Computer Tips and Tools
Over the years, I've spent quite a bit of time working on computers and the Internet (dating back to the mid-1990's), and during that time I've picked up some great tips and found some valuable free tools. It is my hope that by sharing these tips and tools, they can also be helpful to others.
If you have any comments, or if perhaps you know of a Tip or Tool that you think we should include on this page, please click below to send that information to the WebServant at Hope Church.
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Free Anti-Virus Software
When you bought your computer, it almost certainly had anti-virus software like Norton or McAfee pre-installed with a free trial period. These are very good products, and performance-wise, I have nothing at all against them. But I do not care for their marketing tactics, which are to give people a free trial period (generally 3 months, 6 months or even 1 full year), and then when the trial period expires, require them to buy a subscription to continue getting updates to their software. That sales method must be effective, or they would not keep doing it, but price-conscious, frugal consumers like me do not like to feel "trapped" or "tricked" or otherwise feeling forced into buying their product. I don't know the percentage of people who buy the virus software that came with their computer, but I'm sure it is very, very high.
So you might ask, (1) do I really need anti-virus protection, and (2) are there any alternatives?
The answer to both questions is "yes" - (1) yes, you MUST protect your computer or risk major problems, and (2) yes, there are alternatives to Norton (Symantec) and McAfee. You can certainly buy Norton or McAfee if you prefer, and they make it very convenient because their program is already installed on your computer, and perhaps you do not find their pricing unreasonable. But if you would prefer NOT to pay for anti-virus software, there is a lesser-known way to get all the protection most people need, absolutely free: Microsoft Security Essentials. There are several other free anti-virus programs that you can find by searching in Google, but I think Microsoft Security Essentials is the best.
The Microsoft website says this: "Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It's easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you're green, you're good. It's that simple."
Malware Detection and Removal
Malware, short for malicious software, is any software, code or script designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. Malware includes a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code, including computer viruses, Trojan horses, rootkits, backdoors, spyware, botnets, keystroke loggers, data-stealing software and dialers.
At the very least malware is a harmless nuisance, and in worst case scenarios, malware can steal your identity or the "contacts" in your email program, or hijack or even crash your computer.
If you are running anti-virus software like AVG (or Norton or McAfee), and you are keeping that software up-to-date, then these nuisances are probably not going to be a problem for you. But sometimes people tell me about problems they are having, and I find out that they do not have any anti-virus protection, or that their subscription for anti-virus updates expired long ago, and now one or more of these forms of malware has attacked their computer. Probably the most obnoxious of these is a hostile takeover of a computer that displays a screen masquerading as a friendly warning that your computer has a virus. The screen uses scare tactics in an attempt to panic you into buying their non-existent scam anti-virus software so you can remove the new virus it supposedly "found" on your computer. They hijack your computer, and you can't get their "warning" off your screen unless and until you buy their product! These people should be in jail!
When I help people remove malware invaders and attackers from their computers, I use MalwareBytes, an awesome and totally free tool. I recommend you install it, then run a full scan of your computer so MalwareBytes can track down and kill any known malware that is hiding in your computer. They have a paid version, but their free version is a wonderful tool and will certainly be all you need.
Browsers - Alternatives To Microsoft's Internet Explorer
A browser is a program that a computer uses to display websites on your computer screen. In my opinion, Internet Explorer is NOT the best browser, but they have a huge share of the market - here's why:
There are basically only two categories of "operating systems" (O/S) for personal computers/laptops: Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac. Microsoft's O/S is used by many, many manufacturers (Dell, Hewlett Packard, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, etc), so if that's the kind of computer you have, you're using a Microsoft O/S. As recently as December 2009, 92% of all US computers had a Windows operating system (XP, Vista, Windows 7, etc). And every one of those Windows computers had Microsoft's Internet Explorer pre-installed at the factory as their Internet "browser" - the program you use to view pages on the Internet.
Here's another way of looking at this: people buy cars for a variety of reasons - price, appearance, gas mileage, safety considerations, etc - but I don't think anyone chooses a car based on what kind of tires it has. Well, if for example, Honda sold 92% of the new cars in the US, and Honda put Honda tires on all of those cars, then they would have a 92% share of the tire market UNTIL those tires wore down and the Honda owners bought new tires - then they might get Goodyear or Michelin or Firestone or whatever. But if the Honda tires never wore down, then people would never need new tires, and Honda would keep their huge market share for the life of the car.
That's why Internet Explorer has such a huge market share - not because it's the best browser, or the safest, or never crashes, or is the fastest, or is the easiest to use, but because it was pre-installed on 92% of the computers in the US. You don't need Internet Explorer to access the Internet, and there are 2 other excellent browsers available, and they are both free. I think both are far superior to Internet Explorer in speed, in security, and in just about every imaginable way.
You do NOT need to uninstall Internet Explorer - you can leave it on your computer and test these alternatives for yourself. When you install them, they will ask you if you want to use the same settings and favorite places / bookmarks as you have in Internet Explorer, which is a real timesaver. They will also ask you if you want to make them your "default" brower - the "default" browser is the one that is used when you click on a link in an email.
I think the best browser is Chrome by Google. It is fast and easy to download and install, and I have found it to be superior to Internet Explorer in every way. Personally, Chrome has been my default browser since mid-2009.
I think the 2nd best browser is FireFox by Mozilla. Like Google's Chrome, it is fast and easy to download and install, and it is also superior to Internet Explorer in every way.
Unable To Open Some Attachments To Emails?
People sometimes are unable to open documents that have been sent to them as an attachment to an email. The reason they cannot open the document is usually because their computer does not have the program that was used to create the document, and/or their computer does not know how to open it. The most common problems people have are with "pps" documents (PowerPoint) and "docx" (newer versions of Microsoft Word) documents.
A bit of info: the 3 or 4 characters at the very end of a document name (after the period) are called the document's extension. The extension is a code that tells your computer what type of document it is, and what program it should use to open that document.
If you cannot open either of those two types of documents, Microsoft has free programs that you can add to your computer so that you will be able to open them - one is a PowerPoint viewer, and the other "teaches" your computer to use whatever version of Microsoft Word you already have on your program to open "docx" files.
PowerPoint Viewer (pps files)
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word (docx files)
