Davoice - How is your computer running

At times I think that my computer must hate me. I will open a window to start something just to sit and wait. There is nothing wrong I say because I just got on it but it won't do anything. Does this sound familiar? Well first off when was the last time you rebooted your computer?

OS updates. When I go home to visit my family for the holidays, I go upstairs to my room, put down my bags, and immediately go to my parents' PC and start downloading any updates available for their computer. I'm lucky—my family is pretty computer literate, and it's usually a quick process, but I have friends who have to go through a year's worth of patches and updates every time they visit for Thanksgiving. Get this out of the way first, since it'll probably take the longest.

Other software updates. Nothing's worse than going home to find that your family members are still using Firefox 3, or heaven forbid, IE 6. Spend a little time while you're waiting for the OS to patch downloading the most recent versions of the applications they use most frequently, like their web browser, security and anti-malware software, email client, music player, or anything else that may have vulnerabilities or that they rely on every day.

Run a system scan with an anti-malware application. Hopefully your family's PC has some antivirus and anti-malware application installed already, and it's set to update itself quietly in the background, so it's already up to date. If it's not, update it, and run a complete system scan. If you find anything, it's easier to deal with while you're there than over the phone after you've gone home.

Speed tests. If I had a dollar for every time my family called and complained that their internet speeds were slow, I'd be rich. Contrary to most times when someone complains about slow internet access, it's not their fault. Their local cable provider's upload and download speeds are abysmally slow, and while they've called to complain in the past, it wasn't until I started running a few speed tests when I was home to visit and passing along the results as proof that the problem wasn't with their computer that their cable company started listening. If you're in the same boat, your family may have a real problem that's not their fault either—stave off hours of pointless troubleshooting with a few quick tests at Speedtest.net while you're home for the holidays.

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