Good computer maintenance/security habits

[Hader]

So I have had my laptop for about 6 months now. It's a Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q894 Laptop, and I am loving it. Has been great for my level of gaming, and good portability despite being an 18.4 inch screen. Very little I have to complain about it. However, I have been wondering how I can best improve my time with it, mostly through some proper maintenance care and possibly some improved security habits.

I only ever had one problem with it overheating, and that was just due to the fact that the room I was in was just seriously overheated. For things like that, I got a good cooling pad that fits the size well enough. Does anyone have any other recommendations for possibly improving performance, or at the very least, extending the overall life of the laptop? I am good about backing up files, keeping it cool, not playing for extended time periods, etc. But I was wondering what else I could do to make it better.

I am a bit less worried about security...I have a desktop computer as well, which I use for media and internet. This Qosmio is strictly gaming, with only a few small exceptions. That said, I do not see it being at much risk for getting viruses or the like, if I barely use it to go anywhere that could potentially give me such problems. But I will pose two questions related to this: 1) Price being completely negligible, what high-end security software would you recommend based on its quality? One that works well and preferably, isn't too annoying about updates, scanning for viruses, etc.? 2) I know there are some freeware programs out there for small scale virus protection, registry cleaning, anti-spyware, etc. Would these overall do better than a higher end program, like Norton or MacAfee?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[Gigaguy64]

As for Laptop maintenance id suggest just every now and then going over the keyboard with a cleaner or moist(not wet) towel.
Helps keep dirt and dust from getting in the machine building up.
The cooling pad is a great idea, i personally put my laptop at an angle so the cooling fan wont be covered and heat can be released easily.

For security, since its a gaming laptop, id go with AVG Free.
Its what ive got and it works fine.
Its stable, doesn't bombard me with updates and scans, and doesn't interfere with my games.

 

[Hader]

As for Laptop maintenance id suggest just every now and then going over the keyboard with a cleaner or moist(not wet) towel.
Helps keep dirt and dust from getting in the machine building up.
The cooling pad is a great idea, i personally put my laptop at an angle so the cooling fan wont be covered and heat can be released easily.

For security, since its a gaming laptop, id go with AVG Free.
Its what ive got and it works fine.
Its stable, doesn't bombard me with updates and scans, and doesn't interfere with my games.

I occasionally take a rag over the surface of the whole laptop, get the dust off and all.It also came with a tiny cleaning kit when I ordered it, which is really only good for cleaning off fingerprints and small things like that. I also make good effort to never leave a drink on any surface at the same level of the laptop or above it, after seeing how my old desktop's keyboard ended up

Thanks for the advice though, I'll look into AVG.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

AVG is a great anti-virus and Comodo is a great firewall. Done.

 

[Avaholic03]

AVG is a great anti-virus and Comodo is a great firewall. Done.

Lately I've switched from AVG to avast! because it seems to use less system resources, and it doesn't pop up those annoying prompts to buy the "pro" version. Although both are pretty decent for free.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I use Kaspersky, and I don't think it's that expensive.

Price: $20

Just Googled that on Amazon, so I'm not sure if that's its regular price.

 

[number2301]

Another alternative for anti virus is Microsoft Security Essentials. I've been running it for a while now as I figure a fully featured free thing should be better than something which is trying to get you to buy the full thing. Plus it seems alright on system resources, which is very important on this PC!

 

[Gigaguy64]

As for Laptop maintenance id suggest just every now and then going over the keyboard with a cleaner or moist(not wet) towel.
Helps keep dirt and dust from getting in the machine building up.
The cooling pad is a great idea, i personally put my laptop at an angle so the cooling fan wont be covered and heat can be released easily.

For security, since its a gaming laptop, id go with AVG Free.
Its what ive got and it works fine.
Its stable, doesn't bombard me with updates and scans, and doesn't interfere with my games.

I occasionally take a rag over the surface of the whole laptop, get the dust off and all.It also came with a tiny cleaning kit when I ordered it, which is really only good for cleaning off fingerprints and small things like that. I also make good effort to never leave a drink on any surface at the same level of the laptop or above it, after seeing how my old desktop's keyboard ended up

Thanks for the advice though, I'll look into AVG.

Haha, no problem.

Like i said it works fine on my Laptop, a Compaq Presario, and doesn't effect any of my stuff.
Though it will have a pop-up that asks if i wanna upgrade every now and then.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Life wise, NEVER have it connected to the charger the entire time. at least once a week have it used till the battery dies then re-charge fully. This goes for any rechargable battery also.

security, dont get AVG, its terrible. Anti-Virus wise I'd use Avast! or Microsoft Security Essentials (if its a legit copy of Windows - Pref' MSE over Avast), and once a fortnight/month give it a Malware scan with Malwarebytes.

or if you want you can go with Kaspersky paid wise. Low on system resources (like MSE), cheap and easy to use unlike Norton which eats your computer, spams with updates and is a rightful peice'o'shit when something goes wrong with it.

 

[Hader]

Life wise, NEVER have it connected to the charger the entire time. at least once a week have it used till the battery dies then re-charge fully. This goes for any rechargable battery also.

I usually don't let the battery die completely when I do leave it unplugged, but I do do that at least once a week. I'll go into that a bit more I guess. Would it perhaps be better to have two batteries and alternate them in a similar way?

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

I wouldn't advise it. Laptop battery prices vary in between $200-400 for a spare/replacement.

 

[Hader]

I wouldn't advise it. Laptop battery prices vary in between $200-400 for a spare/replacement.

Price aside though, good for computer life?

 

[Patrick Dare]

Your battery will die eventually no matter what. Modern lithium-ion batteries are a vast improvement over the old NiCad ones. With those if you say used half the battery then charged it you'd lose the half that you didn't use so it was always better to fully use the battery before charging. Li-ion batteries don't have that problem. However, they have a certain number of charges (which is somewhat random) so there is still some reason to use each charge fully before recharging. What you can always do too is remove the battery and only put it in when it's not plugged in. Regardless of what you do it won't affect the laptop itself, just the battery.

Seems like you're doing a good job, the cooling pad is a good thing. Make sure you don't leave the laptop on a soft surface like a bed when it's on. Get a can of compressed air and clean it out once in awhile (blows dust out of it which helps keep the fans working well). Also, if you're carrying it somewhere (I mean more than like from the living room to your bed room) make sure it's off, you don't want to be carrying it around in your backpack or whatever while it's on.

Honestly I think people worry too much about viruses. I almost never get viruses or malware. I honestly don't understand how some people get so much. Probably the best way to avoid them is if you torrent or use other downloading services like that scan the finished downloads before you run them and get an add-on for your browser that blocks scripts (an example would be no script for firefox).

Edit: Oh yeah, don't think this was mentioned yet. Use a registry cleaner and defrag your harddrive once in awhile, you don't have to do it very often but doing it once or twice a year doesn't hurt, especially the registry cleaner.

 

[Antonidious]

So I have had my laptop for about 6 months now. It's a Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q894 Laptop, and I am loving it. Has been great for my level of gaming, and good portability despite being an 18.4 inch screen. Very little I have to complain about it. However, I have been wondering how I can best improve my time with it, mostly through some proper maintenance care and possibly some improved security habits.

I only ever had one problem with it overheating, and that was just due to the fact that the room I was in was just seriously overheated. For things like that, I got a good cooling pad that fits the size well enough. Does anyone have any other recommendations for possibly improving performance, or at the very least, extending the overall life of the laptop? I am good about backing up files, keeping it cool, not playing for extended time periods, etc. But I was wondering what else I could do to make it better.

I am a bit less worried about security...I have a desktop computer as well, which I use for media and internet. This Qosmio is strictly gaming, with only a few small exceptions. That said, I do not see it being at much risk for getting viruses or the like, if I barely use it to go anywhere that could potentially give me such problems. But I will pose two questions related to this: 1) Price being completely negligible, what high-end security software would you recommend based on its quality? One that works well and preferably, isn't too annoying about updates, scanning for viruses, etc.? 2) I know there are some freeware programs out there for small scale virus protection, registry cleaning, anti-spyware, etc. Would these overall do better than a higher end program, like Norton or MacAfee?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Avast is a great anti-virus and I've never had any problems.

Follow the above advice and make sure you don't use it a lot with the battery fully charged and plugged in as this will over-charge the battery reducing its total life.

Keep with the cooling pad.

Clean your fans out with compressed air every now and again. This will prevent fans from getting clogged with dust and overheating.

A disk de-fragmentation every now and then is also a good idea.

I'd also recommend getting some screen wipes. Screens can get a little gross looking after a time and it always helps to have a good screen wipe at hand rather than using a shirt or something.

Also keep up with Windows updates, they release updates sometimes that make certain aspects of your computer preform better on the software side (at least that's what Microsoft claims, I haven't ever seen any proof but hey can't really hurt).

 

[Hader]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I'll be sure to keep up to par

 

[jourdanna]

I suggest to use good keylogger with monitoring features. such as DutyWatch.For more info visit - http://www.actymac.com/dutywatch

 

[jourdanna]

I suggest to use good keylogger with monitoring features. such as DutyWatch.For more info visit - http://www.actymac.com/dutywatch

 

[jourdanna]

I suggest to use good keylogger with monitoring features. such as DutyWatch.For more info visit - http://www.actymac.com/dutywatch]