Viruses pose a pretty serious threat to most PC users. Therefore, I thought I would recommend a free solution to help alleviate some of the stress that is involved with the maintainance of your PC.

Free Anti-Virus Software with AVG

I have been using AVG for quite a while now, and it is a great little application. It is updated frequently with new virus definition files and has thus far kept my PC out of harms way.

You can visit AVG's homepage to download the software and try it out. They also have paid options available, which protect against spyware, rootkits, and other malicious software.

Head on over to AVG and check out the anti-virus software.

Have you had a terrible experience with a virus? Let me know in the comments.

I know that to some people this is common knowledge. To others it will be a useful bit of information. Just to clarify this works on all laptops that use a Lithium Ion battery, as well as most other rechargeable electronics.

First, it is important to know that the batteries have what you might consider a memory. When you are constantly using your Macbook for 30 minutes to an hour, and only dropping the battery life to around 50% before recharging, you are essentially telling your Macbook's battery that it is empty when it gets to below 50%. This, over time, will gradually decrease the battery life on your Macbook or other electronics.

Having said that, it is important to understand that this is generally what happens over many different recharges. It is definitely fine to recharge your Macbook when it is at 50% battery life.

Maintain the Battery Life on Your Macbook

Occasionally, perhaps once a week, let your Macbook run until the battery drops below 3%. This allows the battery to be used almost completely, and reminds it of it's true capacity.

Like I mentioned above, this can be used for most rechargeable electronic devices.

Have you noticed a decrease in your Macbook's battery life? Let me know in the comments.

Recently, my fiance asked for help to download music on to her new laptop. I pointed her to Limewire and told her just to search for what she wanted and download the songs that match her search criteria.

Little did I know that the p2p networks had been stuffed full of viruses and other malware. I was on her machine not to long ago and was going to listen to some music on when I noticed there was about 10 to 15 songs that weren't songs at all. They were image files, and each one (although they had different titles) was the exact same size. I realized very quickly that these files were not at all what she wanted, and more specifically, they were exactly what she did not want on her computer.

I've written this in an effort to help people that are relatively new to the idea of peer to peer clients understand what they are doing, and how to do it safely.

These tips are in no particular order.

Make sure you have some kind of virus scanner.

I recommend AVG, as it doesn't burn a hole in your pockets like some of the other tools available. You can visit this site to download the latest version. It will always start up with your machine, and will automatically check for updates to the virus library it stores.

Use a filter to hide results that are less than a certain size.

Most of the p2p tools available have settings in the options that allow you to hide a file size that is below a threshold of your choice. I would suggest setting this threshold to less than 2 Mb. Of course, this means that if there happens to be a relatively short song that you want to download, it may be filtered out. Keep this in mind when you are searching for songs. Alternatively, pay close attention to the size and name of the files that turn up in your search. If some of the results are less than 2 Mb and seem to be the same exact name and exact file size, it is likely they cannot be trusted.

Note: This is not ALWAYS the case. Some of the files that fit this description are perfectly fine. If you are not sure, I would probably just avoid it. However, if you do decide to download the file I would definately recommend scanning it before you try to play it.

Make sure you keep your windows updates caught up.

Microsoft sends these updates out for a reason. Install them. They fix security exploits that hackers and virus makers use to infiltrate systems. I know they are annoying, and I know they can be troublesome. What is more troublesome, a PC that has to take 20 minutes of your time to download and install updates (and then the god forsaken restart) or a virus that causes you to lose your data. In my opinion, the answer to that question is pretty easy.

You have a virus scanner. Use it.

How many times have you started your computer and your virus scanner started running? Often. How many times have you let that virus scan complete? Exactly. While it's not always necessary to have your virus scan run every time you start your computer, I would suggest letting it complete at least once a week.

Don't let other people download things on your computer.

We all have those friends that come over and decide they must show you this song, or they have to install this software to view this or that. Make sure you know what they are doing. If you're not sure what they are doing, and don't trust that they know exactly what they are doing, don't let them do it!

Backup your important data

I'd recommend getting a cheap external drive. This allows you copy (don't just store on the external) documents over to the external drive once a week. Keep in mind you might not need the storage space of an external drive. If you are only keeping word documents, you can get 2 Gb flash drives pretty cheap. If you are backing up video, lots of pictures, or other files that take up space a flash drive might not be big enough. Another idea is to back up your documents to google docs. It's a free service and though I'm not sure of the size limitations, I'm sure it will be great for the majority of people.

In conclusion, be kind to your computer. Treat it like a small child. You have to decide what it is allowed to ingest, and what is no good for it. You have to keep it protected. You have to ensure it remembers everything you teach it, even if you spill coffee on it and it forgets everything... Oh wait, that doesn't happen with kids.

Leave some comments and let me know what you think.