Keep in mind that the biggest threat to your system is you. If you click OK and allow every request without scrutiny then your chances of infection increase drastically. I suggest everyone use a router even if you have only one computer. I wouldn’t be without one.

By Steve Hogan

You can access Windows System Restore right here from the same System Properties. Click on the System Protection tab/ System Restore /Restore Files and Settings/Next/Pick a Date and follow the prompts. This is also the same area to create a new restore point or to reduce the amount of space alloted to system restore or even turn off System Restore.

Take the time to familiarize yourself with this area and you will feel much more confident in your ability to use your computer.

By Steve Hogan

Carol Asks: I need to buy an external hard drive. I have a USB 2.0 on my Dell computer. All the external drives that I see have a” USB A” or” USB B”. I am unable to actuall go look at the connections and am wondering if they are compatable with my “USB 2.0
Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Carol

It’s all in the cord. Without the right cord, what have you got? Nothing, that’s what.

By Steve Hogan

What could be simpler than a double click? Take a look inside for the answer. The whole concept may boggle your mind.

A new school year can be stressful for the kiddies heading back with books, backpacks, and probably some new laptops here and there. This is a great time to make sure their computer is ready for a new year. Give them a system clear of Virus and spyware. Clear out old temp files. Defrag the hard drive. You never know how much space is needed for taking notes frorm the new teacher.

Can you believe we’re approaching the end of the summer, I can’t? It just doesn’t seem possible that we’re in August already and getting ready for my favorite holiday, National Catfish Month. Grab some chicken livers, some treble hooks, and give momma something to fry up for Ask The Pros Snacks.

Sometimes, it’s easy to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of a piece of software. Other times, you may have a lot of trouble. That’s the fun of working with software. Microsoft rolls up a whole bunch of patches and bug fixes, and throw them out there. Those are called service packs, of course. Windows XP is on service pack 3 currently. Louis from the PCPitStop community wrote in to ask about a compatibility issue with XP SP3.

Howdy and Happy Independence Day to everyone in the US. The past week has seen more questions on drives and boot problems so I decided to take a good look at Windows Disk Management. Disk Management has always been a good utility, but starting with Vista and continuing into Windows 7, it has become a powerful and simple way to format and partition drives. You can manage the drive your booting from, or you can format and partition new drives for later installations and use.

Let’s take a look at this weeks question and see where it takes us.

Our good friend Chris Pirillo has stepped in to help us answer one of the numerous Ask the Pros questions that have come in. This week, Chris tackles a question from Candace who is wondering “how (she) can speed up her computer without adding memory”.

Question

1. Agnes S. asks: what is Bing?

Answer

(A). The begining of the end for Google.

(B). An old dead Crosby

(C). A powerful search engine.

(D). Another “gotcha” from Mircosoft.

(E). All of the above.