TOP 3 HOME COMPUTER REPAIRS THAT SHOULD NEVER BE DONE

So your home computer repair problem seems very overwhelming. Do not worry! Take everything in stride. You always read about what to do to fix your computer, well here you will read bout what NOT to do. Yes run a Virus/Spyware scan while doing home computer repair but what happens if you come to something that says delete this but you are unsure if you need it? We will go over situations like that right now:

1. DO NOT Delete, Just Rename!

Most virus scanners and spyware scanners have an option for deleting a file. While doing your home computer repair, remember that renaming a POSSIBLY harmful file is a lot better than just removing it, for safety reasons. It might be a normal file that is not a virus so renaming it from example.exe to example-bak.exe allows you the ability to restore it if in case you need it later.

2. DO NOT Run Scans Without System Restore!

While doing home computer repair, do not run virus or spyware scans without ensuring that your system has a solid restore point that you can restore to if something goes wrong. DO NOT remove, quarantine, or delete anything without a system restore point set. Remember, check to make sure the date of the system is the correct date also!

3. DO NOT Make Multiple Changes With out Restarting!

Always when doing home computer repair, restart your computer as much as possible. After every major change, a virus scan, removing a program, and even a registry change, restart your computer afterwards.

The reason for this is so that we may determine the exact problem that caused your home computer to need repair to begin with. Also you want to pinpoint what could have been a harmful change if in fact one is made.

SPYWARE REMOVAL MADE EASY

Spyware removal is a tedious but necessary chore. At best, spyware slows down your computer and brings up those annoying popup windows. At worst, spyware can monitor your activities on your computer without your knowing, steal vital information from your computer such as passwords and bank account numbers, and even crash your computer. Thus, the removal of spyware, no matter how laborious and time-consuming, is a very important task.

Free Tools for Spyware Removal

To get rid of the spyware plaguing your computer system, you would need to get your hands on software that does spyware removal. If you can afford to buy software for spyware removal, there are a lot of proprietary programs available in the market that can do the job for you.

But if you are not willing to spend money on software, there are also plenty of spyware removal programs that you can download for free from various reliable websites. Some are demo versions of proprietary spyware removal software, while others are free for home use.

Whether you choose to invest on spyware removal software or opt to download free spyware removal tools, there are three programs that you must get in order to rid your computer completely of such malware. These programs are a spyware scanner, an antivirus program and a registry cleaner. The spyware scanner removes the obvious spyware while the antivirus program will get rid of the viruses included in the spyware. The registry cleaner will dredge out the malicious code hiding within your Windows registry.

The Proper Way of Spyware Removal

Below is a step-by-step guide in spyware removal:

Install the spyware removal software that you have bought or downloaded for free - the spyware scanner, the antivirus and the registry cleaner. Once installed, disconnect your computer from the Internet and then run the scan for a first pass.

Once the first pass is done, reboot your computer, run it on safe mode, and do a second pass. Sometimes, spyware include resuscitators that will keep them from being completely wiped out of your system. By running only the essential applications on your computer on safe mode, you can be sure that these resuscitators will not be able to stop your spyware removal software from doing their work.

After the second pass, restart your computer and let it run normally. Check your Internet browser if the malicious websites that were the source of your spyware managed to include themselves in your list of trusted websites.

To prevent spyware from infesting your computer again, set your spyware removal software to do regular runs. Your antivirus software and spyware scanner should be running while you are using your computer to block all incoming malware. As for your registry scanner, you can run it once or twice a month to delete all malicious code hiding in your registry.

MOST ADVISABLE UPGRADES FOR YOUR COMPUTER

These are the most advisable upgrades to make your computer a fast one.

1. The first and most important computer part that maintains speed is RAM memory. It is usually available in 256MB, 512MB, 1024MB and 2048MB chips. You need to know that RAM is the measured speed that a computer uses to retrieve data. If the RAM is higher, the operation will be faster. While upgrading RAM memory it is vital to know - what all the main-board already has. Like, if it has a 256MB, simply add one more memory chip of the same kind. The second way is by taking out the old RAM chip and upgrade with a single megabyte memory slot card.
2. As we all know that the world is becoming digital. Digital photos, music files, movies can occupy a huge space. A cheap and easy computer component to upgrade your PC is by adding an external hard drive. These computer parts can be send from PC to PC and transfer data easily. So you must upgrade your computer for better utility.
3. Another important computer part that can be changed is processor. A PC that works in hard conditions will need a fast processor to run smoothly. Replacing the processor is not a difficult task but it requires certain skill. The computer motherboard is a very significant computer part but you should not replace it unless something has got broken or damaged. In order to replace the motherboard you must hire professional experts.

Hence to make your task faster and better, upgrade your computer with advanced computer parts. If you will upgrade your computer then your PC will never give up or fail.

The best program I have used to repair my personal PC can be read about free below. . You can download the program and get your computer working the way it should in a short amount of time.

PORTABLE PRINTERS

ow many times have you taken a picture with your cell phone and wanted to print and share it right away? Or how handy would it be to print movie tickets and coupons from your car when at the theatre or store. How nice would it be to print out a personalized business card when on a business call? When we think of printers we still think of the desktop kind that are big, plugged in and bulky. However, a new generation of portable photo printers makes it easy to print when in your car, at a store, at a party, on vacation, etc.

There are several ways you can compare the quality of portable photo printers: resolution, speed (at this time anything under a minute is excellent), color quality, and the number of prints it can print between ink refills. You should also compare the editing tools that come with your printer, such as the ability to crop photos and adjust brightness levels. Also, make sure the model you are looking into is truly portable; anything over five pounds is not really.

Some portable printers are wireless and others are not. Obviously the wireless printers are more handy, but they do burn through batteries quickly and can be slower. The versions that plug in almost always come with a car adapter. All of these printers do not need to be attached to a computer in any way, but some allow you to insert a CD and print directly that way.

Portable photo printers can be used at home in a pinch as well. If your printer jams, or your power goes out, for example, you can still print if you have a portable model. In addition, these printers can come in handy when you have an "ink emergency" and your desktop printer can't print what you want it to.

As portable printing technology matures it is certain that the price and size of these units will come down. They are already small enough and inexpensive enough to warrant your consideration, though, and as you experience their many uses, and the ways they can make your life easier and simpler, you will be convinced not to wait.

There are many reviews of portable photo printers on line. You are likely to find that they differ a lot in the dimensions previously mentioned. Know what you want from your printer - how you are going to use it, what features you need, and what exactly you'll be printing - before you go to the store to buy one.

HOW TO GET RID OF MAIL SPAM

In the society that we live in today people now class all unsolicited email as spam. This includes automatic replies, emails containing viruses and unwanted but legitimate business propositions.

Spam is nearly as old as the Internet and many believe that the problem of spam will never really go away as spammers are becoming increasingly difficult to stop. They are also finding more and more ways of delivering spam mail around the Internet.

One thing that many of us never really understand is how spammers get our email addresses in the first place. One of the main ways in which this is done is through spammers using computers to check almost every page of websites on the Internet looking for the '@' symbol. If the symbol is found the spammer knows that it is an email address and then simply adds your email address to their database so that when the spammer sends out an automated spam message everyone who is on the database will receive it.

Spammers get your email address without you even realising it. The way in which you can reduce the chance of this happening is to ensure that you don't place your email address on pages across the Internet; however if you need to do this for example for customers of your business to get in touch with you or if someone has requested your email address you should make it accessible to them by replacing the @ symbol, i.e. name[at]domain[dot]com. Spammer programmes will not be able to pick this up as an email address and you will still be able to place your email address on webpage's.

Another way in which spammers are able to get a hold of your email address is if your email address is sorted on someone's computer who gets a virus. Spam virus takes advantage of an infected computer and sends spam emails to all the addresses sorted within that PC. These spam emails do not get sent from the email address of the infected computer owner; they are sent from a fake, spam email address.

If you are finding that you are getting spam messages there are certain steps that you can take to reduce the amount of spam that you receiving, as well as getting a spam blocker/filter you should always remember to never reply to the spam email and never un-subscribe. Many people think that if they request to be taken off a 'mailing' list that they won't receive any more spam emails. This is in fact opposite of what actually happens. If you request to un-subscribe the only thing that you are doing is verifying to a spammer that your email account is valid and they will simply send you more spam mail as they think that you are reading them.

The best reaction to take to spam mail is no reaction. You should never interact with a spammer in anyway as they will just send you more spam emails. To tackle spam messages you should invest in an anti-spam software and let that take care of the spam for you.

A SIMPLE WAY TO INCREASE YOUR COMPUTER SPEED

Increasing your computer speed also increases your output of task and duties. Making you more efficient in everything you do, most especially in the internet. The steps goes like this.

Firstly, check how much memory your machine has. Windows always has liked to use lots of memory and modern operating systems like XP and Vista are especially greedy. If your machine has less than 2Gb of RAM memory, it's time to treat it and you to more.

Upgrading your memory to this level will make near enough everything on your computer run faster. If Windows doesn't have enough memory to work with, it will use space on your hard disk as an alternative. But hard disks are lots, lots slower than regular memory.

A memory upgrade is simple enough to do yourself - there are plenty of tutorials online to show you how - or your local computer store will be happy to help you for a small fee. The whole operation should be over quickly - it will probably take you longer to unscrew the screws on the case than it will to upgrade the RAM.

If it's only print jobs that are running slow, do the same treatment for your printer if it's possible. Color lasers especially will appreciate any extra memory you give them and will allow Windows to pass them across more of the printing job, freeing up your machine for other tasks.

If that still doesn't do enough to make your computer faster, there are other things you can try as well.

PODCAST

A podcast is a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet, often using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The term, like "radio", can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the acronym "Pod" – standing for "Portable on Demand" – and "broadcast". The iPod name was coined with Pod, prefixed with the "i" commonly used by Apple for its products and services. The first podcasting scripts were developed for the iPod. These scripts allow podcasts to be automatically transferred to a mobile device after they are downloaded.

Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

Podcasting is an automatic mechanism whereby multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files. In general, these files contain audio or video, but also could be images, text, PDF, or any file type.

The content provider begins by making a file (for example, an MP3 audio file) available on the Internet through some known Uniform Resource Identifier. This is usually done by posting the file on a webserver; however, BitTorrent trackers also have been used. The files may be available to the general public or may only be available to certain users.

The content provider then announces the existence of that file by referencing it in another file known as the feed. The feed is a list of the URLs by which episodes of the podcast may be accessed. This list is usually published in RSS format (although Atom can also be used), which provides other information, such as publish date, titles, and accompanying text descriptions of the series and each of its episodes. The feed may contain entries for all episodes in a series, but is typically limited to a short list of the most recent episodes, as is the case with many news feeds. Standard podcasts consist of a feed from one author. More recently, multiple authors have been able to contribute episodes to a single podcast feed using concepts such as social podcasting.

The content provider posts the feed on a webserver. The location at which the feed is posted is expected to be permanent. This location is known as the "feed URL" or "feed URI". The content provider makes this feed known to the intended audience.

A podcast-specific aggregator or podcatcher usually starts when the computer is booted and runs in the background. It works exactly like any aggregator which checks each feed at a specified interval, such as every two hours. If the feed data has changed from when it was previously checked (or if the feed was just added to the application's list), the program determines the location of the most recent item and automatically downloads it. The downloaded episodes can then be played, replayed, or archived as with any other computer file. Many applications also automatically transfer the newly downloaded episodes available to a user's portable media player, which is connected to the PC running the aggregator, perhaps via a USB cable.

The publish/subscribe model of podcasting is a version of push technology, in that the information provider chooses which files to offer in a feed and the subscriber chooses among available feed channels. While the user is not "pulling" individual files from the Web, there is a strong "pull" aspect in that the receiver is free to subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) a vast array of channels. Earlier Internet "push" services (e.g., PointCast) allowed a much more limited selection of content.

In March 2006 it was reported that 80% of podcast "episodes" are "consumed" on the PC onto which they are downloaded, i.e. they are never actually transferred to a portable player, or are deleted from the PC without being listened to. To conserve bandwidth, users may opt to search for content using an online podcast directory. Some directories allow people to listen online and become familiar with the content provided from an RSS feed before deciding to subscribe. For most broadband users, bandwidth is generally not a major consideration.