832-303-3174

Antivirus (or anti-virus) software is used to prevent, detect and remove malicious software (malware), including computer viruses, worms, advertising software (adware), spyware and trojan horses from computers. However, the effectiveness of antivirus software from one manufacturer to another varies and commercial products just might not be the best at fighting malware infections. Through years of removing viruses from clients’ computers, we have noticed that the anti-virus software shipped with new computers (Symantec/Norton and McAfee) is the worst at combating viral infections. The theory at Texas Innovative Technologies is that because of the high market share of these products, virus creators are able to design their malicious software to infect systems while being almost undetected. Research by several agencies, including SRI International, has provided legitimacy to this theory which usually places Symantec's and McAfee's products towards the bottom of the list of most effective antivirus tools against new malware binaries.

Consider the effectiveness of your anti-virus program the next time you decide to renew your yearly subscription. There might be a better anti-virus product on the market.

Is your college student coming back into town for the holidays? Will he or she be bringing a laptop along? If so, now would be the perfect time to schedule a certified computer technician to perform a check up.

Important school information such as thesis work or papers for class are documents that need to be kept safe on the computer that a student uses. College students are not the only students who can benefit from a clean computer. Anyone who uses a computer assumes that there are not viruses or malware that could harm documents or the computer, itself. However, more times than not, there are viruses or malware on a computer even though there were no obvious signs. Only when "things start happening" that "are not normal" does someone think to call for computer help. By that time, there is a severe viral infection on the computer! Do not let this happen to you. Take advantage of the holiday break by getting all of your family computers cleaned out, backed up and updated.

If you are thinking about purchasing a new computer for your student, or even if you already have, contact a certified computer technician to set up the computer properly so that it will be ready for use first thing Christmas morning. Nothing is more frustrating than getting a new computer and trying to set up programs properly and not knowing what all of the "junk" programs are that should never be installed on a computer. Innovative Computer Repair Service can help relieve that frustration with a simple phone call. The holidays can be frustrating enough; don't let your computers add to it.

Many people believe that once they purchase and bring a computer home, computer repair or regular preventative maintenance will not be an issue. After all, the computer is new. However, what most casual computer users do not understand is that a computer is a very complex machine and will inevitably one day begin to develop problems. Unless you are a trained computer repair technician, it is not advisable to attempt repairing a computer. An experienced computer repair technician should be contacted so that he or she can fix the problem correctly. Things as simple as viruses, fragmented files or corrupted programs will reduce the performance of any computer system. Attempting to rebuild the engine in a car without the proper training or certificatons is just as ominous as attempting to fix a computer problem without training or certifications. Doing any type of computer repair without the proper training puts valuable data at risk of being lost. Having anyone but a certified computer repair technician work on your computer is the best way to guarantee that your family photos, tax or financial records and important documents have the chance of being lost. The next time that someone attempts to work on your computer, make sure to ask about his or her credentials beforehand.

Could there possibly be files stored on your computer that you are not aware of? Pornographic pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses and, as the computer owner, you are held liable for what is on your personal computer. A recent Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people were branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn that was placed on their PC by a virus. Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash of photographs or videos on your computer without fear of getting caught. One man in particular spent more than a week in jail, three months in a halfway house and lost custody of his daughter after a virus changed the home page on his Web browser to display child porn. This, sadly, was discovered by by his 7-year-old daughter. Child pornography was on his computer, but in reality he was only guilty of becoming a victim of a malicious computer virus. According to security software maker F-Secure Corp, approximately 20 million of the estimated 1 billion Internet-connected PCs worldwide are infected every minute with viruses that could give hackers full control. Computers can get infected by something as simple as opening e-mail attachments from unknown sources or visiting a malicious Web page. Having a computer professional perform regular maintenance is the only way to ensure your computer is as safe as possible.

 

Source: Associated Press

Do you have digital photos, music or documents that are valuable to you? What would happen if you lost everything on your computer? Computer hard drives are the number one failure item in computers and without a current backup you are gambling with your data. Bring your computer by Innovative Computer Repair Service and for $65 we will backup all of your family photos, music and personal documents on to DVD for long term storage no matter how much data your computer has on it. Our data backup service will ensure your valuable data is available even when your computer is not. Offer valid for drop off service only. On-site service, virus removal, hardware troubleshooting and other services are additional fees.