It’s time to embrace the back to school season! Aside from powering through your school supply list, brainstorming lunch ideas, and mapping out the quickest route to school, take some proactive measures in safe-guarding your child’s computer.
Often times overlooked (especially if you’re not shopping for a brand new computer this year), is the health of your computer. Keep these tips in mind and save time (maybe even money!) BEFORE an issue arises.
Top 5 Back to School Computer Tips from Jonny Gould:
• Check for viruses, malware, and spyware. Take the appropriate steps to rid your computer of these malicious threats AND make sure to have a proper anti-virus software installed and up-to-date. Enable security functions, including anti-phishing and pop-up blocking.
• If your child is going away to school, make sure you ask what the connectivity is like on campus. Will they need an Ethernet cable? Or a USB cable to connect a printer directly to the machine should the Wi-Fi act up? (Now might be a good time to mention that their own printer will require their own paper and ink! Not to add more to your plate…)
• Make sure all hardware is up-to-date. Get the battery, system RAM and memory checked. If possible, get a full hard drive test done.
• Run all updates and check for software functionality. A sub-tip to think about, does your student have all the software they need for their specific course load? A graphic design student will require different software (Photoshop) than a student who is geared more toward web design for example (Dreamweaver).
• Plan for the worse (losing data, hard drive crashing). Make sure your child is equipped with a way to BACK UP DATA! We recommend an external hard drive to keep the files safe. Last thing you want is to hear their 50-page report vanished; we know those tragedies all too well here.
Hopefully you will be able to use these computer tips to get ready for the upcoming school year. If you have any questions or want more information, stop in or give us a call, 203-661-1700.
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