You’ve done it or you know someone who has.  That pesky oil light came on in the car and you ignored it.  You kept telling yourself that getting an oil change was high on your list of things to do, but distraction after distraction kept you from making it to the garage to get it done.  There is a lot more to this story, but I think we all know where it is going and the ending is not a happy one.  You now know there are consequences for putting off routine maintenance on your car.  The same can be said for your computer and, just like in your car, there are warning “lights” to keep you in check.

The system tray (lower right hand corner of Windows, where the clock is) serves as a holding area for system functions such as anti-virus settings, printer, modem, sound volume, battery status, and more.  For the most part, we all ignore this area, unless we are checking the time or we see some sort of pop-up or cloud with text in it.  Even then, there are many people who ignore the warnings that come from this area.  It’s just like that oil light.  “I’ll get to it” or “I know I need to take care of that, but….”  Ignoring these warnings can be dangerous to your PC and the security of your files and personal information.

Two of the most important “warning lights,” and the focus of our article today, are the yellow and red shields that occasionally come up.  Each serves a very different purpose, but neither should be ignore.  If you are running Windows (any version), you will see these shields at some point.

• Yellow Shield – Of the two, you will see this one more frequently.  The yellow shield indicates that new updates for Windows (or related Microsoft programs) are ready for your computer.  These updates are safe to install and critical to your computer’s health.

WHAT TO DO: In order to keep your copy of Windows up to date, you should enable the Windows automatic updates to run on your PC.  In both XP and Vista, the Windows Update settings are available from the Control Panel, under Security Center.

• Set the updates to Automatic and Daily, then pick your time.  Pick something like 3am, so that updates do not interfere with your day-to-day activities on the computer.
• Leave the computer on!!!  If it is off, the update cannot take place.  You can turn the monitor off if you want, but leave the tower/laptop powered on.

• Red Shield – This is the most critical of the two.  The red shield indicates a lack of security in the form of a firewall or anti-virus program.  Either way, your computer is vulnerable to attack and you should remedy the problem immediately.

WHAT TO DO: Immediately enable the firewall or anti-virus program.  If no anti-virus program is installed, you should install one right away.  We recommend avast! home edition (FREE), but there are many to choose from.

Taking care of these Windows “warning lights” is easy and requires very little of your time.  The one time setup of automatic updates can be done in less than 5 minutes and installing avast! home edition anti-virus (or just about any other brand) less than 10 minutes.  Combined, that is less time that one oil-change and you won’t have to start over every 3 months or 300 miles.

Tags: anti-virus, avast, Red Shield, Windows updates, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Yellow Shield

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 10:24 am and is filed under Free Programs, PC Support, Technical Issues, Tips and Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.