The Enemy Within

It is not my intention to go off-subject here, but if writing is your livelihood, or something you take seriously regardless of remuneration, then there are other issues of importance besides how you put words onto a screen. Like how to keep your screen alive so it’s possible to put those words up there in the first place.

Over the years, I cannot count the hours that I have had to devote to ridding my computer of garbage. It’s a major part of corporate intelligence to scour the internet for relevant information, and this can involve visiting many hundreds of websites in a week.

Six months ago I had to stop work completely for two days to track down and destroy a Google redirect virus on my desktop computer. I’m pretty self-sufficient when it comes to looking after my computer, but this was a nightmare. Everything I know about my computer – how it functions, how to fix problems – I learned from Googling for answers. Therefore having a virus that redirects nearly all your search enquiries to some weird web page is particularly annoying. Of course I just hopped onto my healthy laptop, but the news wasn’t great there either. No matter what software fixes I ran, registry cleaners I used, tech sites and geeks I consulted, the desktop was screwed. It was, according to all sources, just about the worst virus to have picked up.

In the end, I did a destructive recovery and took my computer back to its original factory settings, then transferred my backed-up files and programs onto it.

Then I noticed something. Before I connected up to the internet (and before I re-installed my internet security software) I did a little work on my computer and it was lightning quick. Wow, I’d not had that for … well, I’d never had it like that, even fresh out of the box. A little later, when I had to do some net-based research, I reinstalled the security software and got to work.

Wallop. The computer started running like a slug and freezing up if I asked it to handle more than one simple task at a time. To be honest, it had been doing that since I bought it and I suppose I had just come to accept it as normal.

Naughty Norton

But now I’d had a glimpse of how it could perform, and the fly in the ointment had just revealed itself to be my security software, which was the latest Norton.

I’d had Norton installed from the word go, and I’d updated every year. I’d always known it had a reputation for being a bit of a process-hog, but it had protected me pretty well over the years until the Google redirect.

Now I realised that not only had it not protected me, but that its very presence on my computer was having similar effects to those of a virus – crashing my system and making it run horribly. The problem was Norton’s huge drain on the RAM – the memory allocation for the processes that run on a computer.

I searched all the internet security reviews for something better and came up with a new one called Vipre. It came out top in virus detection in a couple of reviews, beating the usual class-leaders BitDefender and Kaspersky. But what I really liked were the reports of how little RAM it took. I found a money-off coupon on a site and took a two-year, two-computer sub for the Vipre Premium edition.

I am ecstatic about the difference it has made. I can now get on with my online research and writing safe from viruses, and with my system running smooth and quick, with no crashes.

Top tips apart from Vipre are:

• WOT (Web of Trust) – Free program that colour-codes websites according to user experience so you can avoid the nasty ones.
• CCleaner – Free computer and registry cleaner that removes the detritus that builds up through your web searching, adding/removing programs, and everything else you do, and that slows your system right down.
• You should also perform a regular defragmentation (Control Panel – Performance & Maintenance – Rearrange items on your hard drive).
• Don’t be so keen to block out the nasties that you install half a dozen free anti-spyware programs. The default setting for these – as with most installed programs – is to run at start-up, meaning an awful drag on the system. Check out which programs are set to run at start-up and disable all but the essential ones. If you need them, you can just click on them in the Programs list.
• Two internet security programs running at the same time will normally clash, and may even crash the computer. Some anti-spyware programs will also cause issues with your main internet security program.

A computer is a writer’s main tool of the trade. If your productivity is suffering because your computer is screwy, it may not be anything sinister, and it may not be hardware-related; it may just be RAM-hogging software.