Whether you use your computer at home or work, some essentials are universal. Here are resources for your PC or Mac that can help you out of a crisis.
Related article: Five Essentials Every Computer Needs (The Northwest Herald)
Security
- Triona’s Tech Tips: Is Your Security Software Real Or Rogue?
How to recognize fake antivirus software (includes screenshots) - Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI)
Scans all the software on your Windows computer, and updates it to the latest version (or prompts you to do so). - McAfee SiteAdvisor
Verifies web sites that appear in your search results - AVG SafeSearch
Ditto; part of AVG’s antivirus software
Alternate Web Browser
- Triona’s Tech Tips: Break The Internet Explorer Habit
How IE can expose you to viruses, and why you might want an alternative - Mozilla Firefox
- Google Chrome
- Opera
Easy Backups
- Triona’s Tech Tips: Bargain Backup Options
Discusses some of the ways you can back up your computer - Mac Time Machine 101
Link to Apple’s info on Time Machine backups - Windows 7 Backup
Link to Microsoft’s info on Windows Backup
Microsoft Office Files
PDF Creation
- Adobe Reader
- Adobe Acrobat (full version; paid)
- PDFCreator for Windows
- CutePDF for Windows
- Print to PDF from Mac
Link to info on how to print to PDF from a Mac
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