Protect Your New Computer and Enjoy a Trouble-Free Computer Usage Experience throughout its Lifetime

Why do I need this?

When you buy a new computer, the salesman would not have sold you a computer that is adequately equipped with the necessary software that would give you a trouble-free experience of use for a relatively long period of time.

Computers degrade in performance for a variety of reasons:

1. Inadequate protection against viruses, spyware, malicious codes, trojans and root-kits weakens your computer's ability to perform optimally. Any one of these "bad guys" would invade and consume your computer's resources and hence degrading its performance.
   
2. Fragmentation of data on the hard drive occurs over a period of use gradually degrades the speed in which the computer is able to retrieve and read data. The greater the level of fragmentation, the slower the computer performs.
   
3. Data cluttering also happens over a period of use and it complements file fragmentation by slowing down the computer's performance even further.
   
4. Bad sectors may start appearing on your computer's hard drive after two or three years of use. This is to be expected and you run the risk of losing access to your important data if you don't already have taken the necessary preventive measures. Data recovery services are expensive and you can avoid it if you had taken good care of your computer.

Most new computers you buy included the following as part of its offering:

1. A anti-virus software that will expire in one year's time after which you'll have to pay to continue have the protection;
   
2. A backup software to create a image of your drive so that you can recover it when things go problem. This works if you know how to use the software properly;
   
3. A disk recovery CD containing the original system that comes with the computer. When things go wrong, you can use this CD to re-install a default system. However, you will lose everything else ( and possibly your data as well ).
   

How can I protect my new computer and extend its useful lifespan?

By following the steps below, you will be able to achieve adequate protection for your new computer and extend its useful lifespan.

Step 1 - Separate your data drive from your system drive

Most new computers today would have partitioned your computer hard drive into C and D drives. If it comes with only one drive (i.e. C drive), then partition it into 2 partitions using a hard drive partition manager. This approach benefits you in a few ways:

• Separating system and program files from data allows the re-installation of the operating system without losing the data.
• Having a separate data partition allow for easy transfer of data from an old computer to a new one as all files are stored in only one location.  

Step 2 - Invest & Install protective & preventive softwares onto your computer

Your computer is vulnerable against malicious codes the day it connects to the Internet, if it doesn't have adequate protection. These are some of the recommended tools considered worthwhile and sufficient to protect your computer.

• Norton 360 - Complete protection & care for your computer against all known and unknown internet threats
• LinkScanner Pro - Real-time protection against zero-day threats & malicious websites through exploitation of browser vulnerabilities
• Acronis True Image - Proven back up solution for your system drive. You should use Acronis True Image to create a full backup of your system drive ( or C drive ) at least once after you have installed all your programs. You should subsequently do a full backup of your system drive once every three months. It will save you a lot of trouble later should your computer give up on you one day.
• Parental Control (optional) - Protects your family against undesired internet content display and implement time-control access for your children

Step 3 - Protect Your Internet Explorer from unwanted toolbars

If you are using Internet Explorer as your web browser, you may want protect it from unwanted toolbars that will slow down your computer performance. And if using Google as your default search provider would be sufficient, click on one of the following links depending on the version of your IE browser. Click the [Run] button when prompted to run the file; and click the [Yes] button when prompted to update your windows registry:

• Internet Explorer 6 and below
  
• Internet Explorer 7 and above

The above action taken will prevent rogue toolbars from installing into your IE web browser and set Google as your default search provider.

Remember also to configure and set up your softwares for auto-updates and scheduled runs. When properly configured, your computer will now be a self-maintaining computer, and you are like to enjoy a long time of trouble-free computer use.