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As computers become ever more entwined in our daily lives, the threat from those annoying computer foibles, viruses, stuck cursors and the other one hundred and one things that make you curse and want to see how far you can throw the box that seems to have a mind of its own grows and grows unless you follow some simple precautionary measures. This initial feature is an attempt to assist those of you who have not yet given in to the temptation to shot-put your PC by providing some simple suggestions by which you can avoid some of the problems that afflict the computer user (whether you like it or not!)
Backup!
It is imperative that you backup your important data.
You can do this by using floppy discs for small files like letters etc or
more commonly these days by copying data to CD-ROM using a CD Re-writer. The
whole purpose of a backup is to copy the information off your hard disc and
onto some other media so that if the worst comes to the worst you don’t
lose your files. The two main areas to back-up are the “My Documents”
folder and your e-mails. People often do not realise that the system will
not do this for you. Backing up e-mails from Outlook or Outlook Express is
not the easiest operation if you haven’t done it before but the principal
is to “export” your messages and mail account settings to a separate
file which can then be backed up onto the back-up media. For more detailed
information look in the help section of your e-mail program under “exporting
messages”.
Viruses
Anybody using a PC on the Internet these days would
be foolhardy not to install an anti-virus program. There are several available
but I would always recommend Norton Anti-Virus as it is easy to load and will
automatically update itself when you log on the Internet. If the software
is not regularly updated (twice a week) then it soon become useless as it
will not recognise the latest viruses.
Spam
Many people suffer from “spam” these days,
for the uninitiated it is the e-mail version of junk mail and can cause hours
of wasteful time deleting unwanted rubbish. There is a program called Mailwasher
available from www.firetrust.com which can be downloaded for free which helps
manages spam. Mailwasher downloads just the first two or three lines of any
e-mails waiting for you, you can then mark junk mail for deletion and “bounce”
it back to the sender before it gets anywhere near your e-mail program. This
speeds the whole process up and also minimizes receiving those e-mails with
viruses embedded in them.
I’m not sure whether Computer Corner will become a regular feature of The Bridge or not, if you have any constructive comments, questions or criticisms then please e-mail me at barry@cactusfixit.co.uk and I will do my best.
Barry Wilson (Cactus Trading)