How to easily avoid viruses

How to avoid getting a virus (The easy way)

This post is the result of my having cleaned hundreds of computers that were infected with a virus. When someone brings me a computer that has been completely crippled with a virus they all say the same thing; "I have no idea how that got there." In just about every case, I believe them. It's just too hard to avoid these viruses without a little know how and the right tools. Today's tip will give you a little of that know how. We will focus one hundred 100% of our attention on avoiding the virus before it gets on our systems in the first place.

To avoid viruses we need the right tool. We also need a tool that's pretty much automatic, one that warns you when you are about to surf to a dangerous place. The tool I'm suggesting today is called WOT, aka Web of Trust. It's an add-on for your browser, and chances are it supports whatever web browser you happen to be using, be that Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox...etc...

How to install Web of Trust and what does it do?

• Web of trust is easy to install, simply go to this link on whatever web browser you are using and it will give you the appropriate version of the add-on for that browser. Click here for the link.
• They provide easy to follow directions once you install.

What does it do?

•  Once you have installed it, search for something just like you ordinary would to test it out. When you get the result page for your search you will notice that there are little green, yellow and red circles beside each result. 

       green means it's safe to go to that pages result
       yellow means they don't really have enough information and you should be careful before going           there
       Red means to avoid going there unless you want to get a virus.

       Your search results should look something like the following page. Here I have searched for the word "FREE" which is for some reason one of those search term which can take you to some unsavory places.

after searching with WoT, these are the first three results I got. Notice the red circle beside my expertly drawn red arrow? : )

So what happens if I click on a link like that one by accident?  

The result would look something like this:

A handy pop up warns to you to go back. The screen also gets a little darker. If you absolutely must go there, virus or not, you still can. 

So there you have it. This step is not foolproof but it will go a long way to drastically decreasing the chances of  getting a virus on your machine. Keep me bookmarked, subscribe, or just check back from time to time for the next installment where I'll show you a "little more complicated" but 100% guaranteed way to avoid getting a virus on your main machine.

       

Turn a webpage into a pdf

Here is a quick tip on how to turn a webpage into a pdf file. As a bonus, I have included an optional tip on how you can combine multiple pdf's into a single file. There are other ways to do this but this is all free

Google Chrome has the ability to save any webpage as a pdf file but there are several things you need to do to make that happen. If you don't have Google Chrome you can download it here.

1. In Google Chrome, go to the page you want to download. Once there click on the options menu in the upper right corner.

                                                                      look for this
2. Scroll down and click on Print

3. When the new window opens up, look the the left and click change in the destination section.

 

4. Under the "Local Destination" section, click on save as pdf

     

                                                  

5. Rename your file whatever you like and you're done.

Optional Tip

How to combine multiple dpfs into a single dpf

There is a freeware program that can do this for you called PDFbinder. You can download it here. Once installed start it up. Once running, all you have the do is drag all the pdfs you want added into the program and click "bind" If you need the separate dpfs to be in a certain order, as in a multiple page story or a tutorial, be sure they are inserted into dpf binder in the exact order that you need them to be in. If they are not in the correct order you can change the order with the up and down arrows until they are just right.