A Guide To Keeping Your Computer Safe

These pages are designed to help you keep your computer safe while on the Internet. For more detail, select a topic from the Safe Computing Topics list to the right.

Security Upates

1. Keep Your Operating System Updated: Use Windows Update (XP and Vista) or Software Update (Mac OS X) to keep your system patched and protected.
2. Antivirus Protection: Make sure that you have the most current version of your antivirus software, and keep the virus definitions up to date.
3. Firewall Software: Firewalls are built-in to modern operating systems -- make sure that yours is turned on.
4. Spyware/Adware Detection and Removal: Most important for Windows machines, this type of software will find and eliminate spyware, the most common cause of computer slow-down.
5. Secure Browser: Use a secure browser such as Firefox or Opera, because Internet Explorer has many vulnerabilities.

Routine Maintenance Tasks

1. Regular Backups: Hard drives can be prone to failure, so it is important to have copies of your data on another drive or computer.
2. Regular Software Updates: It is important to check regularly for updates to the following types of programs. Most programs have a "Check for Updates" option, usually on the Help menu.
1. Operating System
2. Antivirus Software
3. Anti-Spyware Software
4. Browser
5. Email Client
3. Use Disk Cleanup (Windows): Temporary files build up over time and can slow down a computer.
4. Defragment Your Disks: Once updates are performed and temporary files are deleted, defragging your hard drives will increase the speed of disk access and reduce the potential for hardware malfunction.

Safe Computing Topics

1. Overview
2. Security Programs
3. Routine Maintenance
4. Download Sites
5. Web Links

Download Sites

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