Ed Bott suggests few ways on how to be a computer hero for not so much computer literate people. I agree to them and I use them in practice from time to time. With my friends, they are not so much passionate about computers as I am neither do they worry too much about viruses and worms until I tell them “Viruses steal your credit card information and will steal your online banking information” and that is when they freak out and want to test their computer out for any spyware or malware on their system and make them system secure.
I do and show the steps as mentioned by Ed Bott :-
- install anti-spyware software and configure it to run automatically on startup. I use SpyBot Search and Destroy.
- enable their existing Windows Xp firewall, just turn it on
- give them anti-Virus software (or install the free version of AVG)
- run diskcleanup and defrag
- lower the size of the IE cache
- turn the security in IE up (for ActiveX controls) or install FireFox.
- Update from Windows Update
along with the above steps, I also install a free firewall for a start like Zone Alaram and then scare and inspire them enough so that they go out in the local store and buy a full pledged working copy of a personal firewall and yes they are not terribly expensive as well. I advise them to avoid using P2P software like Kazaa and few other crappy software. I also run Adware (free copy) and the guys get amazed as how much crap is stored on their computer that rather they would not see.
These are the things that I do initially and also teach them side by side and tell them to run these tools and keep their anti-virus software signatures updated at all the times. The whole process for me nearly takes 60-70 minutes or a bit more if they have awful lot of viruses allready on their system. But at the end of the whole practice, these guys become a bit more computer system literate then they were and tell me “Guru“ which ofcourse makes me happy.
Tejas Patel