I help a ton of random people solve their technology problems. One thing that I’ve picked up on is a lot of odd stats, such as the amount of time it takes to completely infect a brand new computer to the state it has to be worked on.
Let me take a step back… Most of the people I support have far more money than sense when it comes to technology. If their old computer is running slow they will often just buy a new one as it is easier than having myself or someone else come in and fix their current system. Then they normally just go out to a local computer store and fall for whatever sales pitch is tossed at them. This usually means they get a high end gaming system for the person who only surfs the web.
Once they get this high end system they do not do anything besides plug it in and start running. No installation of anti-badware programs or anything else. The computer just sits in a factory state until its nearly dead.
When the computer has nearly stopped I get the urgent phone call or email stating that the computer is acting “funny”. It is then time to start the normal questions to see if it is something easy to resolve. It is almost never an easy solution.
This is where the fun part comes in, figuring out exactly how long they’ve had the computer and if it has ever been worked on before. The answers are almost always 2 months and no. This little stat is the funny one; it takes two months to go from a high performance PC into something that barely crawls.
How can we resolve this? The first step is to get the tech person in your life to help you pick out a computer. Most of the computer guys I know are more than willing to help you pick out a computer. We know the technology and will almost always get you a better product than buying something out of a retail store. I would much rather see someone come to me asking for an opinion before a purchase rather than after the computer is dead.
The next step is to let them work on the computer before you even touch it. Let them get all of the preinstalled junk off of it and have it running at top notch. You just spent all of that money on a new computer and want to play with it immediately, resist the urge. The longer you play the higher the chances something will infect your computer.
The final step to resolve this is to contact the tech guy when the computer first starts acting funky. It is much easier to fix a computer when it is just one small problem than when the entire computer is dead. I do know a ton of techs that hate this part and would rather just work on the computer once it is totally dead. These are usually the people who charge by the hour. This is fine; just ask what kind of maintenance needs to be performed on the computer. Being proactive is much better than being reactive. Most computer work is done reactive, so it is always nice to see someone who wants to be proactive.
A Windows based computer can be very friendly if everything is working properly. The issue is most people do not take care of their computers and therefore have issues. This is why I recommend buying a Mac to most average users. They work very similarly to a PC, just without all of the junk. All of the steps I mentioned before can be skipped if purchasing a Mac. I know it sounds like a commercial when I state this, but a Mac just works.
How you use technology is up to you in the end as it is your money.
