Blog posts about Education, CyberSecurity, Digital Citizenship, Privacy, InternetSafety, curation, PKM, PLN, blogging, Global Collaboration, Coaching, Collaboration, eSkills, eLeadership, Coding, MakerED, MakerSpace, Social Media, How to learn, learning to learn
Backup A MUST With ALL The Malware AND Especially Ransomware Around!
NOT sure if YOU followed OR if YOU are conscientious about WHAT is going around actually on the internet concerning “Malware” and “CyberSecurity“, BUT YOU SHOULD!!! THIS is a <===> Wake-UP Call <===> take it serious please! That is called ALSO <===> #ProactiveTHINKing <===> I will NOT post another article on the How-To to make a backup as there are already so much around, BUT I will show YOU WHY it is necessary for everyone to make a backup and delivering YOU the BEST articles and tutorials to do so…
Cross-platform malwareis around and infects any OS (Operating System)!!! [START Text from Kaspersky] PC, Mac, Smartphone and Tablet users are under ever-evolving threat from computer viruses and malware. Taking action means understanding what you’re up against. Here’s a look at the major types of malware and their potential impact. [END Text from Kaspersky]
For those WHO are using a “Antivirus Security Suite”: MOST of them have ALSO an “Online-Backup” in the cloud as integrated service… example below… Personally I prefer an external hard disk 😉
For private persons I suggest to make weekly backup, companies SHOULD do a daily backup! A good day to make weekly backups is certainly on the weekend for private persons; Over Twitter I give a reminder through the hashtag <===> #FSCD <===> which means <===> Friday Security Check Day <===> where YOU will find useful tips for BEST protection, backup included! Follow that hashtag, please…
With the low prices of external hard disks this will not be expensive and for sure less expensive as when YOUR computer is infected!!
Keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: Costs of an external Harddisk, ONLINE backup by Antivirus Suites, weekly backup of full HD for private persons, CASES tutorials and advice, BeeSecure cloud, Acronis FREE book for Dummies, Microsoft FREE Backup possibilities, Mac possibilities of Backup, <===> #FSCD <===> Reminder, Ransomware, Malware, video tutorials, links, how much time for a backup?, organization, weekly tasks, CyberHygiene, SHOULD be integrated in eSkills,
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure).
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world.
Safer Internet Day 2016 will be celebrated on Tuesday 09 February 2016, with the strapline of ===> “Play your part for a better internet” <=== following the success of last year’s campaign.
This website showcases some of the exciting activities and events that took place to celebrate the day in 2014. Click on the map below to get started, using the zoom control to locate the contacts and events in your country or visit the ‘SID Near You‘ section to explore news from the many countries and institutions involved. Visit the ‘SID Gallery‘ to find great resources from across the Insafe network and beyond to help you teach eSafety all year through.
For further information, read the summary or the full public report on Safer Internet Day 2014 activities and successes.
Keep checking back for the latest news as the SID 2016 starts to take shape.
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Click the above image to access the article, please.
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Check the video below, please, who explains about it.
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My participation for the SID2016
WHAT is special this year with my participation on SID2016?
I created a ===> #GlobalCollaboration#blog <=== from @knolinfos (my pseudo on twitter) & @ICTPHMS& @kimmindy7 for #LEARNing about #DigitalCitizenShip. The authors are from Luxembourg/Europe (me), one female teacher from the USA and a male teacher from the USA WHO are using my blog post to learn together and sharing THEIR practice with YOU dear readers.
Well, there is a lot of different views about ===> Digital CitizenShip <=== WE will explore WHAT could be THE BEST way to teach and to learn about Digital CitizenShip (hashtag on Twitter is #digcit).
How does it come that I post Global-Collaboration blog posts? Well, once the #ProfessionalDevelopment is Upto-Date, one does understand THAT learning in a team brings out a win-win situation and that a generation exchange is benefit for all of the participants as anyone learns from each other. BTW: here below other Global-Collaboration blogs with teaching persons from Australia, USA, France, Luxembourg (me):
Cyber-Security is a shared responsibility, WE are ALL responsible for a more secure Internet and it is ===>OUR responsibility to build up the future for OUR kids, learners and students!<===
WE can do it by learning and teaching the basics of Cyber-Security and ALSO by helping international organizations such as “Safer Internet Day” to become a catalyst for such a difficult task!!!
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======> WE are living in a world of connected technology, Cyber-Security is a MUST!!! <======
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That is why I am participating on SID2016 with my FREE courses here:
MOTIVATION: Knowing NOW how important it is to take part of such a great Event, I encourage YOU ALL to take part of it by any possible action, even as a private person! I encourage especially private persons to display the banner from SID2015on their blogs and/or websites
People who are on Twitter may use the hashtag #SID2016 to promote that Event, thanks for Helping to make the Internet a more secure place!
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure).
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
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The author Dan KIRSCHteaches courses in Information/Communications & Technology (ICT) and Career/Technical Education (CTE) for students in grades 6-8 at Patrick Henry Middle School in South Dakota, USA. Students in his classes focus on Social Media, Educational Technology, and most importantly Digital Citizenship.
Andragogy, Adult Teaching!? WHAT Is Different From Normal Student Teaching!?
It is a question which I get asked very often “Andragogy, Adult Teaching!? WHAT Is Different From Normal Student Teaching!?“. Well, first remember that adults and seniors are OUT of the <===> #SchoolCocoon <===> since long or very long, THEY are NOT used anymore for learning! That is a very important fact to consider first before YOU start teaching adults and seniors. ALSO, adults and seniors are NOW (as out of school) mostly more focused on the benefits THEY could have in their private life and are willing to learn stuff which fits to their needs in private life!
Another very important point to consider is that a lot of adults, seniors have a FEAR against schools and school-teaching, they made bad experiences with teachers AND still thinking on the stress with tests! AND they are used to an OLD outdated EDUcation System which told them that learning is finished once reached the degree (the diploma in the pockets)! BTW: a RETHINKING of EDUcation for <===> Life-Long Learning is a MUST! As well as how the diplomas are getting handled and valued: e.g. A diploma today doesn’t show any professional development made!!! My proposition is to create the diplomas as: first diploma after school is “A, B,C etc…”, then the professional development (followed courses) should get added such as e.g. A1-2015-1: first professional development made in 2015, one course. A1-2015-5 first professional development made in 2015, five courses, and so on…
This would make the diplomas more valuable as the workforce would recognize them much more than normal ones where they don’t see straight on if a person has followed courses after school or not…
THE factor time is ALSO very important, as said already above, adults and seniors need MORE time to learn as NOT used anymore for learning! Prepare YOUR courses by considering longer sessions!
And as (already) MOST of YOU know me, a music video, related to the TOPIC 😉
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Chose ALSO a room who doesn’t look sterile (white color) as it would remind them school again! And of course DON’T give the courses in a school! Sounds strange!? Think on the psychological background of fear 😉 Make the learners feel comfortable!
And last but not least, DON’T teach adults, seniors with a normal pedagogy, as THEY won’t accept it to get treated as 12 year old persons!!! THEY ARE OUT OF SCHOOL and they want to get treated as adult, <===> mature persons<===>!
SO… How To Teach Adults, Seniors!?
First of all, I mentioned it already above, DON’T let them feel like being in school and that YOU are a teacher, educator! Tell them that YOU will be THEIR coach who is guiding them and NOT teaching them and that THEY have a certain autonomy in the “Learning Room” (NOT Classroom!) They are allowed to move around in the “Learning Room”, searching help among their peers by respecting the noise level, copying from each other <===> YES, copying is allowed, OH WHAT FUN <===> everything which was forbidden in the <===> #SchoolCocoon <===> is allowed here, hey that makes engaging them and they have fun as well 🙂
As THEIR coach YOU take care of an individual learning, YOU assist the persons in their learning, DON’T FORGET about the learning rhythm, one size doesn’t fit all!Some persons need more time…
YOU may use a beamer (or a digital whiteboard, depending on YOUR budget…) to introduce first about WHAT the learners will attend to learn where YOU show ALSO the <===> Learning Path <===> which YOU have prepared for them, so they will know up from the beginning where the destination goes with ALL the different “stations“, they will feel comfortable as they can visualize it, they will know as well WHAT skills they will acquire, less unknown stuff to think about…
An example below:
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The learners will learn about any station in the “Learning Path” AND ALSO know about WHAT skills they will acquire! Click the above image, please, to enlarge it.
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Click the above image, please, to access the article.
Motivation for adults and seniors… NO excuses for NOT willing to learn 😉
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Course participants may print the above images and keep it with them, so they remember how young their brain is <===> 18 years <===>!
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Facts to consider and advice:
Adults and especially seniors are NOT anymore used toLEARNing! By knowing this YOU need to take care about it: YOU SHOULD explain that to YOUR LEARNers and tell THEM that they shouldn’t fear, that they should tell YOU when being in trouble, YOU should tell them that YOU take ALL the necessary time so that THEY will understand it, YOU should encourage them at any moment so that they will find the pleasure to LEARN 😉 YOU SHOULD use Empathy, observing them and find out WHO are those who are shy; the ones WHO won’t tell you when there is a problem. YOU SHOULD interact with them, looking over their shoulders and finding out WHERE the problem is.
That is the hardest part BUT the MOST IMPORTANT one as when they understood that they could find confidence in YOU, then they will advance in their LEARNing, THEY NEED confidence in YOU and in THEMSELVES!
Thus meaning: make the LEARNing individual! Take care of each person till they have understood it. It is like <===> differentiated instruction <===> EDUcation, BUT more coaching than teaching.In one phrase, differentiated instruction is primarily suiting instructional means to meet individual learning needs.
As mentioned already, make sure that the room isn’t sterile, NOT white! Consider the psychology of colors as it works, my 9 years experience with adults and seniors (NOT teaching) coaching. I used a pastel yellow color in the “Learning Room“, why!?
Yellow adds optimism to your home, prompting feelings of happiness in all who enter. Yellow activates memory, stimulates the nervous system, promotes communication and sparks creativity. And THAT is WHAT WE want in learning, isn’t it 😉
Make ALSO sure that there is an extra room available, where the adults, seniors can jump in to drink a beverage and eventually have some chatting with other participants, make them feel relax…
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SO… WHAT To Teach THEM And How!?
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As mentioned already, adults and seniors learn differently and slower (consider the time fact); they want stuff which they can use in their private life! SO… WHAT could be those interests!? Did I say interests, YES, it is exactly this WHERE YOU need to focus when giving courses to adults and seniors! Before starting a course I do every time an introduction session where myself and others present themselves, after the introduction I ask everybody to come in front to me and writing with capital letters on a Flipchart their interests, they could use ALSO 4 different colors (red, green, blue, black).
WHY this!? First of all, there is a bit action as they have ALL to move from their places which is different from <===> #SchoolCocoon <===> and the color they chose is ALSO a sign of their character and mood… By the way: I ask them later also WHY they were choosing that color, just to open a discussion and to make them curios about next steps; they will be aware ALSO that I observe what is going around me and that I give THEM attention…
WE will have a look all together NOW on the Flipchart and to find out the common interests, thus meaning: there will be a lot of people probably (mostly) who have THE same interests (hobbies) and NOW everybody knows WHO has the same hobby. WE created already an interest community without knowing it as these people will later talk together and probably will make an exchange of experiences 😉 It is up from there WE will build up OUR course(s)!
YOU certainly will encounter these hobbies: cooking, traveling, festivals, photos, gardening, cinema, reading, swimming, different sports, wandering, cards playing, taking videos, music, motorcycles, cars and more… That are the most common ones by my experience over 9 years.
Some examples of blogs and curation about gardening (flowers), cooking, festivals:
NOW WE know much more about OUR course participants and WE have a starting base: as anybody mostly is proud about WHAT they are doing and easily willing to talk about it (mostly…) WE will show THEM on How-To they can do it through using ICT by explaining THEM that more people would see THEIR exploits and knowledge by using curation, blogging and Social Media. WE will explain them ALSO how it will work by examples, so that THEY can see it visually. And WHY NOT, for the creative ones, how to use “ThingLink“. By experience, women are MORE creative than men, just saying…
Learn more about Curation, Blogging, ThingLink, PLN, PKM:
SO… How Can I Say That This (The PracTICE) Is Working!?
Well, I was a pioneer in my country Luxembourg (Europe) already in 2002 where I gave pedagogical courses about ICTto a wide range of the population as up from 12 years old (even younger when together with a parent) to 79 years oldwith different nationalities. ALSO there were two days in the week reserved (booked by planing inside the school) for the primary schoolwhere they could use OUR “ICT LEARNing room” by my coaching to learn the (at that time) NEW technologies. Schools didn’t have YET computers in the classes at that time and I was working very close together with the teachers and helped also to convince the responsible people from the commune about thenecessity of computers in the classrooms, which worked 😉
SO… WHAT was that “ICT LEARNing Room“, called “Internetstuff“!? And WHY was my “Internetstuff” DIFFERENT from ALL the others in Luxembourg!?
A bit History and Story Telling: What is a “Internetstuff”? It was a project by the “European Commission” to bring the “ICT” to ALL the inhabitants in any commune in the European countries. They called it at that time “eEurope” and in Luxembourg it was a special task force, called “eLuxembourg” that was charged about it. SO, they decided to create special places where the population could learn through courses about “ICT”, which they called “Internetstuffen”.
The Government in Luxembourg was looking at the time to find competent people to give those courses about ICT and they were advertising in the newspapers, where I made my application. I was selected and had to follow a 4 months long education through special tailored courses about the How-To to give pedagogical courses with ICT, a bit hard at that time as I was 45 years old already, BUT I did it and I found my vocation!
I offered my services and skills to different communes and it was in ETTELBRUCK (North of the country and 30 km away from where I am living) that I found a new job and a new adventure as a pioneer. Apart from giving courses about and with ICT, NO ONE of the responsible persons had a clue about the How-To, so they told me “Do what You want, You should know what…“, OK, I was perplex and ALONE to do this job!
First I elaborated the opening hours, than I created a “brochure” which was sent to all the houses in that small city (8k inhabitants) to inform them about this new service offered by the commune. I created also a “member card” of a value of 25€ for a whole year who gave the participants the right to visit the place to use only the internet (very few had Internet in 2002) and/or to take part of courses. The place was open on a 5/8, 5 days from Monday to Saturday from 8h30 am to 11h30 am and from 13h30 to 17h30. Monday and Wednesday mornings were reserved for Primary School classes from 08h am to 11h30 am. Saturday and Sunday was closed.
There were also evening courses organized and I collected about 1k6 (1,600) hours of overtime work during 1 1/2 year (non payed hours)! I couldn’t do that job anymore alone, BUT I din’t get a co-worker allowed neither. NO budget for it! I decided NOT anymore giving evening courses and giving the courses on a different way:people (learners) could visit the place whenever they wanted during the opening hours (only in the day) and I would give them courses individually and on different disciplines (security, Office, Photo Editing, website building, email, Skype…).
The learners had more autonomy, I let them work by PracTICE after first having them explained about the How-To shown with a beamer and then also on their own PC (there were 10 PCs in the Learning Room). They could come WHEN they wanted and for how long they wanted. They were completely FREE, no MUST, NO STRESS… I explained them, showed them, observed them (studied their behavior…) and interacted only when needed, when I felt that they must get a bit help to continue. I encouraged them to try by error till they would have learned it and when learned I showed them some tricks by giving advice on How-To do BETTER. It was ME who adjusted and adapted to them, a win-win situation. They learned slowly but surely and once the basics understood (the most important) they learned the other stuff to learn much more quick as they felt more confident about ICT. I encouraged them to practice at home which they all did. I asked them where they still have problems when practicing at home and WE repeated it on another way when possible, otherwise same procedure…
I was also constantly updating my “Professional Development” by reading lots of books (insatiable…):
This, below, is NOT bragging BUT my pride about the feedback (which is a MUST) from my “LEARNers” who visited my courses.
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The above texts are in French, Luxembourgish, Italian, Portuguese, German: if YOU are NOT used to those languages please check this App with whom YOU can translate, actually very useful when visiting other countries then yours 😉
The above text is in French, if YOU are NOT used to the language of Molière please check this App with whom YOU can translate, actually very useful when visiting other countries then yours 😉
In 2015 Coaching-Mentoring Is Seen As An Education Difference-Maker
[START Text from On Educational Coaching, Mentoring & High-Impact Learning] Coaching is a difference-maker in education. Think of the mindset evident in high-performing athletic teams, chess teams, even actors and other entertainers. Content providers are valuable, but that is not what makes learning organizations distinct, especially not those that seek to reach and provide a high-quality education to a full spectrum of learners. The same thing is true as we continue to implement things like competency-based education models. Many celebrate the way CBE can reduce the cost of college degrees, increasing access and opportunity, and addressing critical workforce needs. However, if cost reduction happens at the expense of great coaching and mentoring, I am concerned that we will make little progress in the democratization of education. The “haves and have nots” of education depend largely upon the prerequisite skills needed to take advantage of newer and emerging learning environments ranging from CBE to MOOCs, self-directed learning to self-organized learning environments. [END Text from On Educational Coaching, Mentoring & High-Impact Learning]
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Click the above image, please, to access the article.
Learn more about my Global Collaboration and coaching on my following blog posts:
As already mentioned above, I asked a lot about WHERE some could have problems to understand and encouraged the learners to tell me, even I asked them to write down on the Flipchart questions they would have eventually. WE collected them all and when they were fit enough on the keyboard I let them create themselves (with my little help) a FAQ’s list (Frequently Asked Questions) and a glossary, see example below please.
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Click the above image, please, to access the glossary online.
Keywords: win-win situation… honesty, straight talking, dealing with mature people, provoking could be (I do…) welcome with a bit irony and humor, dealing with humans, different characters needs to get analyzed before action, a bit courage to go out of normal,
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Necessary Material For The Courses
Apart from the computers with internet connection here below a list of necessary material:
Flipchart
Printer All In One (with scanning function)
Camera for Photo Editing courses
USB Sticks
Head phones with micro for Skype use
Some webcams for Skype use
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Is My Proposed Way Of Coaching With ICT ONLY For Adult Learning!?
There is a lot of common from the above mentioned with youth coaching and could be applied as well for them! WHEN YOU make youth feeling being accepted as adults, they will give YOU more respect and it will be a GOOD atmosphere for BETTER learning also! I had teens visiting my “Learning Room [Internetstuff]” for the ONLY purpose to listen and to observe when I gave courses with coaching to the participants. They came in their FREE time when there wasn’t school and made their homework while observing also my “style of teaching, as they said”. I got told by some of them that they learned MORE in 2 hours about ICT than they learned in a month in school. And THAT is THE difference between theory and <===> PracTICE! <===>.
Preparation, keywords necessary for me to create this blog post: EPAL, Andragogy, Heutagogy, Flowchart, cooking, nature, flowers, gardening, traveling, interests, PracTICE, profit for private life, NO THEORY!, engagement, Social Media, sharing, communication, NO FEAR, which websites to trust, which FREE services to use, which FREEWARE to use, Kursus schmackhaft machen, spice in LEARNing, quote Gust, LEARNing2LEARN, Life-Long LEARNing, blogs creating, NO STRESS, NO TIME LIMITATION, NOT FORCING, LEARNing-By-Doing, selfish, pride of something (sports, traveling…), bragging through Social Media (negative transformed to positive)…, staying in touch with (abroad) family, Skype, Facebook, Picasa, PhotoScape, Photo Editing, ThingLink, Creativity, positive Psychology, TEAM or WHO is BETTER, individualists, Streber, Alpha person and/or TEAMLEADER, community THINKing OR selfish, Empathy, NO RELIGION and NO politics allowed in courses to respect each OTHER, tolerance, Win-Win thinking amplified for course participants, win-win situation between coach and learners,
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L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure).
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
First of all, let me please, say this: WE get supplied with NEW technology (commercial way…) without getting any advice on How-To use it, that is MY personal complain about it! In the 21st Century this SHOULD be anyway the case, the problems are known since ages and the manufacturers SHOULD provide to the customers a comprehensible guide ONLINE (less costs than a printed version…) about how customers have to deal with slowing down PC’s and BEST protection for Cyber-Security issues, WE are NOT living anymore in the Middle-Ages 😉 In the 21st Century WE MUST go for Proactive-THINKing and that is ALSO a RESPONSIBILITY for the manufacturers as:
===> WE are ALL responsible for a more secure internet!!! <===
SO… Sorry, this had to get said as WE have ALL to work more together as WE are using Social-Media as well, remember the word SOCIAL in it! Let us go now for it to explain the possibilities (there are several…) for a slow PC…
Infected PC through Malware (an online Check will reveal mostly…)
WE will discuss this in the sections below, step by step with different programs to clean the PC.
NOT enough space left on the hard disk (hard disk is full!!!)
Press simultaneously the “Windows logo Key” and the “letter [E]“.
ONLY way is to buy a NEW one, copy the existing stuff from the old one to the new one…
NOT enough Memory available!
PC needs long time to START:
Check YOUR START-UP programs… ONLY for advanced users!!!
Important notice: to know the reason WHY a PC is slowing down, a few questions need to get asked to find the right solution, follow the step-by-step guide below, please… Some ore necessary in case of YOU can’t resolve YOUR problem with the proposed FREEWARE (this could be possible also…) to post on internet help forums…
But first WE will go for Praxis with different FREEWARE tools, such as (download them, please):
WE will see, by using the above mentioned FREEWARE tools, that NONE of them can do the job ALONE, YOU will see this later… YOU will see ALSO, that after having used them ALL that YOUR PC will have accelerated for good!
******************************************************************************************************************************* VERY IMPORTANT: make sure that YOU have made an UPDATE of YOUR OS before any changes!!!
From my year long experience, most people even don’t know what “Operating System” (OS) and how much Memory is installed, NOR the size of the hard disk, here an easy way to find it out:
Press simultaneously the “Windows logo Key” and the “Pause Key [Break]”.
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YOU will see then a pop-up window showing ALL the necessary information, similar to the screenshot below…
2nd Step: Delete The Browser Cache And The Browser History
About the Browser Cache
[START Text from New York University] In order to speed up web browsing, browsers are designed to download web pages and store them on your computer in an area called the cache (pronounced cash). When you visit the same page for a second time, the browser speeds up the display time by loading the pages locally from the cache instead of downloading everything again. This sometimes results in less than current versions of web pages being displayed, along with problems on registration and authentication pages.
Over time, this process may actually begin to slow down your browser as large amounts of data are saved to your hard drive. A cache does not empty itself and anyone who gains access to your computer can tell from these files what websites you have visited. To make matters worse, this caching is not limited to pages, but can also include login IDs, passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.
Clearing your cache can significantly improve the speed and performance of your browser and ensures that anyone who uses the same computer and browser after you (particularly on public computers) will not see your private information.
===> It’s a good habit to clear your cache from time to time. <=== [END Text from New York University]
As described already WE will try out different FREEWARE tools, which are mostly well known over the years to clean our PC, WE will start with CCleaner, check below for download link, please:
Above screenshot shows (after scanning) 41, 4MB of unnecessary stuff could get removed and deleted…
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As YOU might have seen on the left hand side navigation of the program, there is also a button “Registry“. It is possible to scan ALSO the “Registry” and to delete orphan entries, do so by clicking that button, check screenshot below…
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Use Freeware Tools To Clean Your PC: 2. Sweepi
As mentioned above, WE will use different FREE programs one after each other to find out about the performance of each one and ALSO to maximize the cleaning. Of course I know it already, BUT YOU should find it out as well as ALSO this will convince some hardliners that CCleaner isn’t the best existing program and that one program alone isn’t enough for a deep cleaning of the PC!
So, first download the program at following address ===> Sweepi <=== and install it! Launch the scan and wait till YOU will see the below result.
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The below window will get displayed now. Click on the button “Reboot“. The important about this action is that the “index.dat” files will get deleted and overwritten…
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Conclusion: CCleaner found 41, 4MB of unnecessary stuff and NOW after the scan of CCleaner, Sweepi found STILL 438MB!!! Sweepi can do actually even more, check here ===> http://www.sweepi.com/index.php/tools/ <===
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3d Step: Defragmentation Of The Harddisk
What is “Fragmentation” and WHY is “Defragmentation” A MUST?
[Start TEXT from Microsoft] Disk defragmentation is the process of consolidating fragmented data on a volume (such as a hard disk or a storage device) so it will work more efficiently.
Fragmentation happens to a volume over time as you save, change, or delete files. The changes that you save to a file are often stored in a different place on the volume than the original file. This doesn’t change where the file appears in Windows—only where the bits of information that make up the file are stored on the actual volume. Over time, both the file and the volume itself become fragmented, and your computer slows down as it has to look in different places to open a single file. [END TEXT from Microsoft]
Windows PC’s have a FREE build in “Disk Defragmenter“, check below, please:
In OUR example below, WE will use the FREE “iObit SmartDefrag” program…
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As YOU can see there are a lot of “red squares” shown, that is fragmented space, in this case: it took about 2.48%, a lot! Defragmentation is required by +/- 1% of fragmentation!
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After defragmentation the “red squares“, the fragmention, have disappeared and the hard disk is now ONLY on 0.73%, acceptable!
WE will STOP here, there is actually even more, BUT WE will discuss this in another post; such as Anti-Spyware and Anti-Malware Check! With the proposed programs here YOU will be able to make YOUR PC running more quick anyway…
OK, I know, YOU are curious 😉 SO… For those who will straight go further already NOW, please check the following links:
L’auteur Gust MEES est Formateur andragogique / pédagogique TIC, membre du “Comité Conseil” de “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), appelé maintenant BEESECURE, partenaire officiel (consultant) du Ministère de l’éducation au Luxembourg du projet ”MySecureIT“, partenaire officiel du Ministère du Commerce au Luxembourg du projet ”CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness andSecurityEnhancementStructure).
The author Gust MEES is ICT Course Instructor, ”Member of the Advisory Board” from “Luxembourg Safer Internet” (LuSI), BEESECURE, Official Partner (Consultant) from the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, project “MySecureIT“, Official Partner from the Ministry of Commerce in Luxembourg, project “CASES” (Cyberworld Awareness and Security Enhancement Structure).
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Keywords reminding me about what I have to post: Sweepi, CCleaner, Online Antivirus Check, temporary folders, Memory, Malware Check, Spyware Check, visited websites in cache, NOT more than 1 Antivirus, deleting Windows restore points, Backup, Wise Care 365, Registry Cleaner, Disk Defragmentation, Browser Cache, index.dat file…
Check my #curation to find best articles, blogs and courses about #education #itsecurity #CyberSecurity #EdCollCoach #GlobalEDU #cyberbullying, #AR #RA #augmentedreality #health #science #QR #qrcodes in EN, FR, DE…
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