Comp-U-News from Comp-U-Talk

June 2006

Do you know what makes me sad?

Telling someone their computer has been mangled in a terrible accident. Especially, when it could have been prevented!

Granted, I make money by working on and selling computers, but I still dislike telling the customer that the patient has died. And I had to do that again this past month. You see, the customer thought he could save money by not renewing his anti-virus software. After all, he never opens e-mails from people he doesn't know, and his internet service provider installed a security suite, so why would he need an anti-virus software?

Because...

His friends might have a virus. Just like in real life, I can catch a cold from my kids, I can also get a computer virus from a friend.

Viruses can hitch rides with internet downloads. I'm not kidding when I say I have seen viruses come in while downloading Windows Critical Updates!

But here is the worst part. A computer virus is similar to a cancer cell. If you have one cancer cell, there is a good chance you can remove it and live to talk about it. But if you ignore the one cell, it will multiply and soon you will have a tumor.

And the tumor could become life threatening!

Computer viruses are similar. If you catch a virus early on, you can normally eradicate it before it becomes a problem. But if you let it live, it will grow and spread the infection further and deeper into the workings of your computer. Left unattended the computer will die. And that makes me sad. Because computer cancer is 100% preventable!

Not certain what anti-virus software to buy? I like AVG. Currently it is a free download to home users and $40 for a 2 year subscription for businesses. Swing on in and pick up a copy. It's an inexpensive cure for computer cancer.

To Happier Computing,

Janet