Zen College Life

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Here is a problem that many college students have.  I know, because I’m all of my friends ‘computer guy.’  Whether it’s a virus, spyware, adware, buggy software, or we just want to do something new, we all have problems with our computers every once in a while.  And while this may be off topic, it’s no less important.  How can we be productive and achieve academic success if our computer isn’t working, right?

Rather than writing a book on how to troubleshoot the problems you may have with your computer, I’m going to go over the basics of preventative maintenance, and I’ll provide links for free software to help prevent said problems.

Viruses: We’ve all encountered this one before.  You accidentally downloaded something or clicked yes when you shouldn’t have, and now all of a sudden everything is going berserk.  Well here is how you can prevent this on the cheap: AntiVirus Guard Free Edition. It’s free, it’s fast, and it updates daily.  This will prevent those viruses from killing your machine, and will warn you when you do accidentally get one.  For the price, you can’t beat it (and it isn’t a resource hog either).

Spyware: If your computer is running extra slow, and you can’t seem to figure out why, it may be a problem of spyware.  This problem can be solved using Spybot - Search & Destroy.  This free software will sniff out your spyware and clear it out for you, allowing your memory resources to be freed up, speeding up your computer a bit.  It’s a good idea to keep this installed even if you don’t have spyware, just in case.

Adware:  Do you get a lot of popups? I mean a whole lot? Maybe it’s starting to get annoying? Adaware is the solution. Download and install this one and it will really help with ad software on your computer.  It will remove it, and hopefully stop most of the popups (as well as removing some spyware and Trojans).  If you don’t understand the terminology don’t worry, just trust me and install this one.

Software, Memory, Registry, and Temp File Cleaner: Ncleaner is by far one of the greatest pieces of  maintenance software I’ve ever come across.  It clears temp files, removes registry errors, frees up memory, removes duplicate files, cleans up your internet browser, and so much more.  This is a must have.

Video, Audio, DVD, and other media - VLC Media Player plays just about everything you could imagine, media wise.  I use it for everything.  It’s light weight, never requires a codec download, and is really, really fast.  If you are using media player, itunes, or winamp I recommend trying this out.  It’s like all of them in one!

If you have any other issues, and you cannot figure out a solution, use the Contact page to email me, and I’ll try my best to point you in the right direction.  I’m always looking to help out a friend!

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