{"id":287,"date":"2015-01-12T13:08:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T13:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/?p=287"},"modified":"2025-10-22T18:48:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:48:36","slug":"how-to-keep-your-computer-safe-and-working-efficiently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/how-to-keep-your-computer-safe-and-working-efficiently\/","title":{"rendered":"How to keep your Windows computer safe and working efficiently"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This was the strategy that worked for us, using what&#8217;s currently available, free, and recommended by many. There are other tools out there, but these were our choices.<\/p>\n<p>1 &#8211; <strong>CCleaner<\/strong> &#8211; so your computer and antivirus can work faster. It gets rid of unnecessary and temporary files where some viruses tend to hide.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.piriform.com\/ccleaner\/download\/standard\">https:\/\/www.piriform.com\/ccleaner\/download\/standard<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here is a video explaining how to use CCleaner, but ignore the Registry for now, unless you have experience with it.<\/p>\n<p>www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ck5FwzeDOAs<br \/>\n<!-- <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ck5FwzeDOAs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ck5FwzeDOAs  --><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>2 &#8211; <strong>Malwarebytes<\/strong> &#8211; but only if needed and as a clean up tool if your computer is badly infected. As an antivirus, it takes too long, but as a clean up tool, it finds the viruses that the other ones might miss. This could take a long time, but it&#8217;s very thorough. You could also use this program in Safemode if need be.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.malwarebytes.org\/mwb-download\/var3\/\">https:\/\/www.malwarebytes.org\/mwb-download\/var3\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>3 &#8211; <strong>Bitdefender<\/strong> Antivirus (the free edition) &#8211; This antivirus is much better than many others, and it has a free version. You&#8217;ll find the link to it just below. But before you can download it, you might have to disable or remove other antivirus programs like Norton or McAfee. This page has a list of removal tools for antivirus programs if needed, although many antivirus programs are easy to uninstall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitdefender.com\/support\/removal-tools-%28uninstallers%29-for-common-antivirus-software-1107.html\">https:\/\/www.bitdefender.com\/support\/removal-tools-%28uninstallers%29-for-common-antivirus-software-1107.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And here is Bitdefender, the free edition that won&#8217;t clog your computer like some other antiviruses. Let it do its job of freeing your computer of viruses and malware, and making the necessary Windows updates.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitdefender.com\/solutions\/free.html\">https:\/\/www.bitdefender.com\/solutions\/free.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>6 &#8211; <strong>Ad blocker<\/strong> for the Browser you use &#8211; so you can use the internet without being bugged with ads. You can also activate privacy and security features, such as tracking and malware protection.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, one of the most advanced is Adguard. It works on the network level and it could be used on all browsers:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/adguard.com\/en\/welcome.html\">https:\/\/adguard.com\/en\/welcome.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Backup of your important files<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>You could always do it on Windows and backup to another drive on your computer or to an external drive, or CD\/DVD.<\/p>\n<p>This page explains backup for Windows 7.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/howto\/1838\/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7\/<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Or you could use Google Drive or Dropbox to save and sync your important files, photos, and videos online, and make them easy to share if you want.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/drive\/\">https:\/\/www.google.com\/drive\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/install\">https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/install<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And there you have it. Hope this helps.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-comments\">\n\n\n\n\n\n\t<div id=\"respond\" class=\"comment-respond wp-block-post-comments-form\">\n\t\t<h3 id=\"reply-title\" class=\"comment-reply-title\">Leave a Reply <small><a rel=\"nofollow\" id=\"cancel-comment-reply-link\" href=\"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287#respond\" style=\"display:none;\">Cancel reply<\/a><\/small><\/h3><form action=\"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-comments-post.php\" method=\"post\" id=\"commentform\" class=\"comment-form\"><p class=\"comment-notes\"><span id=\"email-notes\">Your email address will not be published.<\/span> <span class=\"required-field-message\">Required fields are marked <span class=\"required\">*<\/span><\/span><\/p><p class=\"comment-form-comment\"><label for=\"comment\">Comment <span class=\"required\">*<\/span><\/label> <textarea id=\"comment\" name=\"comment\" cols=\"45\" rows=\"8\" maxlength=\"65525\" required><\/textarea><\/p><p class=\"comment-form-author\"><label for=\"author\">Name <span class=\"required\">*<\/span><\/label> <input id=\"author\" name=\"author\" type=\"text\" value=\"\" size=\"30\" maxlength=\"245\" autocomplete=\"name\" required \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"comment-form-email\"><label for=\"email\">Email <span class=\"required\">*<\/span><\/label> <input id=\"email\" name=\"email\" type=\"email\" value=\"\" size=\"30\" maxlength=\"100\" aria-describedby=\"email-notes\" autocomplete=\"email\" required \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"comment-form-url\"><label for=\"url\">Website<\/label> <input id=\"url\" name=\"url\" type=\"url\" value=\"\" size=\"30\" maxlength=\"200\" autocomplete=\"url\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"form-submit\"><input name=\"submit\" type=\"submit\" id=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" value=\"Post Comment\" \/> <input type='hidden' name='comment_post_ID' value='287' id='comment_post_ID' \/>\n<input type='hidden' name='comment_parent' id='comment_parent' value='0' \/>\n<\/p><p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"akismet_comment_nonce\" name=\"akismet_comment_nonce\" value=\"96c5b83ae4\" \/><\/p><p style=\"display: none !important;\" class=\"akismet-fields-container\" data-prefix=\"ak_\"><label>&#916;<textarea name=\"ak_hp_textarea\" cols=\"45\" rows=\"8\" maxlength=\"100\"><\/textarea><\/label><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"ak_js_1\" name=\"ak_js\" value=\"43\"\/><script>document.getElementById( \"ak_js_1\" ).setAttribute( \"value\", ( new Date() ).getTime() );<\/script><\/p><\/form>\t<\/div><!-- #respond -->\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was the strategy that worked for us, using what&#8217;s currently available, free, and recommended by many. There are other tools out there, but these were our choices. 1 &#8211; CCleaner &#8211; so your computer and antivirus can work faster. It gets rid of unnecessary and temporary files where some viruses tend to hide. https:\/\/www.piriform.com\/ccleaner\/download\/standard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-lucarinfo-blog","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}