A. Anti-virus and anti-spyware should be run every week either manually or automatically. If your program lets you set a schedule for it to check for updates and run automatically, of course, that’s the most convenient. If your anti-virus program doesn’t give you that option, then you need to set your own schedule. Two trusted, free anti-virus programs that can be downloaded from links on ICON’s website are Avast! and AVG. Free online scans are available from ICON’s links to Panda ActiveScan and Trend Micro’s Housecall; both of these ask you to download some ActiveX programs in order to do this. AdAware is an anti-spyware program that is free and downloadable from the links on ICON’s website.

If AT&T (SBC) Yahoo is your internet service provider, you may download free the Online Protection Suite that includes Norton’s new anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, parental control, and AT&T Yahoo Mail protection. Updates are automatic except for the spyware definitions.

AOL has partnered with McAfee and has a free security suite that can be downloaded from aol.com.

Run Disk Defragmenter (Start—All Programs—Accessories—System Tools—Disk Defragmenter—Select drive—Defragment) to reorganize fractured or fragmented files into whole files and optimize their placement on the hard drive for increased reliability and performance. When files are created, deleted, or modified, it's almost a certainty they will become fragmented. “Fragmented” simply means the file is not stored in one place in its entirety. Instead, different parts of the file are scattered across the hard disk in separate pieces. The more fragmented files there are on a drive, the more performance and reliability suffer, as the drive heads have to search for all the pieces in different locations. Defragmenting a large drive can take hours, so it’s not a bad idea to let it work while you sleep or while you’re shopping. If the color blocks are not relatively solid, run Defrag more than once.

Look at the Task Manager Processes tab and see if any program is using a large amount of your computer’s resources. If you see a file name that is hogging resources and you aren’t sure what it is, try typing the filename into Google. If it’s not a part of Windows or a program that you want running, it can probably be ended or deleted without creating a problem. I’d probably post a question about it on ICON’s Forums on our website so that David, Mick, or Ed can give you confirmation about deleting it.

Look at the Startup tab in msconfig (Start—Run—type in msconfig—Startup tab).

Windows starts all the programs that are checked when the computer is turned on; they run in the background, and that can really make the computer slow. Click on the Disable All button, then go back and put check marks in the boxes beside your antivirus programs so that theyare running in the background instead of waiting until you click on them.

The Windows program ctfmon.exe gives us voice recognition and handwriting recognition (Advanced text services). It will replace its check mark when you restart your computer unless you disable it. However, unless you are using Windows voice recognition or handwriting recognition, it isn’t needed. To simply turn off ctfmon.exe, go to Start—Control Panel—Regional and Language Options—Languages—Details—Advanced, and check the box that says "Turn off advanced text services." Click OK.

Turning off Advanced Text Services affects only voice recognition provided by Windows; it does not interfere with third-party text input or Voip programs such as Dragon Speaking Naturally or Skype. I don’t have a tablet, so I couldn’t test the handwriting.