Computers are more than just black boxes with electronics components. Many computers users only know how to turn on and off their computers. In reality, computers are quite complex and we should understand a number of rules. There are mistakes that some computer users may make:
- Install software recklessly: It can be tricky to avoid installing different kinds of software. It could be a lot of fun to install many games in our computers. There are also a lot of tools that can provide us with much usability. However, we should be aware that malware and malicious web browser add-ons could cause our computer to fail work properly. In this case, we should only download programs that we need and we obtain them from highly trusted software. There are many highly useful free programs, such as Open Office.
- No administrator password: It is a bad idea to not use administrator password. This could open a door for hackers and bad code from intruding our computer. It is a good idea to constantly change the password. The password should be consisted of 8 characters with a combination of uppercases, lowercases, numbers and symbols. Passwords can be changed each week and it is important that although these passwords are random, we will easily forget them. It would be quite troublesome if we forget our password when we really need to use our computers.
- No WEP or WPA protection: Because everyone could potentially access our wireless network, it is important that we implement WEP and WPA protection. It is particularly true because people could potentially detect our wireless network within the 200 feet radius. This shouldn’t be a complicated process and modems usually include software that allows us configure settings, such as types of wireless security technology.
- Improper shut downs: Often, we don’t wait for out computer to fully shutdown. When people are in a hurry, they may long press the power button to turn off their laptop directly. This could cause software or even hardware problems. We may encounter OS corruption and hard drive problems. When in a hurry, we should allocate enough time to allow our computer to gracefully shut down itself.
- Badly fragmented hard drive: Serious fragmentation can make our computer runs sluggishly and we may need to use the disk fragmentation tool. Windows comes with its own defragmenter and we could find it in Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools. If we regularly defrag our drive, it should be much faster to access folders and files. If we use our computer regularly, we could defrag our hard drive once a month.
- No security updates: The lack of security updates could be a deciding factor of whether we will be infected by malware or virus; or not. Security updates could also prevent people from hacking our computer. Updates should be installed regularly and we shouldn’t do it just because we remember it. If possible, security updates for Windows and other programs should be performed automatically.
