The 7 Deadly Sins of Computer Maintenance

The 7 Deadly Sins of Computer Maintenance

How sinful is your computer maintenance? Inadequate Virus protection, poorly managed systems and out-of-date operating systems are all contributors to your computers health problems, to name a few.

Below is the full list of “sins” that you can look out for on your own system.

1. Inadequate Virus, Malware and Spyware Protection

• A recent IT survey showed less than 50 percent of computers had adequate protection

Full details of the survey can be found here

• Many Antivirus products offer poor protection against Malware, particularly PUPS

• Data theft, identity theft and fraud are the most common motives behind malware infestations

2. Poorly managed system and driver updates

• System performance and reliability can suffer greatly

• Automated updates can cause havoc with a system

• Peripherals may not function properly due to out-of-date drivers

3. Out-of-Date Operating Systems

• Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft support & Windows Updates since April 8th 2014.

• Only 0.8 per 1,000 Windows 8 computers scanned had viruses on them. Compare that to Windows XP, which had 11.3!.

Faring slightly better were Windows Vista and Windows 7, with 3.5 and 4.8 infections per 1,000 respectively.

4. Out-of-Date Application Software

• Few people realize that older copies of MS Office and others have major security holes

5. Inadequate or No Backup systems

• Less than 10 percent of all desktop computers have any backup mechanism in place

• Many backup systems don’t backup all files, programs or settings.

• Even where backup systems are in place they are often un-tested.

6. Old Hardware

• Most computers were not designed for lifespans beyond 4-5 years

• Older computers are underequipped to handle O/S upgrades

• Catastrophic failure costs can be unnecessarily high, especially if data recovery is involved

7. No scheduled maintenance

• Scheduled maintenance contracts are more cost-effective than break-fix

Consider subscribing to our Maintenance Plan from only £10/month (see here for details)

• Remote servicing is available

We can offer remote support through the BeAnywhere service (see here for details)

* Asking a family member or doing it yourself is not cost-effective

Many thanks to Dwight Dubowits for this contribution.

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