Keep your computer trim and slim

[Guest guest]

Forwarded from Manish Kothari's mail:

Simple Guidelines for Computer Health - Recommendations from IAMI

The Indian Association for Medical Informatics (IAMI)'s discussion group has

come up with an advisory to all computer users which we would like to pass

along to our respective physicians and health care professionals. The

author is Aloke Mullick, General Surgeon in the Indian Army

acmullick@... . We believe this to be

valuable & timely information.

The following is an edited version of their release:

1) Use only ONE Anti Virus. Keep auto protect enabled and virus definition

files updated every 15 days. I've been using AVG Free for last 2yrs; it is

small, agile and has invariably caught 10-20 viruses/worms whenever a friend

has replaced Norton with it on my advice. Get

it from: <http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/>

2) Use ONE firewall. Zone Alarm is the best available and is free too! Be

careful when it asks for granting permission to programs trying to access

the net. If it is a known program (your web browser/e-mail client etc) then

click on permit. If it is an unknown program ( most probably a " spyware " )

then click on decline. The default option is decline. PCWorld had the

following to say about Zone Alarm's free firewall:

" If you have DSL or a cable modem, your IP address is permanent. Although

this has benefits, it also carries the serious shortcoming of rendering your

PC vulnerable to attacks. A firewall, in this respect, becomes not just

desirable but a necessity. ZoneAlarm is a top choice, and best of all, the

basic version is free. "

You can download this free firewall from:

<http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10039884.html?part=zonealarm & subj=dlpage &

tag=button> or from:

<http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.j

sp>

3) Use PLENTY of anti-spyware programs and run all once a week as well as

allow one to run in the background. Here is a list of anti-spyware programs

that I use:

a. Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3 :

(<http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/> )

b. Spy Sweeper 3.0 www.webroot.com

c. Spy Cleaner 8.3 www.topdownloadsnet.com

<http://www.topdownloadsnet.com>

d. Spyware Blaster 3.2

<http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html>

e. Spyware Doctor 2.1

<http://www.spychecker.com/program/spywaredoctor.html>

4) Use PLENTY of junk file cleaners for effective hard disk house keeping.

Run them once a month. Here is a list of programs that I am using.

a. Disk Cleaner 1.4 http://diskcleaner.tripod.com

b. Easy cleaner 2.0 (use only the " clean unnecessary files " and " clean

registry " options. Other

options are risky)

5) Use PLENTY of registry cleaners. A junk loaded registry is the commonest

cause for a slow machine,

apart from less RAM. Cleaning the registry is a dicey job and there are

lots of registry cleaners/optimizer's available that can actually harm your

system. Here is a list of registry cleaners that are certified safe ( as

I've been using them for quite sometime without any ill effects!). Run them

once a month.

a. Easy Cleaner 2.0 (see para 4b above.)

b. RegCleaner 4.3 <http://www.majorgeeks.com/download460.html>

c. Registry Mechanic 3.0 (free trial)

<http://www.majorgeeks.com/download460.html>

d. TweakNow RegCleaner <http://www.tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html>

(Most of the above software are considered freeware and can be downloaded

from www.download.com or www.tucows.com)

6) Remember to run good old ScanDisk and DiskDefragmenter once a month!

7) STOP USING Internet Explorer! Get Opera 7.54 from www.opera.com You will

NEVER feel like touching Internet Explorer again! {Editors note: There is

also a new version of Mozilla Firefox available. It has many plug-ins that

increase functionality and usefulness. However, it is still in the testing

and development phase and you may prefer to wait until the firefox version

1.0 is released. If you wish to try this web browser, it can be downloaded

from <http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/> }

8) If you are looking for a new computer/upgrade then NOW is the time to

get a REALLY GOOD mother board-processor combo dirt cheap. An original

Intel 845GVSR board for 3k and a P-4 2.6 Ghz Presscot cpu with 1MB L2 cache

for 5k. Add 256 MB Hynix DDR and 52x LG CD Writer (the Samsung has tray

problems. Avoid) and you can get a really FAST system for about 23-25k

(depending on your assembler's greed!)

9) Check out the book " Computers for Doctors " published by Jaypee Medical

Publishers. More than half

the chapters are very readable and informative. For obvious reasons I am

not including the chapters on

Computer Hardware and Web Browsers in the above list as they are written by

me! Lol

10) Any comments are welcome. I am a General Surgeon in the Indian Army

and am basically into electronic and computer hardware as a hobby. Contact

me at: acmullick@... .

And finally, You never have enough RAM; you should have at least 256 MB

for WinXP and 128 MB for Win98.

---

Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.

Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).

Version: 6.0.760 / Virus Database: 509 - Release Date: 10-09-04

[Guest guest]

Most of the recommendations in Manish's forward are worth considering.

Norton Antivirus is as good as it gets, get the latest version, and use

" live update " . My personal choice remains Norton. I update my virus

definitions once a month.

You can set your Windows OS to do - disk cleanup, scandisk, and defrag, I do

that manually once a week. With larger disks available now once a month

takes a lot of time.

As far as RAM is concerned, for routine work Windows XP - 256 MB is enough,

but if you are into heavy graphics editing or movie editing - the more the

merrier!

Ravin '82

[Guest guest]

Most of the recommendations in Manish's forward are worth considering.

Norton Antivirus is as good as it gets, get the latest version, and use

" live update " . My personal choice remains Norton. I update my virus

definitions once a month.

You can set your Windows OS to do - disk cleanup, scandisk, and defrag, I do

that manually once a week. With larger disks available now once a month

takes a lot of time.

As far as RAM is concerned, for routine work Windows XP - 256 MB is enough,

but if you are into heavy graphics editing or movie editing - the more the

merrier!

Ravin '82

[Guest guest]

Most of the recommendations in Manish's forward are worth considering.

Norton Antivirus is as good as it gets, get the latest version, and use

" live update " . My personal choice remains Norton. I update my virus

definitions once a month.

You can set your Windows OS to do - disk cleanup, scandisk, and defrag, I do

that manually once a week. With larger disks available now once a month

takes a lot of time.

As far as RAM is concerned, for routine work Windows XP - 256 MB is enough,

but if you are into heavy graphics editing or movie editing - the more the

merrier!

Ravin '82