Optimize Windows 7 With Antivirus Software

By Hugh Kent:

One sure-fire way to optimize Windows 7 would be to have antivirus software program running on your computer at all times. This may seem like a trivial piece of advice. But you would be surprised at how many computer systems out there succumb to computer viruses every day. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that a significant number of computers out there end up contracting viruses, even though they already have antivirus software installed!

Indeed, even if you have antivirus software installed on your machine, that is not reason enough for you to allow yourself to become complacent and unmindful of the potential threat of virus attacks. If you want to optimize Windows 7 against the threat of viruses, then there are some added measures that you will need to proactively take:
For example, if your antivirus software program isn't configured to start up automatically whenever you power up or reboot your computer, then it obviously won't do you any good. An antivirus program needs to be running in order for it to work. You can't just install it on your system and expect it to do its magic for you and optimize Windows 7 against viruses automatically.
Secondly, even if you have antivirus software running on your machine, it won't do you any good unless it is configured to attack and quarantine threats in real-time. If your computer is configured to run an antivirus scan once a day, at 3am for example, or once a week on Sunday nights at 2am, for example, then that leaves your computer vulnerable to the threat of viruses for the entire duration of each day or each week until the scheduled scan runs. If you want to optimize Windows 7 against viruses, you are going to need a scan to run in real-time.
Thirdly, many antivirus software programs offer multiple levels of thoroughness in terms of the level of their scans. A "quick scan" no doubt is not as thorough and comprehensive as a "detailed scan". Detailed scans typically take much longer than quick scans, and can consume more system resources in the process, which is why the "quick scan" option exists in the first place. Make sure that your computer is scheduled to perform a detailed scan at least once per day.
Fourthly, many antivirus programs out there come with a real-time scanning option. In other words, the antivirus software will run constantly in the background on your computer, checking your system at regular intervals for any real-time virus threats. This way, the virus can be detected immediately upon infiltration into your system, and quarantined.
Fifthly, if you don't know what it means to "quarantine" a computer virus, it is important to understand that many antivirus software programs offer multiple ways of dealing with any virus threats that are found: They can either ignore the virus and just generate a report on them. They can delete the offending files immediately. Or they can merely quarantine the offending files, which means that they won't be deleted. They will just be "cordoned off" on the computer, so that they cannot be accessed and also so that the virus cannot spread to the rest of the system.
And finally, it is important to make sure that your antivirus software's virus definitions are up to date. Viruses are constantly evolving. Therefore, it is important to make sure that your antivirus program is constantly updated with the latest information about virus threats so that they can be fought against effectively. This can also occur if your antivirus software's license has expired.
Running antivirus software is an essential aspect of your strategy to optimize Windows 7.

Learn more about ways you can optimize Windows 7 against viruses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hugh_Kent
 

Speeding Up A Windows 7 Computer

by Pete Moulton:
Everyone wants a fast Windows 7 computer. This is especially true of people who play games. So the question is what makes a Windows 7 computer fast? How can you speed up your Windows 7 computer without paying an arm and a leg to increase the speed.
Several things make a computer fast. The most important is keeping it clean. A new Windows 7 computer is like my 2 car garage in 1985. At that time it help 2 cars no problem. Today is holds no cars. There is no room because other stuff has been stored there.

The same is true of most computers today. When they were purchased they were fast because they were empty of software. Over time software accumulated in the computer. The most egregious software is memory resident software. Often we use programs for a short time and then never again. However, these programs often have memory resident components that slow down the computer. A clean computer is a fast computer. How to clean is computer is the focus of another article.
In this article the focus is on what makes Windows 7 fast. So the first step is to measure Windows 7 speed. There are benchmarks and diagnostic programs that measure performance and speed. While they do a good job, they are not the measure on what a computer user considers fast. To me fast is responsive. Windows 7 has a responsive measurement tool called the Windows Experience Index. It is a measurement scale ranging from 1.0 to 7.9 currently. Newly purchased computers typically score in the range of 3.4 to 4.5.
To find the Windows Experience Index, click on START, then point to COMPUTER, click the right mouse button (the other mouse button), and use the normal mouse click to open PROPERTIES from the bottom of the menu. the overall rating is displayed smack dab in the middle of the display. A click on the Windows Experience Index to the right of the overall rating number should reveal the rating for each of the Windows Experience Index categories.
The Windows Experience Index measures Processor speed, Memory speed, Graphics card desktop performance speed, graphics card 3D gaming and business performance, and hard disk transfer rate. It rates the overall performance of the computer as the lowest score in any of these categories.
Many computers today have quad-core processors running at 2.5 to 3.2 GHz with DDR3 memory. Such systems typically score in the 6.9 to 7.2 range for CPU and memory speed. Generally, CPU and Memory are not a major consideration in making a Windows 7 computer fast. My laptop running an Inter i3 dual core 2.13 Ghz CPU and memory performs in the 5.9 to 6.1 range.