Proven Solutions Inc. Blog

Halloween is over, but is your computer still haunting you?
Tricks and Treats for this November.

You are not being paranoid.
Your computer could potentially be spying on you!

Here are 3 of the ways it can be spying on you and 3 simple tricks to stop it.

1. Is Someone Watching You?
If you have a webcam on your laptop, monitor or connected to your desktop computer, the possibility is there.
The simplest way of preventing this spying is to simply cover up the webcam lens with a piece of paper and tape.
Even a band-aid will do the trick as shown in the photo below.
You can always remove the covering when you choose to use your webcam with someone that you know.

2. Could Someone Be Listening To You?
The potential is there for any website to listen to your conversations, without your knowledge, through the microphones built into laptops.
Also, microphones can be added to computers either on their own or as part of a headset.
The best advice would be to disable your microphone and only turn it on again when you need it.
Here are some general instructions on how to do this.
The instructions for your computer may vary depending on the microphone, model of computer or operating system.

• Right click on the speaker ICON in the Taskbar and select ‘Playback devices’.
• In the following window, click on the ‘Recording’ tab.
• Left click on each device that is ENABLED just once to highlight it.
• Right click and select DISABLE.

3. Is Someone Following You?
Sometimes, ads on your computer seem to read your mind.
This is not your imagination because websites can save cookies to your hard drive.
These cookies can track personal information about you and this is why these ‘personalized’ ads seem to be following you around while you are browsing.
Below I will show you how to delete all of your cookies in Chrome.
Please note that by deleting all of your cookies, you will be signed out of Websites so you will need to have your usernames and passwords at hand to sign back in.
These steps will delete all of your Chrome cookies:

Old age creeps up slowly – unless you’re a computer.

Then it seems to happen overnight. One day you’re logging in normally and jumping right into the action, the next day booting up takes so long you not only have time to make a cup of coffee, you could have run out to the local café for the good stuff.

This is the stage where many people throw their hands in the air and start wishing for a new computer.

Except your computer isn’t broken and doesn’t need replacing, it’s just….slow.

Time-wasting, focus-losing, frustratingly slow.

Like any machine, computers have parts that wear out – particularly if they have moving parts that are in near-constant use.

The hard drive is the #1 cause of speed bottlenecks in most computers.

Traditional hard drives are made up of a stack of round magnetic platters, spinning at up to 7,200 rpm, while a read/write head on a mechanical arm whizzes back and forth.

Eventually, the platters take longer to spin up, unable to reach full throttle, and the mechanical arm becomes sluggish.

Which leaves you waiting. And waiting…

SSD’s Can Give Aging Computers A New Lease On Life

The new era of hard drives is here with Solid State Drives – and they have no moving parts.

Zero.

They’re actually a lot like your USB stick that continually takes a beating but still performs perfectly.

Making an upgrade to SSD can knock minutes (an eternity) off boot time, as well streamlines regular computer operations with rapid fire functionality. They’re:

• Cool – Don’t generate heat, which means other components also run more efficiently
• Durable – No moving parts to wear out
• Compact – A little larger and thicker than a credit card
• Long-lasting – You’re actually more likely to replace your entire system before the SSD wears out
• Lightning fast – Data is accessed almost instantly
• Suitable for all Windows systems – laptops, desktops and even netbooks

Upgrading your tired hard drive to a super-fast SSD can be done within one day.

Normally $309 CDN, schedule this upgrade by January 31 2017 and for only $279 CDN we will supply and install a 250GB SSD for you, as well as clone your existing hard drive to it (Windows, programs and data).
Other capacities of SSD drives are also available during this special offer.

Contact Proven Solutions today to upgrade to a SSD.