There are many common myths about computers. In this blog article we debunk 5 common urban myths.

1). A slow computer has a virus

A virus can indeed be to blame along with other malware as they can cause a computer to slow down. However, there are also many other more common reasons causing your computer to run slower:

• You may have a lot of programs that automatically run when you boot the computer. You could remove or disable these programs that start every time.
• Not regularly rebooting the computer. You may leave you computer on overnight or put it into a sleep mode – if you do this it is a good idea to properly shutdown and then turn on the computer every week or two.
• There are many programs running in the background. On a Windows PC, you can go into task manager and see what is running using up the computer resources. A good tip is to close any programs not in use.
• An antivirus scan may be running – let the scan finish first and then see if your computer speed improves.
• Temporary files and other junk may be taking up too much hard drive space. Your computer needs at least 500MB of free space (our suggestion is to give it at least 1000M or 1G free) on the hard drive to operate efficiently.
• Your computer doesn’t have enough RAM to run programs within memory. Yes the programs may run but the computer compensates for low memory by swapping information onto the hard drive to get enough memory to run programs – this slows down the system considerably.
• The computer is old. You may need to upgrade to a computer that can handle current software needs without it slowing to a crawl.

2). Macs don’t get viruses

Many Apple owners believe their Macintosh computers are immune to viruses. Macs do in fact get viruses but they are simply targeted less than PCs. The reason being is that there are many more computers running Windows, which means a bigger and easier target for cybercriminals.

Over time though Apple’s market share has risen and thus the threat to Macs users is increasing. Yes the Mac computer is more secure and Apple works to protect its users from malware, but you still need to use caution when downloading and clicking on links from unknown sources.

3). My Windows registry needs cleaning up

You may have seen popups or adverts on websites saying that you need to cleanup your registry to speed up your computer. These people say that by scanning your Windows registry and removing any errors your computer will significantly speed up. The cleaner will usually find many unused registry keys and other remnants and delete them but any so called speed improvements will be minor.

Just consider the fact that Microsoft has not released its own registry cleaner. Why not? Because it is not really necessary. Worse still, going in to clean your registry (especially when you don’t know what you’re doing) can actually do serious damage.

4). My laptop battery needs to be completely dead before I can recharge it.

This was once true – nickel-cadmium batteries suffered from what was called a “memory effect.” If discharged and recharged to the same point several times, they would remember that point in the future and not charge any further.

However, laptops available today typically come with lithium-ion (or Li-ion) batteries which don’t suffer from this memory effect. In fact, they function better with partial discharge instead of letting the battery run down to zero.

5). I don’t have anything hackers would want

Cybersecurity should be a priority for everyone and not just large enterprises. Just consider what hackers are after and:

• Do you have a computer?
• Do you have a bank account with money in it?
• Do you have an identity cyber criminals could use?
• Where do you work and is that business a target for hackers?

Hackers have all kinds of ways to profit from your getting in to your computer. Some reasons why hackers target small businesses include:

• using your systems to launch attacks on other targets.
• hijacking your computer’s processing power to mine cryptocurrency.
• turning your computer into part of a bot network.
• use your information to get into where your work.
• access your bank account.

Keep all your computers at top speed with the best security measures in place with the help of our experts. If you are in South Australia contact us today on 08 8326 4364 or

su*****@dp*********.au











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