Tech Junkie

I have two addictions in my life. First is my wife, and second would be technology. I gave up one addiction  in 2003 for another and technology became my new addiction.Currently I am very passionate about learning whatever I can about computers and hopefully get paid from that passion. I build my own computers, I tend to favor building mid range gaming computers because it always works out to be cheaper than purchasing a pre-built. Building a computer for web browsing and email is not economical and I would always recommend just purchasing one from a retailer. Now I will state with extreme prejudice that if you were to ever purchase from retail locations please be aware that you will have to spend a few hours getting rid of the bloat ware they install ( like I did with my new laptop) not to mention customization to how you like it (backgrounds and music libraries). So since I have just gone through these steps myself I figured I would share some thoughts on what not to do with a new system when setting it up.

• Use Internet Explorer for only one thing and that is to download either Google chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. For the love of all that is good in the world avoid Internet Explorer like the plague.
• Install updates before you really even attempt to do anything on your system, sometimes you can be lucky and have very few updates to do  (depending on the release of the OS and any service packs that are associated)  but they are of utmost importance for the security of your system. Primarily security fixes for Windows  and graphics driver updates.
• Install an Anti-virus and I personally will never recommend Mcafee or Norton because they are resource hogs (and yes I have heard that they have gotten better, but to little to late)  I have my bias when it comes to the programs but everybody who cares about the stability and security of their systems will. So what would I recommend you may be asking, and I would have to say that AVG has always been a good security suite for me , it is highly customizable for scheduling of updates and scans, and catches and quarantines without many issues.The other program I have been using for a while is Microsoft Defender ( and their malicious software removal as well) it has pretty basic settings and is updated quite frequently and so far have not really had an issue.
• Passwords are of utmost importance. please do not be a slouch when it comes to creating passwords. The harder it is for you to remember a password then the harder it will be for your password to be discovered. One of the easiest things I can recommend  is getting a little black book for addresses and right the passwords and associated websites down inside.
• Bloat ware! Get rid of it if you are not going to use it. A lot of the time manufactures put software on your system to help reduce the cost to you, and sometimes that software is complete crap (Wild Tangent games come to mind) particularly with HP they have a “software assistant” that I uninstall because it is of no use if you learn to set up a schedule of checking for updates yourself.  Most of the times the drivers have a self detect utility that you can run  and it will identify what your hardware is and what specifically you need to update (if any at all), but most of all updates should only come from trusted sources, and those happen to be the manufacturers websites and windows updates that are built into the control panel on your computer.
• Customization will be the last thing I will mention and because it is last it is also the least important of the items I have gone over. Customizing your computer is what will make your computer yours though, whether it is a background or even applying stickers to your laptop make the computer and extension of the things you like.

So I hope that the things I have learned over the years can be of some benefit to you and your computer. Do you have a question to ask about your computer by all means ask, and if I can help I surely will.