Blogs
How to keep your Windows computer running smoothly.
Always make sure your computer is using a SSD (Solid State Drive) hard drive as opposed to a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) hard drive since SSD's are more reliable and make your computer boot up faster. If it still has an HDD than take it to a professional to get it replaced with a SSD.
Always make sure you have at minimum 8GB RAM in your computer. Anything less than 8GB and your going to have a hard time running more than one program on your computer at any given point in time.
Make sure your computer is at the very least Windows 10 or 11. If it's older than Windows 10, upgrade it ASAP. Take it to a professional if you have to, Windows OS's older than Windows 10 are highly vulnerable to malware.
Make sure auto updates are turned on under Settings.
Type in the search bar "Ransomware protection." Make sure it's enabled.
Type in the search bar "Default apps" and make sure your preferred internet browser is set as default. Windows will try to guilt you into staying with Edge browser, just hit continue anyway.
For your preferred browser of choice make sure you have Ad Block Plus extension installed. This will make sure you don't accidentally click on any malware-laden advertisements.
Download Chrome Ad Block Plus here.
Download Mozilla Ad Block Plus here.
How to increase the longevity of your iPhone:
If theirs a new update from Apple, always ALWAYS take time to update your iPhone to the latest iOS.
Make a point of replacing the battery every 3 years give or take since that's the average life span of how long it takes for lithium batteries to run well before they start losing their integrity. A $60 to $90 battery replacement is a lot cheaper than having to buy a $1,000 new phone.
Make sure your storage is less than 90% capacity. A phone with storage close to completely full will have nothing but problems down the road until you free up storage. Your phone will have problems that can include your entire operating system being corrupted and you'll have no choice but to factory data reset your phone. If deleting videos, photos, podcasts, etc. doesn't free up enough space and the ubiquitous "other" or "system information" is taking up the vast majority of space on your phone than your most likely going to have to factory reset your iPhone to get enough space again.
Tech support scams.
While it may be tempting to google up free tech support numbers the second your computer has problems to save money by way of not having to take your computer to a local repair shop, it's actually quite dangerous and can result in losing potentially thousands of dollars in garbage anti-malware programs or having your own computer compromised.
Pretty much any phone number on Google or random pop-up that claims to advertise tech support services is most likely either trying to sell you their garbage software products or trying to install dangerous malware onto your computer. It's better to just take your computer to a reputable repair shop in your own community than to trust a complete stranger over the phone.
How to buy the right laptop.
Buying a new or used laptop can feel very intimidating. It's tough to know how much you should spend but luckily were here to break it all down for you. First ask yourself, what do you use your laptop for? If like most people all you do is check email, watch Netflix and browse a few websites a day than you don't need to go broke spending thousands of dollars on a new laptop at Best Buy. The main thing to look out for is to make sure the laptop has a i5 processor or higher, 8GB RAM and at least 126GB of storage space; anything less than that then it's not enough to sustain Windows/MacOS updates or download applications safely. And the hard drive has to be a Solid State Drive (SSD) and NOT a hard disk drive (HDD). HDDs are outdated, unreliable and slow.
However if you like to do either video editing or store large quantities of pictures/videos or do anything graphically intensive than your going to need something more powerful. We recommend a processor that's at least a i7, 16GB RAM and at minimum 500GB SSD storage. And if you have to use your computer for work several hours a day than a laptop with a touch screen is recommended.
You don't need third party antivirus software.
Before Windows 10 came out it's built in security software was notoriously flawed and vulnerable which gave birth to the multi billion dollar industry we all know as third party antivirus vendors like AVG, McAfee, Kapersky, etc. However Microsoft set out to improve Windows by leaps and bounds with the release of Windows 10 in 2015 and one of their biggest improvements was the revamping of Windows Defender that came along with every Windows 10/11 installation. As long as your operating system auto-updates on a regular basis than your relatively safe from malware. It runs in the background and typically catches viruses and malware much faster and more efficiently than other antivirus vendors.
The problem with third party antivirus, especially free versions is they conflict with Windows' own anti-malware software which makes your operating system much more vulnerable to viruses and spyware. Not to mention they take up a lot of background resources which slows down your system significantly. Free trial versions of antivirus software are also notorious for bombarding their customers with pop-up reminders to buy subscriptions thus being just as intrusive and annoying as any computer virus. If you ever need your Windows computer cleaned up that's full of junk third party antivirus than please feel free to stop by our shop and we'll gladly get your computer running smoothly again.