PC Support
Some tricks and tips that I'd like to pass along
First and foremost, buy a good Anti-Virus program and keep it enabled and up to date. One virus can destroy many days work in seconds and can also make you liable for damages if your pc was used to pass viruses along. There are several good Anti Virus programs on the market, ranging from the free version of AVG to the various paid programs such as McAfee, Panda, and Trend. Most AV software runs about $50 for the software and about $30 for the annual update package, both together are far cheaper then the minimum $100 a shop will charge to remove a virus.
Second thing to get is some spyware tools. Ya gotta be careful here, there is some spyware that is marketed as being a removal tool but it just installs more. The two that I like to use are Spybot and Ad-Aware. I like to use them both; install one, update it, let it clean up what it can, then uninstall it, install the other, let it clean up what it can, uninstall. Most antivirus packages now include some anti-spyware tools but I am not familiar with them.
Third is to get a firewall. This is a bit harder to do. ZoneAlarm has been around for many years and enjoys a pretty solid reputation. Many AV packages now have Firewall protection built-in or as an add-on.
Speed Up Your PC for free! This is not a gimmick but the real thing. Windows contains some often ignored utilities that can make a serious performance difference.
For those who like to dig into the dark recesses of the OS I strongly recommend that you visit a few sites. I can highly recommend Steve Gibson. He is well respected in the industry and has been around for a while
Another good site to visit is Sysinternals. I use these utilities and I am very pleased with them.
Of course, who better to explain the inner workings of Windows than the authors themselves? www.microsoft.com has a great deal of useful info, but you must dig hard to find it. The Knowledge base is located at Support.microsoft.com and the MSDN Technet site has an overload of info MSDN.microsoft.com