Hi. I'm a PC.

Your new PC is like a new pet. A pet that you plug into the wall and can play games on and visit Myspace. A pet that can cost -alot- of money. And so, like a new pet it has to be cared for and shown love or it will get sick and take a crap in your shoes.

Your PC runs an operating system. Windows, Linux, Unix, and all the big cats that are Macintosh: all OS's. And typically you buy your computer a good deal after an operating system has been released. In that time, people smarter than me have been staying up late at night with their little hats on (they all wear hats) finding little tweaks and problems in these OS's and after enough are found (or when a really big problem is found) a patch is released. Patches for OS's do lots of things. They fix security holes, they make things that seemed easy a little easier, they fix mistakes. Most of the mistakes they fix are tiny little things you wouldn't even know about. Some of them are not. And your computer needs to be patched so that viruses that exploit those mistakes can not hurt your new pet. Every manufacturer of Operating Systems has a place where you can get patches online, almost always from that company's website. This is a very *very* good idea.

It's pretty widely accepted that computer viruses are a bad thing. At the very least they make your computer do things you don't want it doing. Protect yourself. Anti-virus software comes in tons of flavors and just as many prices 9 in later blogs I'll tell you about a few of them). Since most viruses now a days are spread across the internet, many internet service providers have taken to offering subscriptions to certain virus software with their service. This is also a very good idea. But your virus software is next to useless if you don't keep it up to date. Viruses have all kinds of little tricks to hide from software or even to fool it into thinking it isn't there. Anti-virus software makers know this, and when they figure out the tricks they teach their software how to catch it. Hence the updates. Keep current.

Viruses aren't the only software that does the little wicked in your computer. Malware (a group term for adware, spyware and a few other nasties) is also a serious threat to your privacy and your computers performance among other things. Here again, since almost all malware is circulated online, most ISP's offer software to help you deal with it, and you should certainly take them up on the offer.

And one last thing. Firewall. It's can be a little complicated because it can do so many things- but for the purposes of new computer setup, we'll settle for installed and on. For now. A firewall's job is to monitor your computers connection to the world and give you some say in what gets in and what gets out. It can be annoying (Vista is notorious for this) but if configured correctly and after it's learned the system its running on, the good gets better. If you have a question about some software your firewall isn't sure about, look it up. and If you cant find an answer that satisfies you, deny the request. Thats a quick and dirty good rule of thumb. If you don't know ask, if you cant find out say no. Some people argue that your firewall is worthless if you aren't reading its logs. Firewalls keep records of what it lets in and out of your system and when and they can be a worthwhile read when you need to know. But for the most part if you keep all these suggestions in mind you should be okay.

Once again. Your PC is vulnerable out of the box. Patch it. Secure it from nasties. Firewall it. Protect your investment.