Updating drivers and Windows
There are two things you must do every month: updating drivers for your hardware (usually graphics card and motherboard drivers) and installing update patches for Windows from Microsoft (fixing bugs and security exploits). If you're on a broadband connection, you can automate Windows updates, but I don't recommend this. Just make a reminder on your calendar or personal information management (PIM) application or add it as a scheduled task in Windows. It's also a good idea to restart your PC once in a while, since even Windows XP can be bogged down by memory hungry applications.For graphics card drivers, you could either download the specific graphics card driver from the vendor's website or the reference graphics card driver from the manufacturers website. This usually means either ATI (www.ati.com) or NVIDIA (www.nvidia.com). If your graphics card doesn't use either one of those two, check the respective manufacturers' website.
Safe Guarding Windows
One of the most critical problems for users are viruses and worms. This is why we have those various anti viruses and firewall programs. That's said, installing them is often not enough. To really stop these attacks, you have to configure them properly. Most of the time, viruses and worms uses e-mail attachment, file downloads from the Internet of other PC or through a bug exploit of the operating system.
Anti virus
Software: A Necessary Evil
By securing e-mail attachments and file downloads, we
have effectively cut down the possibility of a virus or
worm infection. Configure your anti virus software to check
your POP3 / SMTP or IMAP e-mail you've downloaded for
viruses. They would examine your e-mail for viruses and
worms in the background while you're checking and sending
e-mail. Download managers usually also comes with support
for anti viruses programs, so configure them to work
together. That way any Internet downloads will be quickly
checked for viruses and worm after the download's complete.
You can also set your anti viruses program to check
folders, floppies or removable media for viruses and
programs. An alternative approach is to make a temporary
folder container for copying files and then running your
anti virus program to check that folder.
Most users configure their anti viruses program on the normal setting. Don't do this, since many times viruses and worms can escape detection. Choose the highest, safest setting possible. Since your anti virus program would only run when checking e-mail, downloads and temporary container folders, they won't hog your PC's resources all the time (such is in the case of watching folders, floppies or removable media and network folders).
Since new viruses and worms pop up almost daily, update your anti virus virus definition files at least weekly if you're on a broadband connection. All anti virus programs feature an update feature, which will connect to the official software vendor website to download any updates. If you don't have a broadband connection, you can download the virus definition file yourself from their website at your convenience (for example, every month).
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