How To Keep Your PC Running Smoothly Part 1: antivirus

We've all been through the same situation: you purchase a new computer, use it for a few months and things are going great. All of a sudden your machine starts taking forever to boot up, your desktop and task bar is cluttered, viruses begin popping up and before you know it we hit the infamous BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). At which point we have to make the decision to bring it in to the ever so costly techs or bug a family friend to fix it.

Relax! You can fix it yourself, it's relatively simple, and with any luck at all.. regular maintenance will keep your PC feeling like new for years. Now I know what you're thinking, "But I have no idea how this box of evil operates!" That's what I'm here for, to give you the tools and information to fix your PC like the pros. The best part is that I can help you do it for FREE.

First things first, if your PC is bogged down we need to make sure you're not infected. If you bought a pre-built computer from a department store or a PC retailer, it more than likely came with a trial version of anti-virus software (usually Norton or McAfee). If you've upgraded beyond a trial account, go ahead and skip steps 1 and 2. Now then, let's get down to it.

Before anything else, we need to choose what anti-virus software we want to run. Personally I'm not too hot on having home users pay for something they could legitimately have for free otherwise. Some of the more popular anti-virus programs I know of that do not chain you to a trial are: Comodo (which is for users who are a little more advanced), AVG and Avira are both for beginners but just as good. If you can afford to upgrade (recommended) do so. All three previously stated have an option to upgrade to a premium account. Three programs that require you to pay but are worth the money are Panda, Norton and McAfee.

Now you've gotten your anti-virus program downloaded and you're already getting ancy to run that scan. Hold on just a little while longer, we still need to install that sucker. If you've got your browser's download box open you can simply double click the .exe file you just downloaded. Otherwise navigate through My Computer>C:/>Downloads or My Computer>C:/>Documents and Settings>(your user name)>My Documents>Downloads. Run the .exe corresponding to the name of the anti-virus site you just visted. Be sure to agree to the Terms Of Service and install it to your Program Files directory.

If you can hang on for just a moment longer, we have to make sure your diagnostic utilities are up to date. Immediately following installation the program should have given you an option to update. If not, check the home page or "File" or "Tools" or the side bar for an 'Update' option.

Finally, we come to it. Time to scan. Usually there is a gigantic button denoting the scan. Go ahead and click on that, make sure it's set to scan your main drive (usually C:) and click Go or Start and let it do it's thing.

If your anti-virus hasn't discovered anything, great! If it has, the program itself will usually walk you through what to do. In case it doesn't, look for a check all option, if not just hit "Quarantine". And you're done! Pretty easy thing to have a tech charge you hundreds of dollars for.

See you in Part 2: defragmentation.