witch trails... yea they we good people and IE is a good surfer.

One this to take note of is that while you may see no programs running most spywear runs in the "background" of your computer and there is no way of shutting it down. (where the scanners come in)

Any problems can be solved pretty easily but the best way to to prevent them from ever happening.

If anyone runs into a problem where your computer crashes after is starts up here is the basic steps to fix this.

IN XP

START
RUN
type msconfig
BOOT.INI
in box select SAFE MODE
Apply
OK
RESTART
Yor computer will start in safe mode this starts up your system without running any programs. This way the spywear does not load. YOu can then go in and run your scanners and delete it then follow same insructions and deselect the safe mode box

IF your computer crashes directly after loading
Restart upon loading hit the F8 key several times this should bring you to a screen asking you to boot in safe mode click safe mode with networking and it will start your computer. Then do above to remove bugs in system.

SYSTEM SPEED...
START
PROGRAMS
ACCESSORIES
SYSTEM TOOLS
DISK DEFRAGMENT

Run this once a month it helps to place things on your hard drive in an order in which it will be able to read faster and thus speed up your computer and make it less likely to fail when loading programs and surfing the net.


Sometimes harddrive failure does happen I won't get into that but mostly this will fix your problems.

Hope this helps you guys out there.

Chris

another recommendation i have to make is for the free program Spysweeper.

you can download this program from http://www.webroot.com/

I added a bit more for other problems you guys might have. If anyone would run into a problem please IM me thats what I do besides cars of course.

Chris

hey, me too

What are the probllems with it? I have never had a problem with ME. And as far as web browsers go I think had the most problems with Netscape, although it did have advantaged over IE.

AVG antivirus
Spyware blaster
Spybot
AdAware
Firefox
Limewire
Win XP home

Havnt had a single virus or spyware problem in 2 months using this setup, and its all free too!

Kevin, The main problem with ME is that on a normal computer it would run OK but we you started to push it ex. doing 2 or 3 things at once it had a stability problem. It also had file error problems a Kernel.exe error was common it was known for losing system files and thus needing a re-installation. Its biggest problem was the explore error. In which when you tired to open something the system would just hang and stop working. I have had more people have to wipe there system because of ME then any other system.

ME was a huge step for windows. It added dozens of new features and a whole new world for Internet connectivity sadly as with a lot of first step it did not go well. XP home/pro. came out and all the old problems they used to have were fixed unfortunately it added the problem of being able to be jacked by hackers and other such people because it was made to be the most net workable system (to compete with unix/red hat.) THe service packs have since fixed most all bugs and with a firewall your pretty much safe as long as you stay out the the hacker "channels."

Chris