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Recommendations For Keeping Your Computer
Happy and Healthy.

For both Macs and Windows Computers

Last Update: 7-17-2010

 
   

 

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Below are recommendations for maintaining your computer and keeping it healthy and happy — this should have a positive affect on you, too! I suggest that you print out this entire page to read it at your convenience.

These are certainly not all one can do and should do, but cover the major concerns of which everyone should be aware.

If you have any questions regarding any of this information, or have comments or suggestions, please contact me. I'll add your ideas to this page.

Where applicable, each section below has specifics for Macintosh computers ("Macs") and Windows PCs ("PCs").

First, a quick checklist to see if you are doing at least the major tasks to protect your computer and your data...

  Is your software up to date? This includes your Web browser, email, antivirus, antispyware, Internet, firewall, Internet security, any program that uses the Internet, and Windows or Mac operating software? Are you continually updating it to make sure all the latest security patches and updates are in place?

  Is your antispyware software being updated several times a week, providing real-time protection, and thoroughly scanning your computer at least once a week?

  Is your antivirus software being updated several times a week, running real-time protection, and thoroughly scanning your computer a few times a week?

  Are you unplugging the power, as well as the telephone cable TV, DSL, and/or satellite cables to your equipment any time there's a chance for lightning, power problems, or when you go away?

  Are you backing up (making a copy of on some other media) any and all critical information on your computer?

  Are you using a surge protector both for the power to your computer equipment, as well as for the telephone line, cable TV, DSL, and/or satellite cable to your equipment?

  Are, are you using firewall software?

  Do you run disk repair and disk defragmentation software regularly?

If you did not say "YES!" to everyone of these, I highly recommend you read the appropriate sections below.

Table of Contents

I. Essential
A. Backup Your Documents / Data / Hard Drive
B. Run Disk Repair Utility Software
C. Run Anti-virus Software
D. Run Anti-adware / Anti-spyware Software
E. Run Personal Firewall Software
F. Security Suites
F. Use a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply)
G. Surge Protectors
H. Modem and Computer Protection
I. Unplug Your Equipment for Lightning Protection
II. Recommended
A. Rebuild Key Catalog Files: Desktop Database / Windows Registry
B. Defragment and Optimize Your Hard Disk
C. Add As Much Memory (RAM) As Possible
D. Cautions When Using Email
E. Install A Junk Mail (Spam) Filter
III. General Tips
A. Upgrading OS's (Operating Systems)
B. Remove Old Software
C. Create Restore Points (Windows ME, XP, and Vista)
D. Broadband Users: Verify Your Connection Speed
E. Is Your Clock Battery Going Bad?
F. Computer Image Size, Dimension, and (Density) Resolution
G. Keep A Log for Each Computer
IV. See Also - Other resources of recommendations

I. Essential

A. Back Up Your Documents / Data / Hard Drive

The most important aspect of maintaining your computer is performing a back-up, that is, copying what's important to you to another media. It is the only insurance you have if something goes wrong, such as the computer's hardware gets damaged (such as by lightning), software gets damaged (due to crashes, virus, incompatibilities), or if the information becomes damaged or deleted.

How many of you perform any kind of regularly back-up, even of a few documents? All of you that said "I Do!" – pat yourself on the back. The rest of you – welcome to the majority of computer users.

If a file becomes corrupted, accidentally deleted, or infected by a virus, and you don't have an copy of it – it's gone. You'll have to find another copy, or recreate it from scratch. Having a back-up copy solves that problem.

If a hard disk becomes corrupted, infected by a virus, damaged by spyware, or otherwise unreadable or usable, and you have a back-up of the entire disk — you can rest easy, none of your data is lost (except for anything created or changed since the last backup).

Unfortunately, viruses exist, files and folders can be accidentally deleted, files and hard disks can become corrupted, and hard drives can die. It's a fact of working with computers. So you back up (make a copy of) your work and other things on your hard disk – then if any problems occur, you can recover the necessary pieces from the back-up, and then go on working.

If you use a computer very often, you can expect to need to use a back-up of your entire hard disk. If for no other reason, to recover the file, folder, or software you just erased somehow without realizing it. Recovery is easy – assuming you've recently backed up – just copy the deleted items from the latest backup set to your computer.

1. The Bare Minimum Backup

If you do nothing else, copy any files that you would be devastated if ever lost. Usually
a flash drive, CD, floppy disk, Zip or Jaz disk will work for this task. Perhaps even create a second set and store that at another location. Whatever media you use, take care to store it in a clean, dry place, away from heat, cold, sunlight, moisture, dust, magnets, and electronic devices.

2. The Basic Minimum Backup

Better yet, copy ALL your document files. You may want to consider backing up your email, email address book, and Web browser bookmarks and favorites. Don't forget any pictures, and money management files. Usually a flash drive, CD, DVD, Zip or Jaz disk will work for this task. In this scenario, you do not back-up:

  • application programs — these can be restored from the CDs/DVDs they came on (assuming you still have those).

  • the OS (operation system) because it can be reinstalled from the CDs/DVDs that came with your computer. (Assuming you have those of course. If you do not have the CDs/DVDs with your computer's OS, it's imperative that you obtain these – contact the source of your computer.)

In this scenario, if your hard disk goes "belly up," at least you've saved your documents. You will, however have to reinstall the OS and all your applications, utilities, Internet software, peripheral software and drivers, third-party system extensions and control panels, etc. All your preferences are lost. And expect to lose some files for which you did not have originals. This is the risk you take by not doing a full back-up (see the next section).

3. The Ideal and Recommended Back-up

The ideal, however, is to backup your entire hard disk. This is by far the best thing to do. If any file, folder, program, etc. goes bad, gets infected or deleted — you're covered. If your hard drive dies or the disk goes bad, and you have to reformat or get a new one — you're covered. It's a very simple way to avoid a major headache down the road.

(It's still important to make sure you have the disks for your OS and applications — in some cases these need to be reinstalled to get up and running again.)

If you have to restore all the files to your hard disk and you do not have a complete backup of your hard disk, it's a very large chore to reload the OS, all the applications and utilities, and all your documents (if you have them backed up), then reestablish all the preferences for all your control panels, applications, utilities, etc. There are always things that get lost in that process.

On the other hand, if you have a complete back-up of your hard disk, it's a relatively simple task to restore everything that was there, JUST the way you left it, preferences, colors, and all.

How often information on your hard disk changes and its importance determines how often you should back it up and how many backup sets to make. That, in turn, helps determine what backup device and backup software you should use.

If you're a regular computer user, try to back up once a week. I also recommend three back-up sets. One reason is for recovering items deleted a few weeks back...the folder you trashed without realizing it 2 weeks ago is not lost — it's on your oldest backup set — from three weeks ago.

4. Storage Devices and Media

There are lots of different types of drives and storage media to use for backing up, such as: flash drives, Zip, Jaz, CD-R (write once), CD-RW (rewrite-able, that is, write many times ), DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, tape, external hard drives, and more. Exploring all the advantages of each is out of the scope of this document. There are good and bad reasons to use each type of device/media. I would be happy to review those with you, and help you work out an appropriate backup solution.

Here are some general tips...

  • Optical media (CDs, DVDs) is the cheapest per megabyte, and has the best reliability for future data readability, It is therefore the best for archiving data for long-term storage.

  • Flash drives (USB memory sticks) are very convenient and very portable. Their long-term reliability is unknown, but they work great for short-term solutions.

  • Removable magnetic disks (such as: floppy, Zip, and Jaz disks) are more convenient than optical media, but are the worst for reliability of data, and the most expensive cost per megabyte.

  • An external hard disk is "in between" optical media and removable magnetic disks for data reliability and cost per megabyte, yet is the fastest and very convenient for large amounts of data.

  • Tape drive systems – the drives and tape cartridges are relatively inexpensive, tape media itself is adequately reliable, and the tapes are removable (kept separate from your computer) — so they cannot be hurt during electrical problems, viruses, or other detrimental influences.

MACs

Probably the best mechanism for complete back-up is a USB or FireWire external hard drive. They are fast, convenient, the media is more reliable than magnetic removable disks, and the cost is reasonable. You can likely get several complete copies of your hard disk on an external hard drive. Connecting one is very simple – plug it in, turn it on, and you're ready to go.

With Mac OS 9 and earlier, back-up your entire hard drive was simple, drag your hard disk icon onto the icon of an external hard drive, wait a few minutes, and it's done – EVERYTHING on your hard disk was backed up!

With Mac OS X (that's a Roman Numeral 10), things changed...

COPY: You CAN still drag your hard disk icon onto the icon of an external hard drive, and this will back up MOST files. But it will not copy over many hidden files needed by the operation system (OS) to do its job and that allow it to boot (start up) from the back-up location. But, this method will copy over everyting else, programs, utilities, preferences, documents, music, pictures, videoes, etc.

CLONE: To create a back up of you entire hard disk that DOES copy over hidden files needed by the OS to boot, you need to create what's called a clone. Most better back-up programs can create a clone. With a clone, you know you have a complete copy of everything on your hard dirve, the OS included, and you can boot from the clone back-up. Also, if your main hard disk goes bad, once it's replaced, you can restore from the clone to your new / fixed hard disk, and then you're up and running.

A clone takes over the entrie hard disk, or if the drive is partitioned, the entire partition being used.

A few good back-up programs for Mac are SuperDuper and Intego Personal Backup, both of which can back-up your whole hard drive to another hard drive, writeable CDs, writeable DVDs, and more. Data Backup from Prosoft is another backpup utility -- I know nothng about it. EMC's Retrospect is a very full-featured Mac back-up program. Carbon Copy Cloner is another back-uip program good for making clones.

There are lots of ways to use an external hard drive to back up your hard disk, with a combination of clones and back up copies. Here is one idea of many possible...

On your external hard drive, divide it into two partitions. Make one the same size as the hard disk on your computer. Use this for the clone (which will be made with back-up software). Use the other partition for copies of your hard disk (put in date-labeled folders), or regular copies of your Documents folder (for example), and other things you make manually.

Buy an external hard drive that's large enough to accommodate all this, at least 3 times larger that your total hard disk space.

Keep the external hard drive off and unplugged when not in use — therefore, it cannot be accidentally corrupted, infected by a virus, or affected by power problems or lightning.

To recover a file(s) or folder(s), simply drag them from the back-up hard drive to your main hard disk.

To restore from a cloned copy of your hard disk, using the same software that created the clone, and make a "clone of the clone" FROM the backed up version TO your main hard disk.

WINDOWS PCs

Probably the best mechanism for complete back-up is a USB or FireWire external hard drive. They are fast, convenient, the media is more reliable than magnetic removable disks, and the cost is reasonable. Connecting one is very simple – plug it in, turn it on, and you're ready to go.

A good back-up program for Windows is Norton Ghost, which can back-up your whole hard drive to another hard drive, writeable CDs, writeable DVDs, and more.

Keep the external hard drive off and unplugged when not in use — therefore, it cannot be accidentally corrupted, infected by a virus, or affected by power problems or lightning.

5. Before you perform a backup, do the following:

    1. Run antivirus and antispyware software (so you do not back up a virus or any spyware).

    2. Remove any unneeded software.

    3. Remove any extraneous files, if you know of any and where they reside. Don't fill up your backup sets with unnecessary clutter. Remove old email and faxes, go through those files and folders you've meaning to clean out, then empty the Trash/Recycle Bin.

    4. Run any disk repair utilities you have.

B. Run Disk Repair Utility Software

A very important part of maintaining your computer is regularly running a good disk repair utility.

I recommend running this software once a week, and more often if you crash a lot. Ideally it should be run after every crash.

If this is not done, after a while, problems can develop that cause additional crashing of the computer software, render your hard disk unreadable or unrecognizable, keep your computer from starting up properly, and/or other strange behavior. Critical information on the hard disk can become so "corrupted" that the entire disk will need to erased and reformatted.

MACs

All Macs come with Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities and it's also on your System Install disk. There are two choices — Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk. Repair Disk Permissions can be run any time. Repair Disk requires you to start up from your System Install disk and select Disk Utility from tine Installer menu.

Disk Utility cannot repair as much as the third-party products mentioned below, but if nothing else, it can alert you to problems that need to be fixed. (And it's possible that it might fix some things the other programs cannot....)

Third-party Products

Disk Warrior from AlSoft is an excellent product creating a new optimized disk directory (catalog). Instead of attempting to repair a disk's directory (as some products can only do), Disk Warrior builds a new (and optimized) directory. It is recommended to run Disk Warrior regularly as preventative medicine.

Another good choice is Techtool Pro 4 from MicroMat whose basic features are:

  • create a new optimized disk directory (catalog) like Disk Warrior. This is crucial capability, and an excellent preventative measure.
  • disk repair utilities
  • disk optimization
  • a "whole slough" of other test and fix utilities


WINDOWS PCs

Windows PC's come with a disk repair utility called ScanDisk. In Windows XP and Vista, this utility is called Error Checking (as well as CHKDSK).

Third-party utilities are also available, such as Norton Utilities from Symantec, which usually offer more features and capabilities.

How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP

Details about using ScanDisk:

  • Before running ScanDisk, it's a good idea to run Disk Cleanup, which is in: Start | (All) Programs | Accessories | System Tools.

  • ScanDisk does not like having any other programs running at the same time, even "background programs." Therefore, before running ScanDisk, quit all programs you have running, turn off any screen savers, and then press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. In the dialog window that appears, perform an End Task operation on all programs except Explorer and Systray.

  • NOTE: ScanDisk may not run properly if other hidden programs are still running, the hard disk is severely damaged, or the hard disk is in sore need of Disk Defragmenting. If ScanDisk does not run properly for you, start up your computer in Safe Mode and then run ScanDisk. (See How to restart Windows 9x or Windows Me in Safe Mode for details.) If you still have problems, please consult your local computer consultant. [When finished in Safe Mode, restart your computer to use all your normal software.]

  • To run ScanDisk, go to Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | ScanDisk. (In Windows XP, you'll need open My Computer, right click on the icon for the drive you want to check, and choose Properties. In the Error-checking section of the window, click on the Check Now... button.)

  • Always check the box for "Automatically Fix Errors" in the ScanDisk window.

  • Notice that there are two modes to ScanDisk: Standard and Thorough. (In Windows XP, the Thorough is selected by check the Scan for bad sectors check box. Otherwise you are using the Standard mode.) The Standard is the one you want to run most of the time, perhaps once a week and after an type of crash or forced restart. Thorough takes much longer and should be run perhaps once every month,and ALWAYS before you run Disk Defragmenter. The Thorough mode scans the surface of your hard disk's media for errors. If your hard disk is going bad, this should tell you by finding bad sectors.

  • Also, avoid using your mouse while running ScanDisk.

C. Run Antivirus Software

For Windows computers, in addition to the 100,000 or so adware and spyware programs, there are now over 100,000 viruses out there attacking them.

For Macintoshes and other computers not running Windows, fortunately, there only very few viruses, and no adware and spyware. Still, for Macs, there is a need for antivirus software because of the few viruses out there for the Mac, OS (operating system) and the cross-platform viruses that attack via documents created with Microsoft Office products, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Most of today's (Windows) viruses are now so widespread, and/or can do very serious damage, that having up-to-date anti-virus software is an absolute must. Up-to-date anti-virus software means that the software is regularly upgraded, as well as updated with the latest virus information. At least for Windows users, antivirus software is probably the most important program you can run.

If you ever:

  • insert a floppy disk, CD, DVD, Zip disk, Jaz disk, flash drive, or any other removable device in your computer
  • download software
  • install software
  • receive email
  • view Web sites
  • share files and/or access rights with another computer
  • use any type of network

you make your computer vulnerable to viruses. Fortunately, the solution is simple and inexpensive — prevent the viruses from infecting your system in the first place by installing and regularly updating the best anti-virus software you can find.

The better anti-virus software can be set up to automatically scan all aspects of your computer and your activity on it. This includes, but it no limited to, the scanning of email (both incoming and outgoing), Web site temp files, downloaded files, removable media such as floppies, CDs, Zip disks, etc., and certain areas of your hard disk.

New viruses are created often, so it is imperative that your anti-virus software be updated regularly to counteract all new viruses. We now recommend updating every week, or more. This is especially true for users of any Microsoft products, such as: Windows, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows Mail, ad Microsoft Office software, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Using non-Microsoft products makes you much less vulnearble to attack.

We recommend antivirus programs that regularly update themselves while you are on the Internet. Even with these, it's a good idea to manually run their update feature about once a week to make sure the updates are happening.

Each time after you have updated your anti-virus software, you should scan your entire hard disk(s) for viruses. Second best is to set up your antivirus software to automatically scan you hard disk, at least twice a week.

It is also very important to run anti-virus software before backing up your hard disk. You sure don't want to backup a virus!

You also to regularly update your Internet software (Web browser, email program, etc.), as the vendors of this software are constantly updating them to fix security and virus problems, and other bugs.

You also want to watch for and install updates to your OS (operating system, like Windows or Mac OS) as they become available. (See the Windows Update or Mac OS Software Update feature on your computer.)

These days, using a computer with Windows on the Internet exposes your computer to the worst the computing world has to offer. According to Symantec, Windows uses can expect to be attacked in well under a minute once connected to the Internet. Using an OS (operating system) like Linux or Macs is infinitely safer. This is mostly because those that write viruses and other "malware" target the Windows operating system and other Microsoft software (such as Internet Explorer, Outlook, Outlook Express, and many of the Office products) because these products are on most of the world's computers (85 to 90% ?).


Preventative Measures:

Here are some preventative measures you can take to help avoid viruses (and/or related problems):

  • Most viruses these days are written to take advantage of Microsoft products: Windows, Internet Explorer, Outlook and Outlook Express, Word, Excel, Visual Basic, etc. Using alternative programs may very likely help avoid viruses specifically targeted for those programs. Begin by using alternative Internet software – other Web browsers like Firefox, and email programs like Thunderbird or Eudora.

  • Viruses can spread in many ways, from visiting a Web site, via email (usually as attachments), across netowrks, via external media like flash drives, DVDs, CDs, hard drives, etc. Be sure your antivrus software has its "auto-protection" feautre on at all times, and that it's set to always scan external media. This is becoming more of a problem with the popularity of flash drives, and how easily viruses can be transmited via these very convenient storage devices from an infected computer to those unaffected.

  • Most viruses spread via email and come in the form of attachments (files attached to the email message), therefore...

    • Be suspicious of any unexpected email, whether you know the sender or not.

    • Be very suspicious of any mail from unknown senders containing attachments, very suspicious of any mail from unknown senders containing attachments,

    • Be cautious with attachments even from people you know — they may have accidentally sent you a virus. (Many of today's viruses automatically send themselves to you from a friend's computer, since you are in their address book!)

    • NEVER open any attachment you are not 100% certain about who it's from AND what it's about AND are expecting it. If uncertain, ask the sender if they intended to send you that attachment.

    • Any email attachment should be saved to your computer first, then scanned with up-to-date anti-virus software (that's true for downloaded software, as well). Do a search on the name of your attachment at the Google search engine to see if it's part of a known virus.

    • Do not open ANY attachment with a double extension, like: info.doc.pif. Note that Microsoft Explorer, Internet Explorer, Outlook and other software may hide the second extension so "filename.jpg.exe" may appear as an ordinary "filename.jpg" file.

    • A virus needs executable code or a macro (like those used in Word and Excel documents) to run. Therefore, some attachments are safe and others are not.

      • Some attachments that are safe (as of this writing, and assuming a double filename extension is not being used): JPG and GIF graphics files, PDF and pure TXT (text) documents.

      • Attachments that can contain a virus: those with a Windows extension such as .exe, .com, .bat, pif, .scr, .vbs or .vbx (the last two are the extensions for Microsoft's Visual Basic script). Note that Windows executable files cannot be run on a Macintosh, making the Mac a much safer machine to use.

      • Here is a list of potentially unsafe file extensions, as of 10/2001:
        ad, adp, asp, bas, bat, chm, cmd, com, cpl, crt, exe, hlp, hta, inf, ins, isp, js, jse, lnk, mdb, mde, msc, msi, msp, mst, pcd, pif, reg, scr, sct, shb, shs, url, vb, vbe, vbs, vsd, vss, vst, vsw, ws, wsc, wsf, wsh

    • If your email program is set to automatically open or run attachments, turn that feature OFF, NOW! You must be the one to decide to run these, or not.

    • Even if you think an attachment is safe, do not open it from within email. Instead, save it to your desktop (or other convenient location), then scan it with your antivirus software before opening it.(Is your antivirus software up to date for virus definitions?)

  • Disable the email message preview pane in your email software. This prevents the message from being opened and read upon merely clicking on it, thus preventing a virus from running, or a Webbot identifying your address as real and thus sending you more virus-laden or junk email.

  • Enable macro virus protection in your Microsoft Office products like Word and Excel.

  • From the VIRUS WARNINGS AND VIRUS INFO page:

    • Delete immediately all E-Mails with attachments, without opening/reading, that have no or obviously false sender's addresses (like "Ha Ha Ha", typical for the Snowwhite Virus).

    • Do not open attachments without verification that they were sent intentionally. Throw out and delete these attachments (to avoid inadvertent undeleting).

    • Switch off automatic execution (opening) features of your E-Mail software and/or browser, switch off "Script" function of Word.

    • Don't use email software that cannot switch off automatic opening.

    • Use caution with software specially prone to virus problems (i.e. Internet Explorer with Visual Basic, Word/Office, Outlook). Highest risk is with Windows operating systems (OS), lower with Mac OS, lowest with Unix/Linux OS and old MS-DOS/Win 3.x.

    • If you have positively identified a virus and you know the sender's address (use "reply to" but make sure not to include the attachment again!), send them a virus warning of the type: "The attachment of following mail I received from you contains the ...(name) Virus!"

  • Verify the validity of any email you receive. This is true for anything you receive in email, but especially for virus warnings.

    • A classic one is the so-called SULFNBK.EXE virus. It's actually a real file needed by Windows, but there was an email going around saying it's a virus, and if you have it, delete. (By the way, if you accidentally delete "SULFNBK.EXE" from your computer, go here to find out how to restore it.)

  • When sending email to a list of recipients, always use BCC (blind carbon copy).This prevents your recipients from having to scroll through the list of recipients, protects the privacy of the recipients, prevents junk email senders from picking up all the addresses, but most important these days, does not expose the recipients to viruses that will to send themselves to any email address it finds in any email message, and in any file on a computer.

  • Because of the growing number of email filters that are rejecting email based on the HTML content (due to the possibility of a virus embedded in the code) we now recommend folks not use HTML formatted message — instead, switch to all plain text messages. It's also still somewhat true that not email programs can read HTML formatted message properly, so this will ensure all recipients will be able to read your mail.

  • Update your Internet software. Security holes and other problems are being fixed all the time. This should be done regularly. Microsoft products tend to need more updating. Here are the needed links:

  • Update your operating system software, which should be done regularly a least once a month, especially Windows. Repeat this process several times. One update may lead to others. When you've installed all updates, you'll get a message telling you so. Security holes and other problems are being fixed all the time. See below for specific links.

  • Visit the Symantec Anti-virus Resource Center for details (including removal instructions) for any virus.

  • In a few cases, just viewing an email message can give you a virus. Delete any message you feel is suspicious.

MACs

Here are some good anti-virus program choices for Macs:


WINDOWS PCs

Here are recommended anti-virus programs and other needed items:

D. Run Antispyware Software

Perhps now worse than antivirus software, the need to run anti-adware/ anti-spyware software is of very critical importance for Windows users.

Today's freeware, shareware, cookies, media players, interactive content, and file sharing can contain code that allows their authors collect and spread information about those using them. Known as spyware, it can track your Internet using habits, share this data with a third party, hijack your browser start page, alter important system files, and can do this without your knowledge or permission. In fact, just Web browsing innocently, spyware can install itself on your machine and do its dirty work.

Learn more about it:


Over a short time, all Windows users will aquire, without their knowledge, some form of adware and/or spyware.

Be aware of any pop-up ad trying to seel you anti-adware/ apyware software - it is very like adware/ apyware itself! Here is a list of some of the known rogue anti-apyware:

Rogue / Suspect Anti-Spyware - Information about many sub-standard products that you ought to avoid.



MACs

At this time, none of the prevalent spyware programs are written for Macintosh. Nonetheless, here are a few Mac spyware removers:

Be sure to visit the software's site regularly to fetch the latest version of the program.

  • Free online scanners

    • HouseCall, from TrendMicro - a FREE Web-based tool designed to scan your Mac or PC for a wide range of Internet security threats including viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware. It also detects system vulnerabilities and provides a link so you can easily download missing security patches. After each scan, HouseCall delivers a detailed report, which identifies security threats detected on your computer.



WINDOWS PCs

It's hightly recommended to run several anti-spyware programs, as no program is 100% effective. Update and run any anti-spyware software you have at least twice a month, and more often if you are a heavy Internet user. Some experts say to run each at least twice, then restart your computer and run them again, to be clean. You can also (or may need to) run these programs again while in Safe Mode to be completely thorough.

It's imperative you run one program from Batch 1 below. Follow up by also runing all or most programs from Batch 2 (which are all free).

Be sure to visit each vendor's site regularly to download the latest version of each program.

The Windows Registry stores core information about all the software on your hard disk. Because of the way adware/spyware modifies the Registry, and anti-adware/anti-spyware removes Registry entries during their removal process (and because it's a good thing to do regularly, anyway), after running your arsenal of anti-adware/anti-spyware, we recommend running a good Registry repair program, see our Rebuild Windows Registry section.

Batch 1. Choose one of these (there are very similar). They are rated the best and have very good constant real-time protection. They also automatically update themselves, and offer a scheduled scan feature. (You can install and run both if you like, but if you do, disable real-time protection in one of them.)

  • The anti-spyware module of Panda Internet Security Suite 2008 may be the best at the moment for spyware blocking, detecting, and removal. But there are other suites that may be a better choice as they offer better firewall and anitvirus modules; see our Security Suites section.

  • Spyware Doctor 5.5 from PC Tools (also offers an optional anti-virus module feature.) May require rebooting in Safe Mode and running a fill scan to complete detect and remove spyware. (PC Mac, 4/2008, p44)

  • SpySweeper from Webroot Software (also offers an optional anti-virus module feature.)

Batch 2. We recommend following up with all or most of these:

  • Ad-Aaware from Lavasoft. Adaware is free, but there are also bigger versions which you pay for which contain additional features, such as a real-time detection / prevention features.
  • Anti-Malware from Malwarebytes - The free version you update an run yourself, and the paid version that does a lot of things automatically and offeres real-time protection.
  • CWShredder - A small utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names). Spybot S&D and Ad-aware may not always remove all of these.
  • Spybot - Search & Destroy (5 cow rating from Tucows) - Free. Turn on the TeaTimer option to prevent critical changes to the Registry.
  • SpyCatcher Express from Tenebril - free. Almost all the features of the full version (see below).
  • Spyware Doctor, Starter Edition from PC Tools – Free! Does not offer as complete real-time protection as the full version, and only allows email support, but otherwise offers full scan and removal of threats, and basic real-time protection. It's available free as part of the Google Pack.
  • Super Antispyware
  • Windows Defencder from Microsoft (Beta version) - Only because it's free. For Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later. It has some mild real-time protection.

Other spyware removers / tools include:

Free online spyware scanners:

General spyware related sites:

Remove Rootkits:

Among the most difiicult of all "malware" to detect and eliminate are rootkits. Below are some tools to help.

E. Run Firewall Software

Being connected to the Internet (a network of networks) allows the potential for others to access to your computer if not properly protected. Until recently, this has not been a large concern for those with a dial-up connection. However, with today's new threats of "malware" — worms, trojans horses, viruses, and spyware/adware — there is a greatly likelihood for users of all types of connections that someone can access your computer "without permission" and all the information on it. They can potentially view, change, or delete any information or software on your computer. They can run any program of their choice on your computer. Some hackers may not actually look at or disturb your files, but use your computer to access other computers (such as those running Web sites) with malicious intent. And not all Internet Service Providers are acknowledging the real security threat these connections allow for fear of loss of business.

It is therefore imperative to install some form of firewall software. A firewall allows you access the Internet, but attempts to disallow other Internet users/software to come into your computer or access the Internet without your consent.

See for General and Detailed Reference:

Home PC Firewall Guide - An excellent site! Provides detailed resource guide to cable modem, DSL, and dial-up Internet security hacker protection for home and SOHO computer users. Details and links to reviews of many software and hardware solutions.

A Note about Hardware Firewalls

As mentioned in the 8/3/2004 issue of PC Magazine, page 86, or see this Web page, "even if you only have one computer connected to a broadband Internet connection, you should deploy a router." This is because most routers today protect your computer safely behind what's called a NAT Firewall. Many good configuration tips for the router are given in that article.

This hardware type of firewall is recommended in addition to a software firewall program covered in this section.

Note that if you share your broadband Internet connection with other computers, you are likely already behind a router.



MACs

Turn on your Mac's built in firewall (Apple has this turned off by default).

OS 10.4, (Tiger) – In the Sharing System Preference, select the Firewall tab.

Click the Start button to turn on the firewall. This blocks all incoming connections. In the Allow list below the Start button, check the boxes next to the applications (if any) that need to accept connections.

OS 10.5 (Leopard) – In the Security System Preference, select the Firewall tab.

Most people should choose "Allow only essential services." This blocks most incoming connections. A few services will still accept connections, such as system updates from Apple. The firewall may block some applications you want to use, but wen you start those, you'll be prompted to allow incoming connections. If you allow a connection, it will put that application on a safe list.

Or, you can also add applications to a safe list manually. Click the + near the bottom of the window and will open a list of applications. Select the one you want, and click Add and it will be added to the list. Make sure it reads "Allow incoming connections" next to the application name.

You can also select "Set access for specific services and applications" custom setting. You'll have to set allowed and blocked applications manually. Click the + near the bottom of the window and it will open a list of applications. Select the one you want, and click Add. Then choose either "Allow incoming connections" or "Block incoming connections."

You can also isntall thrid-party Personal Firewall Software, which may do a more thorough job than Apple's built-in firewall:


WINDOWS PCs

Turn File Sharing and Printer Sharing OFF.

Windows XP users have Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) software built in to the operating system. To turn on ICF, open the the Network Connection control panel, right click on the icon for your Internet connection, and select Properties from the menu. Click on the Advanced tab. The very first item should be the Internet Connection Firewall section with a checkbox that says, "Protect my computer and network..." Be sure this checkbox is checked, then click OK.

Windows XP users who install an additional software firewall program should disable ICF as multiple software firewalls can cause conflicts.

A few of the many personal firewall software programs available:

F. Security Suites

Security suites are convenient, as they combine many of the essential security aspects you need into one program. For Macs, this usually inlcudes: anti-virus and firewall, and likely includes anti-spam, parental control, and privacy control. For Windows, this usually inlcudes: anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall, and likely includes anti-spam, parental control, and privacy control. Some standalone programs may be better at specific protection, however. (PC Magazine articles helped with much of the following Windows inforamtion, 3/24/08)

MACs

Internet Security Barrier from Intego

  • NetBarrier X5: Firewall protects your Mac from Internet attacks
  • VirusBarrier X5: The acclaimed antivirus program for Mac
  • Personal Backup X5: Meets all your backup needs

Norton Internet Security 3.0 for Macintosh

  • Antivirus protection
  • Internet worm protection
  • Personal firewall
  • Privacy protection
  • Parental control


WINDOWS PCs

First Choices:

Norton Internet Security 2008 —

  • Very good antispyware..Spyware Doctor 5.5, PC Mag's top choice for standalone antispyware, scored slightly higher, while Panda Internet Security 2008 scored a perfect 10 for antispyware.
  • Very strong, unobtrusive firewall.
  • Very good antivirus protection.
  • Good privacy control.with its Identity Safe.
  • Cannot recommend its antispam module, it filtered out too much valid personal eamil.
  • Can be a resource hog.

ZoneAlarm Internet Security 7 —

  • Very strong firewall, fairly unobtrusive.
  • Very good antispyware.
  • Very good antivirus protection
  • Very good antispam module.
  • Very good privacy control.

Norton 360 version 2.0 —

  • Tailored mostly for the non-techie. Does a lot of it work quietly in the backgroiund during idle time.
  • Very good antivirus protection.
  • Very good antispyware, although NIS 2008 scored a little better. Spyware Doctor 5.5, PC Mag's top choice for standalone antispyware, scored slightly higher yet, and Panda Internet Security 2008 scored a perfect 10 for antispyware.
  • Good privacy control.with its Identity Safe.
  • Very strong, unobtrusive firewall.
  • Good privacy control.with its Identity Safe.
  • Includes a fairly good backup module; backup to many types of media, even online, manually or automatically. Open files are note backed up, and the software doesn't keep previous versions of backed-up files!
  • Offers automatic but "gentle" Registry fixes.
  • Pretty high false positive rate in its antispam module.
  • Parental control was just rudimentary.
  • It's recommeded that you run the standalone Norton Security Scan in Safe Mode to clean up you system before you do the installation.
  • Can be a resource hog.

Second Choices:

  • Panda Internet Security Suite 2008 — Its anti-spyware module may, at the moment, be the best for any anti-spyware program out there for blocking, detecting, and removing spyware. Its antivirus module is quite good, the firewall is OK — efficient without a lot of pestering. Other modules not so hot. But, its anti-spyware module is likley the "serious spyware killer for 2008" (PC Mag, 2/2008, p74).

Third Choices:

  • Bit Defender Total Security 2008 - Very Good performance with antivirus and antispam, Good performance for antispyware, OK performance for firewall.

  • F-Secure Internet Security 2008 - Good to OK performance on the three main pieces: antivirus, antispyware, and firewall.

  • Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 - Only if you increase the protection level from the defaults in 12 areas , will you then get Good performance on the three main pieces: antivirus, antispyware, and firewall. Firewall confirmation pop-up feature turned off by default—a poor choice. And with it on, it can ask a lot of questions.


G. Use a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply)

If you ever have power outages where you live, or have electrical voltage dips, brownouts, spikes, surges, and/or transients in your electric service (I don't know anyone that doesn't), I recommend purchasing a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). These use a battery to provide power for a few minutes (usually 5 to 20 depending on the UPS and equipment connected to it), which is more than enough time for you to realize there's a power outage, save all your work, and shutdown your computer equipment. They are have surge protection built in.

Most computer equipment cannot handle much of a change in voltage, let alone a power outage. They merely shut off. When that happens, you LOSE all unsaved work. And if you happen to be writing to the hard disk during that time, it's conceivable that the file catalog and/or hard disk device driver can become corrupt. If that happens, it could spell big trouble. (But if you have disk repair software, and a recent backup as already recommended, you have likely way "out of the woods" towards a happy system again, should that happen.)

UPSs are very reasonably priced, and start at around $90. Good ones are from APC and Tripp Lite. These have an equipment coverage policy too, in case it's their fault your equipment (which was properly connected to the UPS) is damaged. Buy one that has jacks for a phone line, too – to help protect the modem, and all the equipment attached to it.

Whether you have a UPS, Line Conditioner, Surge Protector, or not, you should always Unplug Your Equipment for Lightning Protection, as covered below.

H. Surge Protectors

If you don't install a UPS, at least get the best surge protector available (like those from Tripp Lite and APC). These may cost a bit more (perhaps $50), but are real protectors, not like the "dime-store" variety power strips that claim some suppression. They also offer an equipment coverage policy in case it's their fault your equipment is damaged.

Be sure to buy a surge protector that has jacks for a phone line, too – to help protect the modem, and all the equipment attached to it. More damage appears to come through the phone line than from the AC power lines.

If you have DSL, run the phone line through the surge protector, then go through a DSL splitter to your DSL equipment and phone equipment. (If you happen to notice a large change in DSL speed, the surge protector may introduce unwanted noise on the line. See if removing the the surge protector from the picture fixes that, or not.)

If you use Cable Internet or Satellite, buy a surge protector that includes protection for coax cable, such as:

Consider buying a surge protector for your whole house from your power company. These installed near the meter (typically), cover all you appliances and electronics, and carry an equipment coverage policy in case the protector fails or a surge too strong for it to handle occurs.

For some details about surges and surge protectors, see: "Basic information on surge protection" from Cherryland Electric Cooperative.

A Note about Surge Protectors — Don't buy the surge protector product if it doesn't carry a UL 1449 rating (330 volts at 500 amperes) for power circuits or the UL 497A rating (200 volts clamping) for communication circuits! Source: Surge Protectors – "Don't Forget To Shut The Back Door!"

Whether you have a UPS, Line Conditioner, Surge Protector, or not, you should always Unplug Your Equipment for Lightning Protection, as covered below.

I. Modem and Computer Protection

Modems (built-in or external, dial-up, cable, DSL, satellite) are very sensitive to electrical fluctuations such as spikes, surges, voltage dips, and brownouts (not to mention lightning strikes!). If you are not using a UPS or line conditioner, and even if you run it through a surge protector, it's ideal if you can keep your modem off and unpluggied when not in use – to ensure they are not disturbed by any electrical oddities. (This is not possible with a built-in modem, and can be inconvenient for a cable, DSL, or Satellite modem if they have no on-off switch.)

Nonetheless, it's very important for the sately of your equipment and the data on that equipment, that if conditions are such that any electrically odd behavior can occurr — such as heavy wind, rain, ice, snow ,or stormy conditions, or peak times in the summer — or you are already experiencing your house lights start dimming and/or brightening, or other electrical odd behavior occurring, that you:

  • turn off your external modem (if you have one).
  • turn off, shutdown, and unplug the power to your computer any other electrical equipment you want to protect,
  • AND unplug any phone line, cable TV line, or satellite cable coming to your computer, modem, or other equipment you want to protect.

Whether you have a UPS, Line Conditioner, Surge Protector, or not, you should always Unplug Your Equipment for Lightning Protection, as covered below.

J. Unplug Your Equipment for Lightning (and Surge) Protection

The makers of the better surge protectors (like TrippLite and APC ) offer models that claim to handle lightning strikes, and have an equipment coverage policy if it's their fault for any damage. However, these may not be able to handle all cases of lightning strikes, for example, direct strikes to your home or business.

And even though these companies do insure your equipment, do you really want to go through all the hassles involved, buying new equipment, and restoring and/or reinstalling all your software and document files? A much simpler and cheaper "insurance policy" is available...

All you need do is unplug a few things any time you are aware that lightning is occurring, about or likely to occur, and when you leave your home or business for very long:

  • Depending on the type of Internet connection you have, unplug the phone line, cable TV line, or satellite line coming INTO your (dial-up or DSL) modem or computer. Lightning can easily come through the phone line, cable TV line, or satellite line and "fry" your modem and possibly anything else connected to it (computer, monitor, printer, scanner, Zip drive, phone, FAX machine, etc.).
  • Unplug the power to any and all computer equipment: CPU, monitor, printer, scanner, Zip drive, (dial-up or DSL) modem, speakers, etc. (It's a good idea to unplug your TV and stereo equipment as well.) If you plug your equipment into a surge protector (highly recommended), then you only have to unplug that from the wall.
  • For those Macintosh computers with alkaline clock batteries, see the special section below about unplugging power to your computer.
  • Reminder: Did you unplug the power and phone line to your dial-up or DSL modem? They are VERY sensitive to electrical fluctuations and oddities, and lightning eats them alive.

Make it convenient, or you won't do it. Set up so you only need to unplug one or two plugs to cover all the electrical connection to your whole computer system, and one phone line, cable TV line, or satellite line. Make this a regular habit. You will be glad you did this should anything happen.



Special Section: Mac users with alkaline clock batteries

Macintosh users, the following Macs and Mac Clones use alkaline clock batteries:

Macs
20th Anniversary Macintosh
Performa 500 Series (some. not all)
Macintosh LC 520 (some. not all)
Macintosh 550 (some. not all)
Macintosh 575
Performa 580CD
Macintosh LC580
Performa 630 series
Performa 640 series
Macintosh LC 630
Macintosh LC 630 DOS
Quadra 630

Mac Clones
Motorola StarMax 3000 Series
Motorola StarMax 4000 Series
UMax C500
UMax C600
Power Macintosh 4400 series
Power Macintosh 5000 series
Performa 5200 series
Performa 5300 series
Performa 5400 series
Performa 6200 series
Performa 6300 series
Performa 6400 series
Power Macintosh 6400 series
Power Macintosh 6500 series
Power Macintosh 7220
Quadra 630

If you have one of these machines, take note!

Alkaline batteries are in an approximately 1"x 1" black plastic box (maybe 5/8" tall) with Velcro on the bottom , and short wire with 3-hole connector. Most are Rayovac 840, or made by Rayovac.

With a new computer and if you use the Mac everyday, you might see as much as 5 year life. However, the average usage life is 2 to 3 years, and the shelf-life (uninstalled) is 2 years. And with an unplugged Mac, the life may one be a matter of months! If your use the computer for many years, expect battery life to slowly get worse.

Preserving Alkaline Batteries

  • Use a surge protector for the power cable AND the phone line or coax Cable TV or Satellite cable.
  • Use the Mac regularly. Do no leave sitting off for long periods of time (months). If you do, battery may discharge. If it does not start up afterwards, you probably need a new battery.
  • When not using the Mac, keep it plugged into the surge protector, and keep the surge protector on.
  • Never leave Mac unplugged (or surge protector off) for long periods of time (months). If you do, the battery will likely fully discharge (you will need a new one).
  • When not using the Mac unplug the phone line or coax Cable TV or Satellite cable from the INPUT side of the surge protector.
  • If there is any chance of lightning, turn off the surge protector and unplug it from the wall. After the danger has passed, plug the surge protector back in and turn it on.
  • Any peripherals (scanner, printers, Zip drives, external modems) that you have connected to the Mac, make sure they are off or their power unplugged when the Mac is not in use.
  • Avoid any type of "thermal cycling" of the computer, that is, exposing it to repeated temperature extremes.


Your computer should be plugged into a constant A/C power source. The A/C power source will supply a trickle charge to the battery even when the computer is turned off and extend the battery's life for years. Do not turn off the computer from a wall switch, power strip switch, or surge protector switch, because as the battery is in constant use. Turning off the computer can shorten the battery's life dramatically.

Other things that can affect PRAM battery life are a malfunctioning power supply or a system with significant additional RAM or peripherals that cannot be supported by the original power supply.

Alkaline batteries can be adversely affected by the high temperatures found inside the CPU case. This is called "thermal wear-out." Another thing thing that can affect battery life is when external peripherals like Jazz and Zip drives, modems and FAX machines are left turned on when the CPU is turned off. This apparently induces a bias condition on the system board via the serial port. The result is that the PRAM battery drains faster.

See also: Is Your Clock Battery Going Bad?


References - Thanks to these sites and people:

• Apple/Macintosh Desktop PRAM Battery FAQ
• Barry at: http://www.epower2go.biz/
• Desktop Mac Batteries
• PRAM Battery Types Used in Macintosh Desktop Systems
• StarMax Troubleshooting: Power and PRAM Issues
• Surge Protectors – "Don't Forget To Shut The Back Door!"

II. Recommended

A. Rebuild Key Catalog Files: MACs – Desktop Database & Disk Catalog / Windows – Windows Registry file

MACs

The hidden Desktop Database Files I mention here, are, unfortunately, confusingly named. They don't really have much to do with your desktop at all. But one of their functions is to assign the proper icon to documents. The document icon you see on the desktop, or in any folder, ties it to the application that created the document, or from which you last saved it. For example, you are able to double-click on a Microsoft Word document, and have the document open within Word, because of information stored in the Desktop Database Files. They also store information about all the files on your hard disk.

The Desktop Database Files should be regularly (one a month, perhaps) rebuilt to keep your Mac happy.

Apple's method to do this is to hold down the Option and Command keys when restarting your computer. Wait for a message window to ask if you are sure you want to rebuild the desktop on your hard disk, then say, OK.

Techtool Pro from MicroMat includes tools to delete and rebuild the Desktop Database Files from scratch, said to be more efficient than Apple's method mentioned above.

Another key catalog file that should regularly be fixed or replaced is the hidden disk directory. This is covered above in Run Disk Repair Utility Software.

WINDOWS PCs

As you use you computer and add (and delete) software, you may notice your computer slowing down. In addition to many other steps mentioned in the document, here some other steps you can use to tune-up your machine.

  • Remove any unneeded software. Doing this properly removes all the program's files and all the program's entries from the Windows Registry. Here are the recommended methods:

    • Run the program's installer and see if an uninstall feature is offered.
    • Look in Start | Programs | program group for an uninstaller.
    • Open the Add/Remove Programs control panel, select the desired software, then click the Add/Remove button.
    • Locate the folder containing the software and see if an uninstaller program is provided there for that specific software.

    Uninstalling a program manually – like by just deleting the program's main folder – will leave the program's entries in the Windows Registry, likely leave many .dll (and other) files lying about, and may leave processes running in "in the background" no longer needed, all of which can slow your machine down.

  • Take out programs that run at start-up and/or "in the background."

    • You can see some programs that run at startup by looking in the Start | Programs | Startup program group.
    • You can see all programs currently running by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete. In the dialog window that appears, you'll see the programs you have open, plus all those running in background. Clicking on the End Task button temporarily (until the next restart) shuts down the selected program. This can be useful to see if certain background operations are slowing you down. Warning: But this can be dangerous, if you do not know what each of these background processes are. Explorer, at least, needs to be there.

  • Cleanup the Windows Registry. The Registry stores core information about all the software on your hard disk and can become corrupted or filled with old information about programs no longer on your computer. To fix that, it is recommended to repair it with a good registry repair program, such as:
  • Rebuild the Windows Registry. As mentioned, the Registry stores core information about all the software on your hard disk and can become corrupted or filled with old information. If it's damaged badly enough, the best (an perhaps only) way to fix that is to:

    • back up your entire hard disk
    • completely reformat it
    • reinstall Windows
    • reinstall all software applications from their CD or floppy disks
    • restore all data from the backup

    This rewrites all the disk catalog and registry information, and removes all unneeded files left over from programs no longer on the computer. This clear a lot of problems and speeds up the computer. This is a big step, and should be only done if recommended by a computer technician or other expert. And it should be done, or assisted, by an expert.

B. Defragment and Optimize Your Hard Disk

As you add and remove files on the hard disk, the files get fragmented (split into pieces) and scattered around on various locations on the hard disk media. This is transparent to you, the user, thanks to the OS (operation system). But it's a good idea to occasionally (at least once every three months) defragment and optimize the files on your hard disk. Defragmentation rewrites each file in one continuous group of disk sectors. Optimization relocates the files to the optimum location on the disk based on file type. Both of these will improve the speed of your hard disk. It also helps to minimize certain types of freezes and crashes, and other odd behavior.

Before you perform the defragmentation and optimization process on your hard disk, it is imperative that you:

  • Disable any type of security or password software
  • Run any disk repair utilities you have, being sure to scan the disk media for bad sectors or blocks (See Run Disk Repair Utility Software above.)
  • Back up the entire hard disk, or at the very least, your important documents.

This process moves ALL or most the files on the hard disk, so if there's any problem, you will need a complete backup to recover from. You should already be performing a back-up, anyway.

Before you defragment your disk, now is a good time to remove any unneeded software, and clean up other files you no longer need.

Be sure to read the documentation that comes with the defragmentation and optimization program you are using beforehand for other important considerations. Most claim to be pretty safe – like if there's a power outage during the process...!

MACs

There are currently (03/2003) three defragmentation and optimization programs available:

WINDOWS PCs

Windows PC's come with a defragmentation and optimization utility called Disk Defragmenter available in the Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu. Third-party utilities are also available, such as Norton Utilities from Symantec, which usually offer more features and capabilities. Windows Vista defragments automatically in the background.

As mentioned above, be sure to run any disk repair utilities you have, being sure to scan the disk media for bad sectors or blocks. For most people, this means running ScanDisk in Thorough mode. See Run Disk Repair Utility Software above.

To make sure no other programs are running while using Disk Defragmenter, you may want o start up in Safe Mode first. (See How to restart Windows 9x or Windows Me in Safe Mode for details.) When finished in Safe Mode, restart your computer to use all your normal software.

C. Add As Much Memory (RAM) As Possible

RAM (Random Access Memory) is not the same as hard disk space. Though both are measured in megabytes (mB), RAM is temporary storage for a program being "run". Hard disk space is permanent storage. When you open a document (which runs a program), it's read from the hard disk into RAM. When you save a document, a copy is read from RAM and written to the hard disk.

Adding more memory makes your computer happy! It gives the OS (operating system) more "breathing room," and your computer is much less likely to freeze or crash. With today's Web browsers, that's essential! Adding memory makes the browsers happier, too. Even though the added RAM may not be used specifically by the browser, it still prevents the computer from crashing or freezing as often while in the browser.

Adding RAM is a cheap and easy way to speed up and improve your system. RAM is quite inexpensive compared to just a few years ago. Five years ago, it was as high as $50/mB! Now, it's about $2/mB. .

Having lots of memory increases the resale value of your computer when you move up to a new one. And adding more now is a good idea in case the price of memory goes back up again.

MACs

Adding more RAM can speed up your Mac noticably. Most Macs can take at least 36 mB (megabytes) of RAM, and the newer ones can take much more. Having more RAM also allows you to run more programs at once, as well as open more and/or larger documents within a program. And your Mac is much less likely to crash or freeze up on you. It is recommended to upgrade to at least 32 mB (megabytes), and 64 mB is better yet.

WINDOWS PCs

Having more RAM on a PC speeds up your computer significantly. It is recommended to upgrade to at least 32 mB (megabytes), and 64 mB is better yet.

D. Cautions When Using Email

Please share these tips with others. If everyone practices these, it can do a lot to prevent bad, incorrect, hoax, junk, and virus email in the future.

Monitor Incoming Email

Please see Preventative Measures in the Run Anti-virus Software section above for many tips on preventing viruses from spreading, many of which include monitoring your incoming email.

Do Not Unsubscribe

One should NEVER click on the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of spam email (unless you knowingly signed up for a legitimate mailing list or email newsletter, and you recognize the sender of the message.) Spammers (those that send junk email) are not always honest and are very happy when you click on the Unsubscribe link because it lets them know this is a real, live email address. They will very likely NOT stop sending to that email address but, in fact, just the opposite – they mai send you more/. And they may sell the address to other spammers.So, clicking on an Unsubscribe link may greatly increase the amount of junk mail one receives.

Two Email Accounts

Consider having two email accounts. Keep your main email address as a personal one that you only give out to selected family, friends, and co-workers. Remind them to never give out this address, and always use BCC when sending to more that one person so it's not shared with others. ... Get a second email account and use it for online ordering and any other time an email address is requested online. Ideally, only the second account will get all the junk email. When that happens, delete it, and get a new secondary account.

In Outlook Express:

  • Do not archive mail in default Outlook Express folders, as they can eventually become corrupt. Store saved mail in folders you create.
  • Keep user created folders under 100MB.
  • Empty the Deleted Items folder regularly.
  • Compact all folders regularly.

Cautions When Sending Email:

1. Verify Before Sending

Before sending out an email to others about something you were emailed claiming to be true, PLEASE, PLEASE check it out on the Internet BEFORE sending these out. Many emailings being passed around these days are hoaxes, urban legends, myths, rumors, or have the facts wrong. (These can be claims about viruses, cancer, lost kids, Neiman Marcus cookies... there are 1000's of them!)

I recommend going to Google and putting in a few keywords from the emailing and the word: hoax You'll be surprised how many are hoaxes, or have bad information in them. Other places to check include www.snopes.com and urbanlegends.about.com.

If you find out something was a hoax, please respond to the person that sent you the hoax and let them know, and remind them to tell all the people to which they sent the original message.


2. Use BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)

When sending email to a list of recipients, never use TO or CC, instead always use BCC (blind carbon copy). This is true even if the recipients know each other and especially true if anyone on the list does not want their email address shared with the rest of the world -- which is most of us.

Failing to use BCC incurs the following issues --

  • Your email message will be used by viruses to send themselves to EVERYONE in the email, and done so in the background by the virus, without the user's involvement. You would feel terrible knowing that even though your computer has good antivirus protection, your message was the cause for the computers of many of your fiends, family, and others you know to become infected. Viruses may also use any name and address on the list to FORGE an email address in their mass mailings.

  • Your email message will be used by junk emailers to harvest the email address of EVERYONE in that email, thus allowing the spread of those addresses to junk emailers worldwide, who often sell them to other junk emailers. And junk mailers may also use any name and address on the list to FORGE an email address in their mass mailings.

  • Everyone that sees that email can also see everyone else's email address. Not using BCC greatly violates the privacy of all the recipients. Over the years, I seen MANY email addresses I probably was not supposed to or others that did not want their address shared this way.

  • If the list is large, if forces your recipients to scroll through sometimes many screens of email addresses before they finally get to the main message of the email. And since these messages tend to get passed around a lot, that list can become very, very long.

  • If the message is forwarded on to any others, ALL those others now also know the email addresses for all your recipients. And if the message is forwarded a lot, your recipients' addresses can quickly be shared with many 1000's of people!

    This also GREATLY improves the ability of a virus to spread, and the likelihood that junk emailers will find all these addresses.

    (Junk email and viruses send their email often forging it to be from addressees of real people. Email that does not BCC in a vital source of addresses for them.)

    This is yet another reason why when you forward a message, it's imperative that you remove ALL the previous recipients. If the message is worth sending, it's worth cleaning up. If you're not going to clean up a message, please do not send it.

If you do not know how to use BCC in your email program, please find out how — consult the email program's manual or help system, or Web site, do a Google search, ask other computer users, friends, family members, teachers, coworkesr, computer techs, even any "kid" who knows how to use a computer, etc.

3. Remove email addresses when forwarding

For the same reasons as using BCC, when forwarding mail, be sure to strip out all the previous email addresses. If you cannot do this, or do not now how, copy the part of the forwarded message you want to send, and paste it into a new email message.

Do your best to clean up poorly formatted message. If a message is worth sending and sharing with others, it's worrth cleaning up.

4. Use Plain Text Formatting

Due to the growing number of email filters that are rejecting email based on the HTML content (due to the possibility of a virus embedded in the code or being spam (junk mail)) I also now recommend folks not use any HTML formatting in their messages — instead, switch to all plain text messages. I used to recommend folks not use formatted messages years ago because not email programs could read formatted messages properly. Although this no longer true for modern email programs, there's now an even better reason to Keep It Simple — protection against viruses and further junk mail. And this will help ensure all recipients will be able to receive and read your mail.

5. Do Not Sign Email Petitions

Email petition states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it on to many people. This type of ail can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth money to professional spammers because of the large number of valid names and email addresses.

DO NOT put your email address on any petition. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.

6. Be courteous to your recipients

Do your best to clean up poorly formatted message. If a message is worth sending and sharing with others, it's worrth cleaning up. Remove any extraneous content, and send only the pertinent part of the message.

Be aware of if your recipients have a high or low speed Internet connection – can they (or do they want to) receive emails with large attachments?

If sending a video, see if you can send just the Web address (like from YouTube) instead of sending the hige video file. Go to www.YouTube.com and enter a few keywords, like the subject of video, or the type of video (Norweigan airline ad, for example) to see if it's there. Also, try searching for it at Google. Popular videos will be "all over" the Web.

For emails that you want to forwrd that contain many popular photographs, also search Google (or other good search engine) to see if you can find a Web page with the photos. Then send just the Web page address, not the photos themselves.

E. Install A Junk Mail (Spam) Filter

Many of today's better ISPs offer a spam (junk mail) filter, usually for free or a small monthly fee. Postini is a common filter that also finds some viruses. Brightmail is used by many national ISPs.

If your ISP does not offer a junk mail filter, or even if it does, you may want something one your computer to combat junk mail. Some email programslike, Apple's Mail and Microsoft's Outlook offer built in spam filtering.

There are also many thrid-party anti-spam programs available that you can install and run on your own computer.

MACs

Recommended Macintosh spam filters are:


WINDOWS PCs

Some recommended Windows spam filters are:


Note: Norton's AntiSpam (2005, anyway) may greatly slow down all aspects of using your email program.

Please sure to see the Cautions When Using Email section above for tips to help prevent bad, incorrect, hoax, junk, and virus email in the future.

III. General Tips

A. Upgrading OS's (Operating Systems)

Many of you ask if you should install a newer or the latest version of the OS (operating system, Mac: Mac OS; Windows PCs: Windows OS). I am usually very cautious about that. The new OSs usually requires more memory (RAM) and can be slower than previous versions. And MOST of the time you will also need to upgrade certain aspects of your other software, such as:

  • Hard disk device software
  • Peripheral software for things like:
    • Printers
    • Modems
    • Scanners
    • ZIP drive or other removable or third-party devices
    • CD-Rs and CD-RWs
  • Application Software
  • Utility Software
  • Control Panels
  • System Extensions
  • Internet Software
  • Games
  • Any other third-party software

You can count on having to upgrade at least some of these. And some software may not be upgradable, or have an upgrade available, so you may lose its capability. And some software may not even run under the new OS

Just finding out which software needs to be upgraded can be a big chore. You may find out only after several crashes and conflict resolutions what software is the cause.

NOTE: I'm using the term upgrade rather loosely. Typically upgrade means a major improvement in software versions, and update means a minor one. So some of the upgrades I mention may really be updates.

You may have specific software or hardware needs which require you to move to the new OS. At other times, you may have to upgrade your hardware when you move to a new OS. So it can be a never-ending circle.

Some people stay with a particular OS for YEARS! This is OK, if you never want to communicate or share files with the rest of the world, or use the latest software or hardware.

MACs

If all is working well for you with your current OS, usually there is not a compelling reason to upgrade to the new OS. There may be a few new bells and whistles, but often not a major difference in capabilities. Sometimes there are major bug fixes in a new OS. If you are having lots of problems with your current OS, it may be that upgrading is just what you need to move to a more stable OS. But any new OS can introduce its own NEW bugs.

If you do upgrade OS's, be sure to wait for version x.0.1 or x.0.2. I would not recommend moving to any x.0.0 version. (Note: the can also apply to minor upgrades, as well, such as 8.5 – wait for 8.5.1.) It's likely to have too many problems and bugs. It could even be dangerous! OS 8.5 appears to be such and animal. Let others test this out, then you can benefit from the improved version when it comes out.

Before you upgrade, look for lists of known problems and incompatibilities with the OS your are considering so you will know beforehand of what to expect and what software you'll need to upgrade. Look for such lists at Apple, ATI, and other Mac Resources.

If you are using a particular OS, let's say 8.5, and an update to 8.5.1 comes out, it's probably wise to update to that, because it likely fixes many bugs. Moving to 8.6 requires further study. Upgrading to 9.0 should warrant caution on your part.

ANYTIME you update or upgrade, be sure you have a good, complete back-up of your entire disk before proceeding. If anything goes wrong, you can easily return to the old OS from your back-up set.

WINDOWS PCs

If all is working well for you with your current OS, there may not a compelling reason to upgrade to the new OS. There may be a few new bells and whistles, but not necessarily a major difference in capabilities. However, sometimes there are major bug fixes in a new OS. If you are having lots of problems with your current OS, it may be that upgrading is just what you need to move to a more stable OS. But any new OS can introduce its own NEW bugs.

If you do upgrade OS's, do not buy the earliest version, it's likely to have too many problems and bugs. Let others test this out, then you can benefit from the improved version when it comes out. Before you upgrade, look on the Web and Discussion Groups for lists of known problems and incompatibilities with the OS your are considering, so you will know beforehand of what to expect and what software you'll need to upgrade.

Sometimes "patches" are released to fix specific problem or bugs. These are recommended, of course, and will be available from Micorsoft.

ANYTIME you update or upgrade, be sure you have a good, complete back-up of your entire disk before proceeding. If anything goes wrong, you can easily return to the old OS from your back-up set.

B. Remove Old Software

It's easy to accumulate software programs we no longer need or use. But it's also important to remove those programs, for not only do they take up unnecessary storage space, they may also have processes running in the "background" slowing down the computer, and adding to the mix of software with which everything else on the computer has to be compatible.

So first, identify any and all programs you no longer need. And if you have the CD (or floppy disks, or DVD) the software came on, you can also reinstall it later should you need it again. And if you downloaded it free off the Internet, you can always download it again (and likely get a newer version).

Be careful, however; never remove a program that you don't recognize — it may be an important part of your computer!

MACs

Removing software from Macs is not as important, for they tend to not burden the system as much as on Windows machines. But for programs that install their own control panels and extensions, those are taking up system resources, and if no longer needed, should be removed.

The best way to uninstall an unneeded program is to locate is Installer Log file, which lists the files installed, and their location. Then just remove these, and restart. If you monitored which control panels, extensions and other files that were installed when you originally installed the software, just remove those, the program's preferences, and the application folder, then restart. In some case, you may find pieces installed in the System folder, Application Support folder (inside the System folder), Apple Menu items, and the Fonts folder.

There are also commercially available programs to help you cleanly remove unwanted software.


WINDOWS PCs

Removing programs from a Windows computer can go from incredibly easy to virtually impossible. All of the better and "nicer" software offer uninstallers.

  1. Look in the Start menu, under Programs. For each program that has a submenu, look for an uninstaller. If you get an uninstaller for the program you want to remove, you're in luck, go ahead and click on that to remove that program.

  2. Next go to the Add/Remove Software control panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel, then double-click on the Add/Remove Software icon). Look for software you recognize here, but no longer want or need. Click on its name, then click the Add/Remove button near the bottom of the window. Follow the on-screen instructions. If asked if you want to delete a shared file, it's safest to say no to all.

  3. If a program you are trying to remove did not offer an uninstaller in the Start menu, or was not listed in the Add/Remove Software control panel, put in the disk it came on. Sometimes they offer a Remove or Uninstall option.

If you do not use a program's uninstaller, but try to remove the program manually, you can be asking for trouble. You are not removing all the files and processes it put on your computer, as well as all the changes it's made to system files and the registry.

There are also commercially available programs to help you cleanly remove unwanted software.

C. Create Restore Points (Windows ME, XP, and Vista)

Windows ME, XP, and Vista has a neat feature called System Restore. It takes "snapshots" of your system every so often to which you can return, should your computer's behavior become unruly, perhaps due to spyware, a virus, a bad program that was installed, etc. You can also create your own snapshots, called checkpoints. It is recommended to do this before you install any software, or make any major change, so that you can return your computer's software to its previous state should the new software prove unreliable, or otherwise foul things up.

To use System Restore, see Start / (All) Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Restore. The System Restore feature can be turned off and on by doing a right click on My Computer, selecting Properties, then the System Restore tab.

D. Broadband Users: Verify Your Connection Speed

Those with a broadband (high-speed) Internet connection, such as: Cable Modem, DSL, Satellite, and Wireless, are advised to regularly verify the speed at which they are connected to the Internet.

At least with some cable Internet services, they provide various levels of service that have a specific speed at which you are connected to the Internet. You can use these sites

to test the speed of your connection. It should be 80% or better of the speed for which you have signed up. For example, if you have signed up for 256 kbps service, you should see 200 kbps (kilobits per second) at the test site. Make sure you are getting the speed of service you signed up for. If not, call your Internet provider. Monitor the speed regularly to see that it does not "degrade" over time.

E. Is Your Clock Battery Going Bad?

"Computer clock (CMOS or PRAM) batteries are used in virtually all desktop and laptop computer systems that use CMOS memory to retain the date, time and configuration information when the power is off. The types of devices used vary greatly depending on the manufacturer and the application. Most desktop systems use a single device while laptops may contain a clock/CMOS battery and a resume battery to retain RAM memory information in the event the system battery loses power."

Source: Resource 800 - Computer Clock Batteries

The first indications that the clock battery is failing are that the date and time are running slow, are way off, or have reverted back to the BIOS initialization date. Usually, you can reset the date and time, but expect it to slip again.

MACs

On Mac, clock battery is also called the PRAM battery, because it holds values for the Parameter RAM: Control Panels, Chooser, etc. When the battery begins to fail, the date and time will run slow, become way off, or revert back to 1956 that, coincidentally, is Steve Wozniak's birthday) or 1904. You may see a loss of Chooser items (like the printer). Usually, you can reset the date, time, Control Panels and printer values, but expect to to get lost again soon. In extreme cases, the system can't access the printer, the screen will be dark, or the system won't boot at all (alkaline battery is dead). 

Desktop Macs use two types clock batteries:

If you suspect a bad clock battery, open the case, identify it, then purchase and install a replacement. Consult your local computer professional for help, if necessary.


MAC USERS: IF YOUR COMPUTER WON'T START

1. PRAM and Resetting (Zapping) PRAM

Whether the computer is on or off but still plugged into an active power outlet, A/C current powers PRAM. If the computer is off but no power is available from the power outlet (you turned off the wall switch or power strip switch or sure protector) PRAM is powered by a lithium (or alkaline) battery to retain its contents. PRAM maintains information used by the Mac OS, some of which is needed for the computer to boot successfully. If this information becomes corrupted, like when the battery that powers PRAM is defective or drops below a certain voltage, information in PRAM can become corrupted, and the computer may not start.

If the just PRAM information is corrupt, clearing (zapping) some or all of that may get you going without a new battery.

You can clear the top half of PRAM memory without opening the computer. This is known as zapping the PRAM and is done by simultaneously pressing and holding the Command, Option, P and R keys when starting the computer. You should hold the keys until you have heard three startup chimes.

However, zapping from the keyboard does not clear all of PRAM. To do that, you must press the power control chip reset, or the Cuda reset button on the motherboard. (You can also use TechTool Profrom MicroMat to completely clear all the PRAM.)

Press the Cuda Switch (PRAM Reset Switch) to clear all PRAM. It does have a positive détente, you'll feel ever so slight a click when depressing it. CAUTION: Use only non-conductive items to depress the button. You are advised to hold it depressed for at least 30 seconds.


PRAM Reset (CUDA) Switch for Motorola StarMax 3160


After resetting PRAM, your settings return to factory defaults. The date and time will need to be reset as well as most control panel items (backgrounds, alert sounds, AppleTalk , etc.). Use control panels to return your computer to your previous settings. Also reset Chooser values like those for the printer.


2. If Your Mac Uses an Alkaline Battery

If your computer uses an alkaline battery (4.5 volts) and will not start up, it very likely needs new battery. You may be able to get the Mac to start up by zapping the PRAM or pressing the CUDA switch, but, expect the battery to not last more than a month. So buy one after zapping the PRAM. (See Zapping the PRAM immediately above.)

If the battery gets too low before replacement, you must reset the PRAM. The PRAM reset button sets itself "off" when the PRAM battery has died. 

If you like, check the current battery's voltage with a DC voltmeter, removing it first, of course. For a 4.5 volt alkaline battery, if the voltage is below 3.8 volts, then the battery should be replaced.

If you do not have a voltmeter, disconnect the battery from the connector and the power cord from the power supply. Let the motherboard sit for several minutes to discharge PRAM fully. Do not reconnect the battery. Plug in the power cord, and start the computer. If it starts normally and finishes the boot process, the battery should be replaced.


WINDOWS PCs

On Windows machines, clock battery is also called the CMOS battery. If your computer clock isn't accurate when you boot, or if you're seeing errors like "CMOS checksum error - load defaults?," then that is usually due to a dead or dying battery. (However, if your computer loses time as the computer runs, expect that to be a whole other issue.) The clock batter maintain the date and time, and other configuration information when the computer is off.

If you suspect a bad clock battery, open the case, identify it, then purchase and install a replacement. Consult your local computer professional for help, if necessary.


References - Thanks to these sites and people:

• Apple/Macintosh Desktop PRAM Battery FAQ
• Barry at: http://www.epower2go.biz/
• Computer Clock (CMOS) Batteries
• Desktop Mac Batteries
• How to replace the CMOS battery
• Macintosh Battery Web Page
• PRAM Battery Types Used in Macintosh Desktop Systems
• Replacing the CMOS Battery
• Vnunet.com Forum


F. Computer Image Size, Dimension, and Density (Resolution)
  • For a quick glance at understanding computer images (especially: phtoographs) their size, dimension, and density (resolution), as well as how to use these when printing and sending images via email,. start with Section I immediately below.

  • For a more detailed discussion of computer images, please see Section II below.

Section I. Computer Image Size, Dimensions, and Density (Resolution) – The Short Version

Situation – You have an image on your computer, and you want to do print it out, or send it to others to view or print. What you want to do with the image, combined with the image’s dimension in pixels, determines how you should handle the image.

A few things you need to know, first…

Image "apparent" Size – Images stored on the computer have no physical size, they are stored only as collection of dots or squares called pixels. Do not be fooled by what you see on the screen; the image is only being displayed at a particular size. An image that appears very large is likely one with large dimension in pixels (explained below) being displayed at its "full size" — these can easily be displayed much smaller.

Image Dimension (in pixels) – Sometimes confusingly (and incorrectly) referred to as resolution, this is the dimension of an image in pixels, such as 640 x 480. Typically, an image with larger dimensions will show more details and be sharper than an image with smaller dimensions. Most photo editor or photo album programs will tell you the image's dimensions. You’ll need to know this before you continue.

Image Density (Resolution) – Sometimes also referred to as resolution, this is the number of pixels per inch (ppi) at which the image was created, such as on a scanner. This information is stored in the image file, can be ignored, for the most part. What's more important is to be fully aware of the image's dimension (in pixels), covered above. Most photo editor or photo album programs will tell you the density of an image.


What’s Going To Be Done With The Image?

  • Printed Out (by you or others) –

If you (or someone to whom you are sending the image) will be printing the image, the larger the image's dimension, the better. (Note, this is true up to a point. Beyond that point, the computer file size of the image will be unnecessarily large, will take that much longer to send, and will not improve the quality of the printed result — for a given printed size) So, in general, you should not lessen the image’s dimensions in any way.

Hopefully, the dimensions of the image are large enough for the physical size at which you’re going to print the image. If the image’s dimensions are too small and/or you print it out too large, the printout will look blurry, grainy, pixelated, or jagged. It is known what image dimensions are best (to receive a photo-quality result) for a given printed physical size — this it covered in see Printing Images below in Section II.

If sending the image via email, be aware that:

  1. With some programs, especially Outlook Express, because of the particular way it displays images, the image may appear very large, many times bigger than the screen. This is OK, this is just the way that program displays large dimension images.
  2. A large dimension image is also much larger in file size, so it will take longer to send and be received in email than one with a smaller dimensions.
  3. Since you know your recipients are going to what a high quality printout, they will be glad you send a large dimension image.
  • Sent via Email for Viewing (but no high quality printing) –

If you are going to send the image to someone via email, and you wish to give them a version of the image that is only good enough for viewing (but not for high quality print-out), you are helping them decreasing the image's dimensions, for it makes the file size of the image smaller, and is therefore sent and received faster. It will also display smaller in some programs, like Outlook Express. Note, if printed, a smaller dimension image will not be near the quality that a larger dimension image would provide.

Crop the image – Before decreasing the image's dimensions, you’ll want to crop the image to remove any unnecessary subject matter. Using your photo editor or photo album program, first make copy of the desired image to work on. (You do not want to change the original.) Then crop the image as desired. This lowers the file size, too.

Decrease the dimensions – To decreae the dimensions of an image, you have to work with it in a photo editor or photo album program. If you have not already done so, make copy of the desired image to work on. (You do not want to change the original.) Most photo editor program have some method for decreasing the image's dimensions. Some even do this as part of sending the image via email – this is very convenient. The smaller the image's dimensions, the smaller the file size of the image, so it will send faster in email. But don’t go too small or the image will be displayed too small on the screen, and/or appear blurry.

Choose the dimensions – A dimension of 800 by 600 pixels is a good start point. In Outlook Express, (for today’s most common monitor settings), an image of this dimension appears pretty big, likely just under the size of the screen. Another resolution is 640 x 480; on today monitors, this will display much smaller than full screen. The 320 x 240 resolution is another choice, but is probably too small for detailed viewing. Experiment a few times to find the dimensions you like. Once found, make a note of it for the future.

For more details about this topic, please read the next section.


Section II. Computer Image Size, Dimensions, and Density (Resolution) – The Detailed Version


What Is An Image File

An image stored in the computer is only an organized collection of colored small squares, called pixels. Pixels are usually too small to see, and have no physical size. The image, this group of pixels, this map of dots, can be viewed at any “size” you want on the computer. You can zoom in and out on the image, but you are changing only what’s displayed on the screen; the image file on the computer is not affected in any way. (By the way, if you zoom in far enough, you can even see the individual pixels.) But again, this image file, this collection of pixels, has no physical size, it's only a collection of computer information.

(In fact, an image actually is stored only as the instructions of what to display. For example, a checkerboard image’s instructions might be something like: make a matrix of 8 by 8 squares; then, beginning in the upper left corner going across then down, make the first square and every other after that black, make all the other squares white. These instructions say nothing about the size of the pixels or the image, they only indicate the number of pixels of which the image is made.)

Image "apparent" Size

One of the most common misunderstandings on computers these days is the “size” of an image stored on the computer. People will receive or take a digital photo, and then ask, or try to determine, its physical size, in inches.

But as will be explained below, an image stored on the computer has no physical representation. The same is true of any data stored on the computer. What is the physical size of a Word document, or an email? This "does not compute," because they have none. The same is true for images, even scanned images, they have no physical size. Do not be fooled by what you see on the screen; the image is only being displayed at a particular size (which is a combination of many factors, such as : the zoom level in the program you're using, your monitor's resolution, etc.)

Image Dimension

An image's dimension is the number of pixels of its width times the number of pixels of its height, such as 640 x 480 (width x height). This is sometimes confusingly and incorrectly referred to as resolution, but that term only applies when talking about so many pixels per inch: ppi.

You cannot change the size of an image, as it has no size. But you can affect its dimensions. Typically, an image with larger dimensions will show more details and be sharper than an image with smaller dimensions. If you have two identical photos of the same subject but of different dimensions (say, 640 x 480 pixels versus one that’s 1600 x 1280), and print them both at the same size (for example, 4” x 6”), the smaller dimension one will look much worse (blurrier, grainier, pixelated) than the larger dimension one. That's because the larger dimension one is being printed with many more pixels per inch (ppi) of paper — the subject is broken into many more and smaller pieces of information — so it comes out sharper. More about printing, later.

By the way, although the sharpness of an image is greatly influenced by image's dimensions (number of pixels an image contains), this should not be mistaken with “JPG quality”(sometimes called JPG compression) which you’ll see in some programs. JPG quality is a totally different aspect of an image, and is related to the lossy (data is lost) compression adjustment, characteristic specific to JPG images. Adjusting the JPG quality affects the appearance of the image, and greatly affects the image's file size on the computer. When saving in the JPG format, for the highest quality image, always save at the higest JPG quality level.

Your photo editor or photo album program will tell you the image's dimensions. You’ll need to know this before you continue.

Scanners and “Original Size” of a Photo

Note: When you scan a photo, some scanners will measure and record the physical size of the original item being scanned, and record it as part of the image file. This allows some photo editor programs to talk about the “original size” of a photo, meaning the physical size of the original scanned photo. If you choose to print at the original size, the program will adjust the size of the image to be printed to be the same physical size as the original scanned photo.

Image Density (Resolution)

Sometimes also referred to as original resolution, this is the number of pixels per inch (ppi) at which the image was created, such as on a scanner. This information is stored in the image file but can be ignored for the most part. What's more important is to be fully aware of the image's dimension (in pixels), covered above. A photo editor or photo album program will tell you the density of an image.

Another resolution, is that of the printed image, how many ppi (pixels per inch) your asking the printer to print. Divide the image's dimensions by the size in inches of the desired printed image, and you have printed image resolution in ppi. For exmaple, if you print a 900 x 900 size image at 3" x 3", the printed image resolution is 300. To receive a photo-quality result when printing, a minimum printed image resolution is required, typically 200 ppi; see Printing Images below for details.

Viewing Images

Most computers have several programs that can view image files, such as Web browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer, FireFox, Netscape, Safari, Opera), email clients (e.g. Windows Mail, Apple Mail, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora), and photo editors (e.g. Adobe PhotoShop, Microsoft PictureIt, iPhoto, GraphicConverter). What can be confusing is that each program may display the image differently.

Outlook Express, for example, often shows the image at a ratio of one image pixel per monitor dot (sometimes also called pixels). Since monitors have a pretty low resolution (the number of screen dots per inch or DPI) of around 72 to 96 DPI, a large dimension image will be displayed very large, and extend way off the screen. The programmers of Outlook Express could have chosen to display the image differently, such as to display the whole image on the screen. This would have avoided a lot of confusion, and made the image much more convenient to view.

Thankfully, photo editing programs initially display the image “zoomed out” showing the whole image on the screen (thus displaying the image at a ratio of several image pixels per screen dot). So, the same image that looked so large in Outlook Express is displayed much smaller. In these programs, you can zoom in and out, but doing so changes only the appearance of what’s displayed. Usually an option to view the image at “full size” (showing the image at a ratio of one image pixel per screen dot) is offered. Is so, just like in Outlook Express, a high resolution image appears quite large, and might be many times larger than your monitor's screen.


Images in Email

When you send an image via email, you need to decide ahead of time the dimensions of the image you’re going to send. Again, you do not determine the physical size; there is no size associated with a computer image. All you can affect is the dimension of the image in pixels. If you send a large dimension image, the file size will be larger than that of a smaller dimension image. It will take longer to for you send, and longer for the recipients of your email to receive. If your recipients have a slow connection, you’re doing them a favor by sending a smaller dimension image — because it will take less time for them to receive the photo. However, as you’ll see below, if you want your recipients to be able to print a nice version of what you’re sending them, you’ll want to send a large dimension version of the image. Just know that in Outlook Express and some other email programs, unlike photo editing programs, a large dimension image will display very large on the screen.

When your recipients receive your image, they can save it to their computer and do with it as they wish. In most programs, when viewing the image, they can zoom in and out on it, letting them go from seeing the complete image to viewing detailed parts of the image. If they want a good quality printout, they’ll be glad you sent them a large dimension image. If they don’t care about printing the image and just want to see a quick snapshot of the image, a medium or smaller dimension image will do.


Printing Images

When you print an image, you usually indicate the physical size you would like the image to be printed on the paper. The image’s dimensions (in pixels) divided by the physical size you specify is what I call the printed image resolution in ppi (pixels per inch). The printed image resolution directly affects the clarity of the printed image — the higher the printed image resolution, the better the output. (Note, this is true up to a point. Beyond that, no discernable improvement in quality is gained of the print-out). Also:

  • The printout of a smaller dimension image will look worse (blurrier, grainier, pixelated) than that of a larger dimension image. Because the smaller dimension image has a lower printed image resolution.
  • A larger physical printout will look worse (blurrier, grainier, pixelated) than a smaller physical printout. Because the larger physical printout has a lower printed image resolution.

The printed image resolution (ppi) represents the amount of pixels that will be printed per inch on the paper. This should not be confused with the printer's dpi setting, which controls the number of dots of ink per inch that the printer will print. Dots are not the same as pixels. Dots are individual colors dithered together to create a precise color of a given pixel. You can print an 200 ppi image at many different dots per inch (dpi) values, like 360 dpi, 720 dpi, 1440 dpi or 2880 dpi. Although independent values, the way the printer driver interprets the image ppi involves complex rendering calculations and both ppi and dpi are factors which impact on the quality of print output.

When you print an image, for good photo-like quality, you want a printed image resolution of at least 200 pixels per inch (ppi). Be very mindful of this when you choose image dimensions and the physical size at which you wish to print. You must also use photo paper, and the printer's highest quality image settings (such as dpi). To use a printed image resolution of 200 ppi means:

Printed image resolution: 200 ppi

For a print-out
of this size:		 Start with an image
that’s at least:		 Megapixels
of image:

11” x 14”

2200 x 2800 pixels

6.2 MP

8.5” x 11"

1700 x 2200 pixels

3.74 MP

8” x 10”

1600 x 2000 pixels

3.2 MP

5” x 7”

1000 x 1400 pixels

1.4 MP

4” x 6”

800 x 1200 pixels

0.96 MP

3” x 5”

600 x 1000 pixels

0.60 MP

This also helps us see that for a borderless 8.5” x 11" print, we'll need a 4 MP camera (at least), and must use its highest quality settings.

Image Dimensions and Digital Cameras

It may help to point out how image dimensions and print size relate to digital cameras. If we take the suggested 1600 x 2000 for an 8” x 10” printout and determine the total number of pixels for that image by multiplying 1600 times 2000, we get 3,200,000 pixels, or 3.2 mega pixels (MP). You can see why 3 MP cameras were standard for a while.

Next, 4 MP cameras became the most popular. This came about because borderless 8.5” x 11” printouts were desired, and to get those, you need start with an image that’s at least 1700 x 2200 pixels. Multiplying 1700 times 2200 is 3,740,000 pixels, or 3.74 MP.

Around 2008 some folks said that a 5 MP image is needed for the finest photographic quality 8.5” x 11” printouts on photo paper. That requires an image that’s 2000 x 2500 pixels, or exactly 5 MP. By the way, notice that that works out to a new printed image resolution value of about 230 pixels per inch to achieve the best photo quality printouts, versus 200 ppi mentioned earlier. To use a printed image resolution of 230 ppi value means:

Printed image resolution: 230 ppi

For a print-out
of this size:		 Start with an image
that’s at least:		 Megapixels
of image:

16” x 22”

3680 x 5060 pixels

18.6 MP

12” x 16”

2760 x 3680 pixels

10.2 MP

11” x 14”

2530 x 3220 pixels

8.1 MP

8.5” x 11"

1955 x 2530 pixels

5.0 MP

8” x 10”

1840 x 2300 pixels

4.2 MP

6.7” x 9”

1549 x 2066 pixels

3.2 MP

5” x 7”

1150 x 1610 pixels

1.9 MP

4” x 6”

920 x 1380 pixels

1.3 MP

3” x 5”

690 x 1150 pixels

0.8 MP

This also helps us see that for the best photo quality, for an 11" x 14" print (for example), we'll need an 8.1 MP camera. Or that printing a 920 x 1380 pixel image at 8" x 10" is likley to not be of photographic quality.

Notice also, if you are never going to print larger than 5" x 7" – a 2 MP camera will do just fine (and likewise for aother print sizes). But if you do a lot of cropping of your photos, you'll want to start with a higher quality (larger megapixel) photo, so the result for printing corresponds with the chart above.


Some pros, like Ken Rockwell, say, "Ideally you'd like to print at 300 PPI to look super-sharp even when viewed too close with a magnifier." This is likely overkill for all but the pros. To use a printed image resolution of 300 ppi value means:

Printed image resolution: 300 ppi

For a print-out
of this size:		 Start with an image
that’s at least:		 Megapixels
of image:

16” x 22”

4800 x 6600 pixels

31.7 MP

12” x 16”

3600 x 4800 pixels

17.3 MP

11” x 14”

3300 x 4200 pixels

13.9 MP

8.5” x 11"

1955 x 2530 pixels

5.0 MP

8” x 10”

2400 x 3000 pixels

7.2 MP

6.7” x 9”

1549 x 2700 pixels

5.4 MP

5” x 7”

1500 x 2100 pixels

3.2 MP

4” x 6”

1200 x 1800 pixels

2.2 MP

3” x 5”

900 x 1500 pixels

1.35 MP


Note: There are other factors besides the megapixel size of the camera that affect the camera's image qualtiy. Ken Rockwell says, "Image clarity is more dependant on how you shot the photo than the number of megapixels. A clean shot from a 3MP camera is much better than a slightly out-of focus shot from a $5,000 12 MP camera." See these articles:

Further Study

Sensor size articles


This site explains all of the above in even more detail:

Image Size and Resolution

Good discussion of digital photography:

Hawthorne Digital Photography Lecture


G. Keep A Log for Each Computer

Keep a log for your computer of what was done, when, by whom, and why. Include any version numbers of software involved, any companies talked to, phone numbers, and the technician's name at those companies. Log any problem and their resolution. This is not unlike a medical history, but for you computer.

IV. See Also...

If you have any questions regarding any of this
information, please contact me (see contact info below).

A grateful THANKS! to many folks
who contributed to this page.

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