Setting Up and Protecting a Home PC
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Need for Proper Setup

Whether you have acquired your first PC or have acquired many, there are some tips and guidelines for setting your PC up. Much of the software you should add on is free or inexpensive. For the home, casual user, this set up will satisfy most of your needs and keep your PC running smoothly.

Note that many of the programs below are free versions. What this usually means is that you do get updates to the software, but you do not get advanced features or telephone technical support. Most free versions do have reasonably priced versions with expanded features that you can buy. After using the software, and if you like it, you can buy the subscription or licensed versions. Some of the free versions do ask for donations to help support their infrastructure and volunteer efforts. If you like their software, you might consider sending a few dollars.

Basic Setup – Protect Your Computer

Before you connect your computer to the internet, you should install antivirus and firewall software. I’ve read that an unprotected computer connected to the internet can be compromised within 10 minutes or less. If you have an old computer or if you can borrow a friends, download your antivirus and firewall set up programs, save to a CD and install them before you hook up the internet.

AntiVirus

Once you have opened your computer and established your internet connection, before you do anything, you should install antivirus software. The 2 most popular are Norton and McAfee, one of which may have come with your PC, probably on a 90 day free trial, after which you pay an annual subscription fee. A free alternative is AVG Antivirus.

AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers.

Another free antivirus program is Avast 4 Home Edition, Alwil's free app for home and noncommercial users.

Firewall

The second step is to be sure you have a good firewall. Windows XP Service Pack 2 comes with a built in Firewall. You can use that or you can use a standalone firewall such as ZoneAlarm or Sygate Personal Firewall.

Zone Labs Zone Alarm is probably the most popular personal firewall. Click on the button and follow the prompts.

A few other firewalls include:

Kerio Personal Firewall 4: The 30-day trial reverts to a free version (for home use only), but without advanced features enabled.

Outpost Firewall Free: Agnitum's no-frills app.

Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6: Bidirectional.

Configuring the Firewall

Most networking issues result from not providing network information to the firewall. Configuring the Firewall will require configuring a few simple settings.

……….more to follow ………..

AdWare and Spyware

For further protection, you can install adware and spyware blockers and cleaners. Free versions are Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy as well as Microsoft’s AntiSpyware Beta. If you would like a product which costs a reasonable price, Spysweeper is excellent.

Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition is an excellent product to remove adware.

Click on the logo at left, select any of the download sites, and follow the prompts

Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components.

Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer.

A couple other anti-Spyware programs are

HijackThis 1.98: Merijn Bellekom's not-for-novices adware/spyware detector/remover

SpywareBlaster 3.2: Javacool Software's memory-resident spyware blocker.

Browser

For a browser, Internet Explorer will have come with your machine. This will be needed for any Microsoft sites and downloads. However, most virus and spyware attacks com thru IE, since it is the most popular browser. For 90% of your browsing, there is a much safer alternative, Mozilla’s Firefox Browser.

Mozilla’s Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. With tabbed browsing, built in Google search, pop-up blocking, and many security features, Firefox is a great browser for most uses.

Click on the logo above, select the download link and follow the prompts

Now you can proceed to other software. This is also probably a good time to create a System Restore point.

Basic Setup – Additional Software

Now you can install other software.

Word Processing and Spreadsheet

You probably have a basic word processor and spreadsheet application that came with your PC, most likely Microsoft Works or WordPerfect. For some people, this is all they need. However, if you bring work home or deal with people or companies that use Microsoft Word or Excel, you have a couple alternatives.

If you do work at home that requires Word or Excel, particularly those with VBA macros, you will need Microsoft Office.

There are several options to buy Microsoft Office from the Standard to Small Business to Professional. There is a Basic edition that can be obtained with a new PC.

The link above will bring you to Microsoft site to compare products.

However if you only occasionally have to read or update word documents and basic excel spreadsheets, Open Office is a great, free alternative.

You can download OpenOffice.org by going to the site by clicking on the logo at left. Note that Open Office is a large download, over 65 Mb, so it will take a few minutes over a broadband connection.

OpenOffice.org gives you everything you'd expect in office software. You can create dynamic documents, analyze data, design eye-catching presentations, produce dramatic illustrations, and open up your databases. You can publish your work in Portable Document Format (.pdf) which is built right into the software, and release your graphics in Flash (.swf) format - without needing any additional software. Open Office can create, edit and save file in the .doc or .xls Microsoft formats as well.

Email

You need to decide on whether to go with Web Based email vs. Client based email, and if client based, whether to use Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. You may have more than one. Web based is usually the best, since you can check your email from anywhere. It is also good to have a secondary email address that you can give out on web sites etc. This one will result in more spam and ads. Your primary one can be given to friends, family, and business associates.

Note: You may need an email address to download and install some of the free software.

Web Based Email

There are many free web based emails including:

• Google GMAIL (allows over 2 Gb of storage)
• Microsoft Hotmail (now allows 250 Mb of storage)
• Mail.com (which allows you to choose from hundreds of different addresses such as consultant.com, usa.com, etc.)
• Yahoo Mail

Look into them and pick one out, assuming you don’t have on already.

Client Email

For use with your Cable or DSL ISP client Email, Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more. A great alternative to Outlook, you can download by clicking on the Thunderbird banner above..

Windows XP Power Toys

There are several items here that may be helpful at times. Picture Resizer, once installed, allows you to right click on any of you photos files and immediately create a resized, smaller copy which is better for emailing to people or for pasting into documents to keep the size small.

There are several Power Toys available. The best ones are noted below. Download the ones that you would like by clicking on the link at the left. Recommended ones are below.

Tweak UI This Power Toy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. Power Calculator With this Power Toy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions. Image Resizer This Power Toy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click. Virtual Desktop Manager Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this Power Toy.

Acrobat Reader

Often, this comes with a PC, but if not, it is a free download from Adobe.

Adobe® Reader® 7.0 — free software that lets you view, print, search, and share Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files more securely using a variety of platforms and devices.

Pdfwriter

There are several free pdf drivers available now that Adobe has released the technology. Some cost under $50, but there are others that are free. Some allow you to use theirs without paying as long as you don’t mind the footer that is placed on each page. One tat is free and without the ad or footer is CuteWriter.

CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just a push of a button!

Click on the CutePDF banner above. Download the CutePDF program and install. Also, be sure to download the free Converter as well and install that also.

Advanced Software, Tips, and Customizations

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. They can add anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow the browser to be customized to fit the personal needs of each user if they need additional features, while keeping Firefox small to download.

Top Rated and Popular Firefox Extensions

1. Auto Copy - Select text and it's automatically copied to the clipboard.

2. ChatZilla - A simple, straightforward Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.

3. Bandwidth Tester - Tells the bandwidth of your internet connection.

4. DictionarySearch - Looks up selected word in an online dictionary

5. Disable Targets For Downloads - Prevents sites spawning blank windows when clicking binary downloads.

6. Adblock - Once installed, it's a snap to filter elements at their source-address. Just right-click: Adblock: done. Filters use either the wildcard character (*) or full Regular Expression syntax. Hit the status-element and see what has or hasn't been blocked.

7. Tabbrowser Preferences - Enhanced control for tabbed browsing.

8. ForecastFox - Get weather forecasts from weather.com, and display it in any toolbar or status bar with this highly customizable extension.

SyncBack

This is an excellent tool if you have more than one PC such as a desktop and a laptop that you would like to keep in sync. There is a free version and a professional version This is produced by a company called 2BrightSparks

To visit the homepage, click above

For the Freeware version, click on the download button below SyncBack Freeware v3.2.7 [March 2005]

Printfolder

PrintFolder 1.2 Handy free utility to print or save a list of files located in any folder. Right-click any folder in Windows Explorer and select "PrintFolder" in the popup menu. Screenshot - Download (537 KB)

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Return to Home Page Last Revision Date: 12/25/2008