Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
I’m often asked if free antivirus apps are as effective at protecting a Windows PC from virus infections as their “paid” counterparts.
And I must say, that’s an excellent question.
Back in the early days of home computing my answer would have been no because the free antivirus programs available at the time were indeed inferior to the commercial programs.
But that has changed over the years…
Question from Gary: My ISP has notified me that I have exceeded the monthly data allotment for my Internet plan and that I might have to pay extra this month.
I don’t understand this because I only use the Internet for about 1 to 2 hours per day and I don’t do much streaming at all other than watching an occasional YouTube video.
I only have one computer using my WiFi connection. No phones or tablets use WiFi, just this one computer. There is nothing connected via a wired connection either.
I’m hoping you can help me find out what’s using all that data? [Read more…]
Question from Darryl: I have always understood Windows’ built-in “Microsoft Defender” antivirus app to be inferior to other antivirus programs.
But yesterday I heard that might no longer be the case.
What’s your opinion about Microsoft Defender?
Is it really just as good as the third-party antivirus programs that are being sold today?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Has your computer started acting weird all of a sudden? For example…
Do web pages take forever to load or are you getting pop-ups every time you breathe?
Is your web browser covered in toolbars?
Has your home page or default search engine been mysteriously changed without your permission?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, your PC is probably infected with malware. [Read more…]
As you probably know, malware infections can cause all kinds of strange problems on Windows PCs.
That’s why if your computer starts acting strange all of a sudden it could very well be infected with a virus or some other form of malware.
Most malware infections can be removed by first running a thorough series of scans with the free tools mentioned in this post, but there are some strains of malware that might need to be removed by an experienced computer tech.
I recommend that you always run your own malware scans (if it’s possible to do so) before you take your PC to a repair shop for ANY type of service or repair, even if you don’t believe the issue is malware-related.