The Must Have List

A lot of people think that when they get a computer, what they have on there is what they need. However, what they have on there can have a significant impact on the performance of the PC. We call this Bloatware. Think of it as having just finished a huge thanksgiving dinner and you're so full that moving would be one of the hardest things you can do. Bloatware on a new PC (Like Dell, Compaq, Gateway etc...) can potentially be quite a heavy burden on your PC's processing power and memory usage.
For example, my new PC laptop, a Dell Inspiron 6000, came preloaded with Norton Internet Security, Dell Support, QuickTime and a few other programs that boot up on startup. Norton Internet Security is a system hog. But it can be less of a system hog if you disable some of the features on there that are either A)Not really necessary unless you are ultra paranoid, or B) or just take up more system resources than its worth to have around. On my computer the following is disabled for Norton Internet Security:

1)Personal Firewall: I know, I know, firewalls are good. But Norton's became a pain in the butt after a while, constantly popping up with notifications. Most of the time it is for websites and things that I'm fully aware of what's there (On a side note, I've been known to travel into the depths of the internet that can sometimes be considered "questionable" but I understand the risks and how to protect myself, so I come out fairly squeaky clean).

2)Intrusion Detection: Another interesting choice I know. The truth is it's not really necessary. Again, I found it to be a pain in the butt. If you're doing casual net surfing, you're really not going to need it unless you're ultra paranoid and really want that extra protection.

3)Spyware and Adware: Okay, I know this one sounds really funny, but I personally don't like Norton's Spyware and Adware protection. I'll give another example later in the article.

Other than that, I left everything else on. This definitely cut down on CPU and Memory usage.
Next I opened up MSCONFIG (Done by going Start>Run and then typing msconfig in the box). In MSCONFIG I went under the startup tab and started unchecking some of the boxes in there that I knew weren't necessary to have at startup (again, to conserve CPU and Memory). An easy way to find out what is necessary and what isn't (Which can include detecting some viruses and adware) is to Google the process and I've found that most of them can be found and then determined to be Necessary or unnecessary. (Again, this can sometimes come down to personal preference, but things like the Installshield Updater, or SonicDigitalMedia are not necessary for startup)

But the main point of this article is to express what is necessary to have running on your machine for a more secure computer.
The Simple Tech News List of Must Haves:

1)Virus Protection: An absolute MUST for any computer. I personally prefer McAffee to Norton, but again that's personal preference. On my new computer, I got a free 15 month subscription to Norton so I figured might as well use it while I have it. It's not a bad program by any means, I just feel it is a bigger resource hog that McAffee. There are also a few free alternatives for antivirus software. One is Grisoft's AVG (http://www.grisoft.com/) and the other is Anti Virus Personal Edition (http://www.free-av.com). Both of which are good suitable and free alternatives to virus protection. However, they will definitely not be as good as the major competitors (i.e. Norton, McAfee, PC Cillin, etc...) Case and point, HAVE VIRUS PROTECTION!

2)Adware and Spyware Protection: Another extremely crucial MUST for any computer. Spyware and Adware are the most annoying invention to ever fill the internet. It's one of the number one trouble makers for PCs. There are definitely a number of programs out there that provide protection against Adware and Spyware, and some that claim to do that, but are spyware themselves (a scary ironic twist of things). But there are a few must haves in this section: 1) Hostsman which manages your Hosts file (See previous article titled "The Lonely and Powerful Hosts file"). 2)Microsoft Anti Spyware (Now I know some of you out there might laugh at the slight oxymoronic notion of Microsoft having an anti-spyware software, but bear with me.) Despite the fact that it is Microsoft's fault that all this Spyware and Adware has been able to find its way on to our PCs (many times unknowningly), the least that Microsoft could do was come out with some sort of program for it. Microsoft's current beta of the prorgram is definitely a step in the right direction. It also works pretty damn well. It works in places that sometimes Ad Aware (http://www.lavasoft.de) does not. (don't get me wrong, Ad Aware is still a great program but you got to have the Pro edition for r it to be really effective). Other Programs that fall into this category that are of note are: Ad Aware (See link above), and Spybot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html).

3)Firewall: Yes, this does sound like a contradiction to my previous statement of turning off Norton's firewall. But I did that for good reason. Here is where I would go either way. Firewalls are great at not letting unauthorized connections to your computer, or your computer accessing parts of the internet. However, they can also become a bit of a nuisance constantly popping up whenever you install a new program, or are using a new program. Gaming is one example that you don't notice until it' too late. They constantly pop up when gaming online and most of the time aren't noticed until you exit the game. They also can be a bit of a resource hog. One partial solution is the Hosts manager I talked about in my previous article. Nevertheless for the casual internet browser firewalls are great. The default one that shows up in WIN XP Service Pack 2 is handy, but requires a little configuring before it becomes adequate, I leave this function off. Then there are programs like ZoneAlarm Pro (http://www.zonelabs.com) which is a great solution to firewall programs. Like I said, I tend not to use any of the Firewall programs because I really don't find it necessary for myself. I do still keep myself protected with the other programs and I usually find that sufficient enough. Also, if you are behind a router, the router acts as a small firewall. Despite that. If you are still new to computing and/or don't want to take any risks, a firewall is also a MUST.

4)Mozilla Firefox: Still using Internet Explorer? If you answered yes to this question, STOP! Internet Explorer is garbage. Just because it's the default browser that comes with any computer makes many people initially to believe that it is the best way to go. However, what they don't realize is that Internet Explorer (IE) is full of more holes than your average slice of Swiss Cheese. Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org) is far superior. In fact, Microsoft had to copy some of Mozilla's implementations of pop-up blocking. Firefox also has something IE doesn't called Tabbed Browsing. Tabbed browsing allows for multiple web pages to be contained within the confines of one window. This makes things much less cluttered on your taskbar. Mozilla is also customizable with a number of different tools. These are called Extensions and there are many to chose from. What you install is up to you, but it's really easy to install. Firefox also supports RSS feeds. RSS feeds are a way to keep track of material on some websites. A very key thing about Firefox is that Firefox is Open Source. Meaning anybody can look at the source code and improve on it if they so chose to. Of course the hope is that people share their improvements with the development community. This open source nature allows for constant updates of the browser. This is something that you don't see happen with IE that often. In fact, many months may go by without a single update for IE. Plain and simple: Say yes to Firefox, and No to IE. As I like to say "Friends don't let friends use IE."

These few simple programs can provide a long time of safe browsing and internet use. Remember to always keep your programs updated for maximum protection. Remember, your PC might not ever be 100% secure. The proper protection can definitely help make that in the 90th percentile.

Any Questions? Please submit questions in Comments section along with Email and I will address them as soon as I can.