Q: What are Keyboard Shortcuts?

Q: What is Malware?

A: Malware, short for malicious software,  it is the broad term used for viruses, worms, trojans and other harmful computer programs hackers use to wreak destruction and gain access to sensitive information.  It is is designed by hackers to cause damage to computers, servers and networks. What the difference is between malware and a virus misses the point a bit: a virus is a type of malware, so all viruses are malware (but not every piece of malware is a virus). There are various types of malware: Malware can also be installed on a computer “manually” by the attackers themselves, either by gaining physical access to the computer or using privilege escalation to gain remote administrator access.  Another way to categorize malware is by what it does once it has successfully infected its victim’s computers. It can potentially crash one’s computer or system, slow it down, and possibly cripple your system.

Q: Should you turn off your computer every night or leave it on?

A: Although this may seem like a simple question, the answer for each person will be different depending upon how often you use the computer and how many automated tasks the computer is set up to perform. Power considerations– Today monitors are more efficient, individual internal components can be designed to go to sleep when they aren’t being used in order to reduce heat and extend the life of the component. Displays can be one of the more power-hungry components, so running a screen saver that keeps changing what’s on the screen will use more power then setting your screen to go black or better yet, just turn off the display when you know you aren’t going to use it for a while. Sleep mode – puts your computer in a low-power usage state, but keeps everything right where you left it by keeping the active memory (RAM) powered. This means when you wake it up, it will return to a working state quickly and all your apps and data will be where you left them before it went to sleep. Hibernate– does something similar, but instead of storing everything you’re doing in RAM, it creates a special file on your hard drive to store everything and then shuts down the computer completely. It uses less power, but longer to boot up. Automated Tasks (such as updates such as updates, disk maintenance and backing up)- Programs that are designed to perform these tasks modify your computer to automatically wake up when it’s in sleep mode. Reboot regularly– If you do leave your computer running 24/7, it’s important to remember to refresh the resources by rebooting your computer on occasion. You should reboot at least once a week for optimum performance.

Q: Why Do You Need to Uninstall Adobe Flash Player?

A: All good things must come to an end – it’s inevitable with computer software. If you’re using Adobe Flash, the day has arrived. It’s time to uninstall Adobe Flash Player. Adobe stopped supporting Flash Player on December 31, 2020. What does this mean? Adobe is no longer issuing Flash Player updates or security patches. The company “strongly recommends immediately uninstalling Flash Player.” If you don’t know how to remove Flash Player –Just call us!