As PCs get ever more powerful, they seem to get ever more complicated too! Now, with Windows 8 and 10, a lot of the more technical aspects are hidden from you. Microsoft have certainly attempted to make your PC as easy to use as the iPad, but not quite succeeded. Well, 9/10 for effort anyway
But sooner or later, you’ll invariably run into serious issues. Here’s a list of the five of the most common ones, and what to do about them:
Losing Your Data
Hard drives crash. It’s one of life’s inevitabilities. Sometimes the data on the drive is recoverable, but you may need to get an expert in at significant expense. But other times, everything you had there is gone for good!
And as much as you think it won’t happen to you (we’ve all thought it), it will! So once it’s happened, get an expert in after browsing local IT companies. And then hope the data is salvageable, as there’s not much else you can do at that stage.
But what you can do, right now, is back up. Now, you’ll probably want to keep a copy locally (in your home) by buying an external hard drive. And then copying over all data that’s been changed or added. There’s software that automates this for you, so very easy.
But you may well also want to back everything up to the cloud automatically, using a service like Dropbox. If you’ve a lot of data, it could take a long while. But that’s far better than losing all your family photos!
Viruses, Malware and Ransomware
Your computer getting infected is almost inevitable too. You can set up a firewall, have anti-virus and anti-malware software (you should). But sometimes, things still get through.
One way this happens is through plugins in your web browser. Flash, Java and Adobe Acrobat in particular. You can disable these in your browser, and that’s a very good start. This will however make the web less functional for you.
And it’s worth noting that using a browser like Chrome is recommended over using Internet Explorer.
And if you really want to take it to extremes, turn off JavaScript in your browser. You’ll have a hard time navigating websites, but it will certainly be very secure!
But it also of course comes down to being very careful what you download and click on. This certainly includes email attachments. But if, or when, you do get infected, then if you have back ups in place, you can recover quite easily.
Lost or Stolen Laptop?
If you travel with your laptop, there is a risk of you losing it, or even having it stolen. Well, again, having back ups in place means you don’t lose all your valuable data.
However, it still means you’ve lost a laptop!
Well, if it’s stolen you’re unlikely to get it back. But can still find where it is, and even shame the thief. Here’s how:
You can install software on your laptop that keeps track of where it is at any time. You can log in to a website, see the location of your laptop, and even gain control of it. Some people have done this and taken embarrassing photos and videos of the laptop thief, and posted them online!