Computer Self Help for Home
Remote Assistance
Team Viewer and Join.me are utilities I can use to help me view and fix your problems without having to come on site.
Simply download the client and when I instruct you to over the phone and we will setup a connection to fix your problems remotely.
- Team Viewer http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx
- Join.Me https://join.me/
Antivirus
I generally recommend antivirus software that has Frequent Updates, a Large Install Base, and Real Time Scanning
Norton and Kaspersky are fine if you have paid for them. A caveat is that coverage expires pending annual payments. Many people go uncovered without paying or knowing their subscription expired.
- Eset Nod32 http://www.eset.com/us/ great paid antivirus software. Often on sale at http://Newegg.com
- Free AVG http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
Bootable Rescue CDs
- Bootable Antivirus Removal for computers too bogged down or corrupt to run AntiVirus http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootable-antivirus-rescue-cds-download-list/
- Windows Password Reset http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
- System Rescue CD - Linux Utillity that can be used to recover some data from a system that won't boot and has partition and imaging utillities http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
- Hiren's Boot CD - http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ Great collection of utilities
Windows Tuning/Fixing
- Belarc Advisor http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html Generates a summary of your system and security analysis for Windows XP
- TreeSizeFree - Utillity to graph where your "stuff" is stored http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/
- iDisk - Similar to Tree Size Free http://memecode.com/idisk.php
- Malicious Software Removal Tool can work to help detect and clean common malware problems Click Start, Run, type "mrt"
- Autoruns Comprehensive powerful tool to control what starts automatically in windows http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
Backups (Abillity to restore lost stuff)
Backups should be thought of as a way to restore what you have lost. The only way to know your backups are running and working properly is to regularly restore something from your backup verify it is intact. Perform a restore test at least once a month.
321 Backup is a good method to think about and use. Have 3 Backups, using 2 types of backup and keep 1 off site.
- crashplan.com Computer to Computer, External Disk Backup, Online Backup Will send an email to you when there are problems backing up.
- carbonite.com Online Backup
- Mozy.com
Data Recovery and Hard Drive Failures
I highly recommend setting up a good backup and recovery solution before a crisis occurs. If you care about your data, then verify that you can restore data from a backup at least once a month. The following services are expensive risky alternatives to backups. Mean time to failure on hard drives is usually 3-5 years. This means hard drives generally fail or stop working properly after 3-5 years and you lose your stuff.
- American Data Recovery Data Recovery Services $500-$2500
- Drive Savers Data Recovery Services $500-$2500
Camera Card Recovery of Accidentally Deleted Pictures