Have you ever heard that the best way to fix a problem is to avoid having it in the first place? Consider your car. Is the time to get the brakes looked at after they’ve failed on the highway? Of course that isn’t the time. You get your brakes checked every six months to a year, to stay ahead of that disaster. This is equally true for health, relationships, and especially for computers. The vast majority of computer-related disasters, be they file loss, system crashes, or viruses, can be avoided with a bit of proactive computer help.
Software Updates
It’s easy to think of software as a static item. You install the software and then never think about it again. In reality, most mainstream software gets updated on a regular basis. When a problem crops up in the software, or someone figures out how to exploit a weakness in the code, the company that made the software releases updates and patches to repair the issue. Having someone make sure the software stays updated helps to prevent hackers from taking advantage of these weaknesses and, for example, stealing customer information or downloading proprietary information.
Data Backups
It’s the nightmare scenario. You’re gearing up for a make-or-break sales meeting with your dream customer. You’ve spent countless hours assembling documents and preparing a presentation. Then, the day before the meeting, an electrical storm fries the hard drive in your computer and destroys all of that hard work. The worst part is that those documents and presentation only existed on your computer. Backing up important documents and files, to the cloud or an external drive, immunizes you from this exact worst case scenario.
Web Filtering Software
Viruses and other kinds of malicious software are everywhere on the web. In fact, most malicious software doesn’t come from shady websites designed to infect your computer. Your computer is far more likely to get infected from reputable sites that were hacked. Web filtering software blocks obviously malicious sites in your web browser. The same software can also help you to avoid legitimate, but compromised, websites that threaten to infect your computer.
Cleaning Out Unnecessary Files
It is the nature of the beast that files accumulate on a computer. While many of these files are useful, like those database files for your inventory or your quarterly tax information, many of them are not. Computers generate temporary files pretty much whenever you open a program. That unsaved document in your word processing program? Temporary files. That spreadsheet you’ve been messing with all day? Temporary files. Those photos you’ve been editing? Temporary files. Then there are all the junk files you get from basic processes like installing or updating programs. Over time these files accumulate and begin eating up all of your computer memory. Cleaning them out can help prevent the computer from freezing during a crucial moment.
Knowing that these things can help to protect you and your computer isn’t the same as being able to make it happen. After all, unless you’re IT professional, you can’t be expected to know how to automate data backups and software updates or to choose the best software for web filtering and junk file management. Fortunately, you don’t need to become an IT expert. Magnify247 can provide the proactive computer help you need to keep your computer safe and avoid disaster.
