Few Best Ways to Protect Your Laptop – A Complete Notebook Guide

Do you ever try to protect your laptop? Are you searching for a complete guide on how to protect your laptop for a longer life? Well, your search will end here. Protecting a laptop is very crucial when compared to desktop personal computers. Usually we don’t give much attention to our laptops when we are using it daily. Most of us will forget the basic steps of handling a laptop in right way. Nowadays, everyone has got one laptop with them. We usually use laptops when we are out, and we never care to bother few important things. Let me give you a detailed description on how to protect your laptops. Protecting a laptop doesn’t mean that you have to install a good antivirus and forget about it. There are a lot of aspects you have to take care of. Starting from the software to the hardware maintenance, everything must be under control.

We have found out few ways to protect your laptops from every possible way. The only thing you have to do is to follow this article carefully and try to implement them. I bet this post will really help you, especially when your laptop is not performing well. Here goes the list of most important points you have to remember when using a laptop.

Protect Your Laptop from Theft :

Most of the people lose their laptops when they put them for charging. We usually use a power cable connector with AC adapter to charge our laptop batteries. You can actually use many software’s to protect your laptops. It’s better to use ALARM which is a laptop A/C Removal Monitor. This is an open source application designed by SourceForge.net. If someone is trying to steal your laptop by remove the power cable connector from your laptop, it will raise an alarm with big sounds. This is really useful when you are away from your laptop in a public place. This will work only when there is a power cable connector connected to your laptop.

Another best way to protect your laptop is by installing Prey. Prey is an amazing application which can really trace out your laptop, if stolen. It can trace the location and take the picture of the person who stole it. You have to enable the protection to ON in the official site, when your laptop is missing. You have to install this application in your laptop first, and then create a account in Prey. Whenever your laptop is missing, you can directly trace out the missing laptop with the help of your account id. Prey will show the exact location of the missing laptop, with the help of a map or a GPRS system. it also takes a screenshot of the person who is using it. You can also lock it down from your prey account itself. This will allow you to secure your important data. It’s completely free to use and people who want to try it out with advance options has to upgrade to a Pro account.

Protect Your Laptop from Over Heat :

Always make sure that your laptop is not left out in hot temperatures. If you leave your laptops in warm places, you may spoil the battery, hard drive and sometimes even the other internal parts of your laptop. You may even lose data from your hard drive sometimes (I’m not kidding). You have to really take care of the surroundings when you take your laptop out. Most of use our laptop even on car hoods, outings on sunny days, near to huge machines and other random places. This has to be avoided if you want to save your laptop. You should also take care about few things like,

Don’t bring your laptop suddenly out of a Air condition (AC cool) to a normal or a hot temperature.

If you are changing the place, make sure that the temperature is constant for a while. It’s better to switch of your laptop, if you are not using it. But it’s better to switch it off when you are moving from one temperature to other (like AC and Non AC temperatures).

• Don’t use your laptops more than 2hrs in places where there is no AC. Especially most of us use our laptops in cars which have no AC or buses when traveling long.
• Make sure you always carry a plastic bag with you. In case of rain, you may cover your laptop to avoid water getting into it.
• Try to use a cool pad. This will make your laptop to cool down a bit. I recommend you to use a cool pad if you use your laptop for more than 3hrs continuously.
• Never let your laptop to go near Microwave Ovens, TV’s, DVD Players and other electronic devices. The magnetic force from these devices will corrupt your hard drive for sure.
• Never switch on of your laptop in less than a minute when switched off. Make sure you maintain a gap of at least 1min before actually turning it on.
• There are chances to short circuit if you let your laptop to take water onto it. So, try to avoid using the laptop when it’s wet.
• Over charging will make your laptop behave weird. It may burn up the AC adapter first and then the internal parts slowly.
• Unplug your laptop from charging if there is a heavy rain. It’s better that you connect the power cord to a stabilizer or UPS when you are using your laptop at home.

Save the External & Internal Battery Life :

Most of us fail to save our laptop batteries. We usually screw up our batteries within 2years. There are a lot of issues when it comes to save your laptop battery. The most important things to keep in mind are,

• Never use your laptop when you are charging the battery.
• Wait for the 100% completion of your battery charge up to use it again. It usually takes 2 to 3hrs to charge up completely.
• Don’t expose the battery to direct sun light.
• Discharge the battery from your laptop, if you are not using it from long time.
• Never put your laptop or batteries in hot temperatures like machines, car tanks, sun light, and other hot places.

These were few important points to save your battery externally. But if you want to save your battery from internal point of view, then you have to follow these below steps.

• Switch off the WI-fi and Bluetooth devices when not required.
• Don’t play high resolution graphic games when the battery life is less than 50%. It will drain the battery life 2 times faster.
• Using USB ports will drain your battery life sooner. So avoid using external mouse, pen drive and joystick when not required.
• Use 5/10 minutes power schemes to switch of your monitors when the laptop is idle.
• Use tools like Push Monitor Off to switch of your monitor screen when not used. Just download this application and press Shift + F1 to enable and disable your laptop display screen.
• Turn of the back-end processors and unwanted programs from the Task Manager. Also make sure you don’t have pending scheduled tasks and auto save features in MS office.
• Don’t leave CD/DVD in your disk drive when not required. Remove it as soon as you have done your work.
• It’s better to use Hibernate mode instead of Sleep.
• Don’t use flashy screensavers and funny desktop applications.
• The most important point, Decrease the brightness of your screen. Especially when you are in a dark place.

Installing a good Maintenance Tool :

There are a lot of tools which can protect your laptop. One of the best tools is IObit Toolbox. IObit can protect your laptop with over 20 different tools. You can find options like Cleaning, Repairing, Security and other categories, where you can protect your laptop. Also we all forget how much battery life is left out in our laptops. This can be solved by using BattCursor. This application when installed in your laptop will display a battery bar under your cursor and shows how much battery life is actually remaining for further use. It will change the color of the battery according to your usage. If the color of the battery bar turns red, then make sure to charge your laptop battery again.

Saving the Memory :

If you don’t have enough disk space, you can always use some tools like Portable Apps Suite Standard. This will allow you to install tools in your USB drive. So whenever you have utilities with less memory, try to install them in your USB with this application. And to protect important files in your USB drive, you can always use TrueCrpt

Take care of Keyboard and Screen :

It’s your responsibility to make sure the keyboard and screen are properly protected. Sometimes we observe that there will be a lot of dust around the keys in our laptop. This will make the keys to function slowly and also there is chance to jam your keys. Since we love our laptop, we usually show too much of love towards it. Like, letting it to eat your burger, make it to drink a Beer and offer other food items. Make sure you are protecting your keyboard from liquids. Protect Covers are the best alternatives to save your screens and keyboards. Usually we never take care of the display screen for laptops. The LCD screen of any laptop is very sensitive. Its better to use a screen guard against scratches and other marks. Usually a screen guard will not cost you more than 2$. If you want to protect your mouse pad, then try to cover it with a cover from above mentioned link.

Don’t use a detergent or a cleaning liquid to clean your laptop display screen. Always try to take a soft cloth to clean the screen. It’s better that you spray the detergent liquid on the cloth first and then rub it on the screen.

Protect Your Laptop with Few Important Software’s :

Your laptop should always have a track of what applications are running behind. So you have to track what are the software’s which are in use, what is the disk space used, and what CPU usage is allocated to the installed applications. Since we can’t monitor all of these things at a time manually, it’s better to use Freemeter.

You can use Battery Care to know information like battery capacity, Battery Mode, Basic Information, Automatic Updates and etc. and to know the performance of your laptop, you can use Performance Monitor. This will show you CPU memory, disk network and other important aspects in your windows system tray. You can also try other software’s like:

• CPU Thermometer.
• Laptop Battery Power Monitor
• CPU-Z and etc.

This is our complete guide to protect your laptops from many issues. We hope these tips will help you maintaining your laptop well and good. If you have any queries or suggestions on the above post, Please leave a comment below. Hope this article will surely help you to protect your laptop.

Top Internet Security Suites to Protect your PC from Malware – 2012

Security suites are probably the most essential software you will need for you computers, no matter old or new. There are a host of security suites available at various price ranges and licenses, what matters is how good the suite is at protecting you from the different types of malware. A few suites might be strong at protection from a certain type of malware and not so strong with others. The trick is to find an all round suite that fits your budget as well as offers the best protection. Often, security suites come bundled with a PC optimization program, cloud storage and some other extras as well. Before we go through the most popular suites on offer, let’s recap on the different types of malware:

Viruses: Basically, any malicious computer program that replicates itself to harm a computer system is called a computer virus. It is the sub category of malware, it includes trojan horses, worms and rootkits. Contrary to popular belief, spyware and adware come under malware but not under viruses as they are not self replicating, nor do they actually infect files.

Trojan Horses: Named after the Trojan Horse in Greek mythology, Trojan horses or simply trojans are malicious programs that replicate themselves and steal information or harm the host computer system. They usually masquerade as helpful or harmless programs and begin to steal private data, delete files, log keystrokes or provide an opening for further malware to get installed. For example, trojans claim to detect hundreds of viruses and remove them while actually harming the computer. The term trojan horse was adapted from the Trojan Horse in Greek mythology where the Greek army hid in a hollow horse made of wood that was given as a gift to the City of Troy. Upon nightfall, the army burst out of the horse and conquered Troy. Similarly, the malicious code is hidden in an apparently helpful program and finally causes harm.

Computer worms: Worms are another type of malicious software that exploit a vulnerability in the computer system to cause harm. They usually corrupt or delete critical files, consume excess bandwidth and often put the computer under control of the worm author. Once infected, computer systems are used to send spam mails and perform many such unwanted functions. They also usually create a backdoor where security can be bypassed to further infect the system. These backdoors allow remote access to the infected system and files and are usually undetected. Furthermore, worms do not need to attach themselves to another program and can be spread individually over networks.

Rootkit: Rootkits are a type of malware that mask malicious processes and software in the infected systems to ensure privileged remote access. They are usually installed after a vulnerability has been found and detected so that the infected computer continues to be under the control of the malware author. Rootkit detection is quite difficult as they are designed to stay hidden from the very software used to detect them. But, behavior patterns or memory analysis can reveal the presence of one. Removal of rootkits is extremely difficult and sometimes even impossible, depending on the extent of infection. Nevertheless, modern security suites can remove a few classes of rootkits.

Spyware: As the name suggests, spyware are programs that spy on the users. They steal user logins and passwords, document sites visited, log keystrokes and even redirect browsers to unwanted sites. They can result identity theft and sensitive bank information can be compromised as well. While some spyware just document sites visited or the like, more dangerous spyware can steal very important information.

Adware: Adware as such are quite harmless, although they are annoying. They generate ads in the form of popups and interrupt other programs. Usually shareware come with such popup ads. However, adware can come bundles with spyware which can cause further complications. But adware as such is not that difficult to remove.

So now that we have a basic idea of the types of malware and what they can do, here’s the top security suites to protect against them:

AVG Internet Security 2012:

AVG always has been the go-to antivirus software as it provides very good protection for free. However, does the full security match up? Unfortunately not. The antivirus bundled up with the Internet Security is the exact same one you can get for free and no doubt, it is good. The other components like the firewall don’t quite match up though. The firewall displays vulnerabilities and anti-spam filter doesn’t block much spam. The phishing protection isn’t up to the mark either. But, the PC tuneup, online backup and AVG accelerator work well and speed up few areas of the PC. The core antivirus program that can be obtained for free and performs well in real world situations, but the rest of the suite isn’t all that. Overall system performance impact is small as well. This suite retails for 55$ for a single license.

Avira Internet Security 2012:

Similar to AVG, Avira also offers a free antivirus that is really quite good. Again, the same antivirus turns out to be one of the best components of this Internet Security suite. While it doesn’t offer much by way of extras, Avira performs well in malware detection and removal and has a robust firewall. Again, the phishing filter and anti-spam filter don’t perform particularly well. Furthermore, Avira is weak with rootkit detection and removal. On the bright side, the best feature, the antivirus, is available for free and the suite as a whole doesn’t slow down system performance. Avira Internet Security costs 60$ for a single license.

Bitdefender Total Security 2012:

Bitdefender is one of the best suites available on the market. Along with essential components like antivirus, firewall and anti-spam, Bitdefender offers PC tuneup, Facebook protection, online backup and more. This suite offers fairly good malware protection, although not the best. The firewall is efficient, strong and silent as well. The extra features like PC tuneup and online backup perform well too. Phishing protection and anti-spam is decent and in general the suite offers good protection. However, it does slow down the system a bit and malware removal is good, but not great. Overall a good suite, retails at 80$ for 3 licenses.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012:

One of the stalwarts in the security software game, Kaspersky’s new internet security suite offers a great firewall and antivirus. It’s malware protection is very good, but rest of the features don’t match up. The anti-spam and phishing protection miss a lot of threats and the suite in general does affect the overall system performance. Kaspersky Internet Security offers a unique feature called Safe Run that creates a separate, temporary desktop and registry isolated from the main desktop. This can be used to run files or install programs you don’t entirely trust. If any problems are seen, the temporary desktop can be wiped clean without any effect on your main desktop. Also, the UI is completely new for the 2012 edition and is a pleasant departure from previous iterations. Kaspersky Internet Security costs 80$ for 3 licenses.

McAfee Total Protection 2012:

McAfee Total Security offers a large number of features in it’s suite. It includes anti-spam, intruder detection, parental controls, file shredder and a lot more. Unlike most other suites, the add on features in McAfee Total Protection 2012 actually perform well. Intruder detection and anti-spam are very efficient and online backup is useful as well. But, the core malware detection/removal and firewall don’t perform nearly as good as the best in the business. Also, McAfee affects system performance adversely. So if you’re looking for a suite that offers a host of features, get this suite, but keep in mind malware detection and removal is better in other suites. McAfee Total Secuity 2012 costs 90$ for 3 licenses.

Norton Internet Security 2012:

One of the most well known names in the market, Norton Internet Security more than lives up to it’s name in it’s latest iteration. Unlike previous versions, specifically the ones leading upto and including the 2010 version, Norton Internet Security 2012 is fast, efficient and doesn’t affect system performance. It looks good, is easy to use and offers exceptional firewall, on access and virus protection and effectively removes threats. Even the anti-spam works very well. Although, SONAR (on access protection) can get a bit overzealous at times and block harmless programs that aren’t very widely used. Overall it’s one of the best suites to have, it costs 70$ for 3 licenses.

Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete:

Webroot isn’t one of those suites that strikes you when you’re thinking of security software, but this lesser known suite offers surprisingly good protection! It offers great malware detection/removal, is supported on Android devices and is very light on system resources. Webroot’s online backup and password protection is very good as well. As for the cons, it doesn’t include parental controls or anti-spam and the firewall is a tad bit weak. But, the core antivirus is excellent and the installation is less than 1MB! The complete suite occupies just 50MB of space. This excellent and light suite costs 80$ for 3 licenses.

ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2012:

ZoneAlarm has traditionally been known to create excellent firewalls and this suite doesn’t disappoint with that regard. Extreme Security 2012 offers a great firewall, anti-spam & phishing protection and a few other extra features. The preinstall virus scan is a nice touch too. The bundled parental control, download manager and registry tune-up work well and you won’t be disappointed. A spiffy complete drive encryption can completely lock down data and prevent usage. But, the malware detection and removal could use some sprucing up and aren’t really in the league of the top competitors. General online protection is very good and so is on access protection. ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2012 costs 80$ for 3 licenses.

So these were the top security suites, each have their pros and cons and sometimes offer completely different features. Question is, what would you prefer?