Catching up

TGIF!

 I did two remote calls this week supporting 2 different customers. Both calls worked well. If you can connect to the internet from your computer, then I can connect with you, take control of your PC and fix what is ailing it. I do this while simultaneously calling your phone so we can discuss step by step what I am doing in response to what you describe as your problem. In this way you learn AND get a cleaner system!

For one customer I downloaded and installed the MVPS HOSTS file. Because I have done this so often, I can do it in less than one hour, and so have reduced my fee for this service to $40.  Part of getting this done is to teach you how to maintain the file, i.e., how to find the latest version, download it, and install it. As a result you become self sufficient and can always have the latest protection against malware.

For the second customer, it was a matter of a poorly performing system, and so I did a typical cleaning and tuning. This customer did not have any security issues so I did not get into installing and running the malware detection and removal tools. I showed the customer that he had only 512MB of RAM, and we went to the Crucial.com site and I demonstrated how he could upgrade from 512MB to 2GB for $78. I think he is doing that and I will follow up with him. For this work, which took only 1.5 hours, my fee was only $60.

Next time you feel a need to call your PC Doc, think remote!

Finally, if you are a Facebook user, please consider becoming a fan of my PC Doctor page on Facebook. My PC Doc's Blog is automatically download to Facebook, so you can look at it there! Just click on the Become A Fan button over there on the right side of this screen!

Oh, and lest I forget, I do love Windows 7. It is extremely reliable and much faster than Vista, which I replaced on one of my Acer laptops. I still have my Windows XP Acer laptop, my IBM Windows XP desktop, and my Apple MacBook Pro.

My Blog is now on Facebook

For those of you in the know (I am not one of you!), my blog can now be viewed on a page I created, PC Doctor, under my profile. I know I can view my blog there, but not exactly sure if you will be able to do so just by clicking on "Become a fan" over to the right of this post.

I figured I would give his a try to see if it works.

Ridding your system of malware

It never ceases to amaze me at how three totally different tools are needed to eliminate malware on most systems. You might think if you had one good product that should do it. Of course I am talking about free software products, and make no comment about fee-based products. I know some of you use the latter, and I hope they do the job for you.

My recommended security suite includes SuperAntispyware, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, and Spybot. Quite a long while ago I had thought that Spybot could be discontinued, but I was wrong. As I work on your systems, it has become very clear, as recently as this past Sunday, that all three tools are needed. It's equally important to make sure you apply all updates to these 3 products before running a scan. It took me all three tools on Sunday to clean a customer's system. In this case the system would freeze at the user account choice screen, meaning the customer could not even get into the system. It was only in Safe Mode that I was able to get in and begin to use the tools I needed (as above) to clean the system, and it took all three!

This is not to say that there isn't another PC Doc out there who has found a solution to these issues that involve different products, even different free ones. I am sure there are such differing solutions. I am only presenting to you my successes based on my own personal experience.

Priorities

Sometimes we have to make choices, and we don't necessarily like those. I am taking care of a 93 year old Aunt of mine for a couple of days. She had surgery today and, thank God, she did well and will be okay in the near term. In the meantime I will be back there tomorrow spending time with her as she recuperates.