Wisbech computer expert says: 'Build a healthy and happy relationship with your PC'

In his fortnightly I.T Crowd column, Philip Brooks, of Diamond Byte Solutions of Wisbech, suggests you resolve to form a healthy and happy relationship with your PC in 2023...

While it’s the beginning of the year, many of us will be thinking about the positive changes we need to make to our lives, such as losing weight, drinking less alcohol, stopping smoking etc. But what about keeping your relationship with your PC happy and healthy?

Strengthen your digital security

First on the list is to take the time now to start changing your passwords FOR EVERYTHING, making sure you have a different one for every account.

Use a mixture of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols to create unique passwords.

Two factor authentication adds an extra layer of security. This is usually a combination of something you know and something you have. The thing you know is often a pin number. The thing you have might be a unique token generated each time you log in. This is used in addition to your username and password.

Most importantly, make sure you have informed your email provider if you have changed your mobile phone number (make sure they have your mobile number, NOT a landline) or alternative email address as these are used if your account is hacked, or you have forgotten your password.

Make backups of your photos, videos, and music

If your device gets lost, damaged or stolen, you run the risk of never being able to retrieve the irreplaceable documents stored on it.

To save music, photos and documents – discs, memory sticks and removeable hard drives will suffice. However, it is worth using some sort of cloud storage. Do remember though that if you want to make your backups 100% fail safe, it is important to have both physical and online copies saved.

Get rid of desktop clutter

Keeping screenshots, images and shortcuts to files on your desktop can make finding things almost impossible. To get the initial abundance of apps out the way, create a folder on your desktop named ‘Old Desktop’ and transfer all your clutter into it.

Your desktop will immediately look cleaner and more manageable. From there, you can go through the folder in your own time and put all the files in their rightful place, perhaps even sort out other folders whilst you are at it.

Upgrade your PC

If your PC still runs on coal, or even worse, Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 (which died on January 10, now is the time to upgrade to Windows 10 or even better 11.

As we’ve mentioned time and time again, continuing to use Windows 8 or older on the public internet is very much like going out in public with a virus and coughing on people.

And sadly we all know where that can lead...