Tips to proactively protect your computer and tips

[Chuckt]

What are the important things to do to protect your computer?

(1) Have a copy of Windows.
(2) Have a copy of your computer's drivers. You can get drivers from Dell or you can sometimes get them by searching online from your manufacturer. You need these to rebuild your computer if you are damaged by a virus. A co-worker at work was damaged by a virus, didn't know how to fix it, gave control over to a "professional" and he basically went the quick route by using the backup CD and erasing the hard drive without trying any type of archival for the drive hit by viruses. My co-worker lost all the computer files whereas you could swap drives and scan it later for viruses.
(3) Have anti-virus / malware protection. I recommend Malwarebytes but it is important to have protection that is proactive and not just re-active and you want to keep it updated because you aren't protected against the latest viruses unless you are updating your virus definitions. Scan your computer and make a backup.
(4) Have backups and have a backup plan.
(5) Do you have an external case for a hard drive if you were ever hit by a computer virus? Sometimes it is easier to diagnose from a second computer what is wrong. It is also possible to install Windows on a second hard drive in case you need to swap drives when one is damaged. It is also good to know where to get compatible parts. I use Dell because they sell compatible parts and they have supported me in the past with free drivers.
(6) Have you ever practiced going into safe mode with your computer?
(7) Have you vacuumed the dust out of the fan in your computer or used compressed air?
(8) Have external storage for emergencies.
(9) Keep your system up to date with updates.
(10) Obtain a rated surge protector. There isn't a surge protector in the world that will protect against a direct lightning hit but I have seen computers go down because the surge protector was not rated.
(11) If you use Windows 8 or 8.1, you need to backup your operating system on a 16 GB or 32 GB USB Drive (Thumb Drive) because they stopped giving out copies of the operating system. You cannot keep files on this thumb drive because backup will erase everything on the drive. It is good to turn off sleep mode to do the backup or backup won't work. I also turned off the power down mode to power down after five hours of non-use.
(12) Possibly have a USB Adapter for a modem.

Go through the list and do it. And if you have any tips, contribute them here, please.
This is a list to keep your computer up and running as well as safe.

[Chuckt]

I recently had a problem with Windows 8.1 and couldn't get help until I could describe the problem. I have two USB thumbdrives. One has a dozen files and the other has about 14,000 files. The search stopped working one one but worked on the other. The problem was Indexing. Indexing stopped working on one of the drives. What is up with that? Unless you are very very organized, you wouldn't be able to find your own files.

1. Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc

2. Optional: Sort by CPU

3.Find and Click "Microsoft Windows Search Indexer"

4. Click "End Task"

5. Go to the directory C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search

6. Delete the folder "Data"

7. You will directly see a new folder named "Data"

8. You're done, now the issue is fixed

Source: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... fe87a21bb1

I was a little confused about step 7 because it said "file in use" and 'could not delete file". It worked though. I got my search back on Windows 8.1.

You should archive this help because Windows 8 and 8.1 is being forced on everyone although you may still be able to find copies of Windows 7 for sale.