Installing antivirus software

We all know that we do not want to pick up a virus on our computer at home, as they can effectively wipe out data,delete program, or even stop your machine working. Obviously the best way to prevent this happening is to install antivirus software to protect yourself from attack.

Antivirus Software-Antivirus software are computer programs that are specifically designed to identify, neutralise and eliminate malicious software

In the beginning these programs were only designed to detect viruses, but now they can have anti-spy ware tools, firewall and email scanners

How to install anti-virus software

First of you our going to need a copy of the file which you could download from a website, there are quite a few free anti-virus packages, and then others where you can pay a years subscription for various packages.

I am going to take you through the process of installing the antivirus software AVG, which is a free download, which can be obtained from their website http://free.avg.com/, when you click to download you will have to choose a destination folder for the file. Once your download is complete open the destination folder and double click on the AVG icon

after doing this a security warning will pop up, and then a screen should appear that looks like this
You will need to hit next to continue, the next screen that will appear is an agreement, you can read it, but you need to tick the accept box as you cannot continue if you do not do so. There are various other screens that will appear just have a read through them and click continue. You can also install a toolbar for AVG, a screen will appear during installation that explains to you about the toolbar, if you don't wish to install the toolbar, just simply uncheck the box and hit next
After going through all these screens a screen will appear that looks something like this
Once that blue line fills the bar your installation is complete and a screen like this should appearWhen this appears click OK, and AVG should open automatically

Benefits

The benefits of installing this software or any anti-virus is that's your computer will now be protected from viruses and spy ware. Viruses can stop your machine from working, delete files and steal information from you, and this definitely is something that anyone wants. This software is also free so it will not have an effect on your bank balance

Installing CCleaner

CCleaner is a free software package that enables you to clean up the registry of your computer, being able to clear unused things, such as temporary Internet files, browsing history, cookies, It also allows you to clean your recycle bin, memory dumps, file fragments and log files.

CCleaner is quite easy to obtain and install, you can download it free from various sites. It really is no different on installation that any other software and is quite straight forward.

When first clicking on the CCleaner file a screen will appear asking you to pick the language you wish, simple pick this from the drop-down menu

Once selecting your language then this screen will appear and you will simply have to hit next!

There is various other screens that will appear, including the license agreement, take a read through it and then click agree if you do agree with the terms, if you don't though you will be unable to continue installation.

From what I have heard most people do not like to install the task bar within their IE, not quite sure why, but if you do not wish too, simply untick the box.

Just continue with reading all screens that appear and then eventually the last screen will appear an click finish and the installation will be complete.

Benefits

The benefits of installing this software is that it will clean your drive of unwanted material, such as Internet history, cookies, it will realise unneeded files that may be slowing your machine down slightly, I don't think you would get a massive increase in speed, but it will clear out junk that could be filling up your hard drive, i.e. with temporary Internet files etc.

Installing Windows XP Service Pack 3

Service Pack- A service pack is a collection of updates usually called patches
These patches can usually be downloaded individually until the service pack is released, the service pack is usually the easiest way as you get all patches downloading at once in one easy package also doesn't come with any charge come with any charge, free updates. This can be downloaded directly from Microsoft's website or if you have windows update turned on, you should be able to download it automatically from that.

Once again is not complicated to install this onto your machine. I had the file saved on a USB drive so I simply ran it from there.

The circled icon is the service pack, I clicked on this and the following screen appeared

You really just have to wait until the blue bar fills, this can be quite time consuming, but I suppose you could just leave the machine to update when you were finished any tasks that you were doing on your computer.

When completed there may not actually seem to be that much of a difference within your machine, it is mainly to install patches in the OS(operating systems), it is known that some people have realised an increase in speed of their PC once installing a service pack, but this would not be the purpose of them.

Benefits

The main reason for installing service pack is that you have the most up to date version of the operating system, including all new patches and features that would prevent from unauthorised access to your computer etc. Once again this is also a free download.